A World Of Disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (3 October 2014)

War of the Worlds (2005)
Plot In A Paragraph: When Aliens attack New York, Ray (Tom Crusie) attempts to drive his kids to the safety of Boston. (Because Aliens only attack New York apparently)
This may take a while, so bare with me!! Lol
Some spoilers.......
As massive fan of both the H.G Wells book, the Jeff Wayne musical, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, it's safe to say I was eagerly anticipating this movie!! I loved Morgan Freemans voice over and then I hated it. Well, I suppose hate is a strong word, but the fact that I have not seen it since, tells you everything about my initial thoughts on the movie. Lots of it made no sense or was totally illogical, the characters were flat and dull,I hated his son, and in short It was a massive let down to me.
Watching it now!! It's not all bad!! The first half of the movie is the best. It contains some tense moments (the scene where the car is surrounded by the mob) impressive sights (especially the plane crash) and (as you would expect with Spielberg) a great use of special effects, but as it follows just one set of characters (Cruise and his kids) it lacks the depth and dimension of similar themed Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow (both of which I watched yesterday) which showed the global consequences of horrific events.
There are a hell of a lot of plot holes for a Spielberg movie, Martians have come millions of miles to attack us. They've "been planning this for a million years" and they have done so with a seriously flawed strategy. For example, we learn that countless years ago, they buried huge machines all over the Earth. How did these huge metal machines lie undetected for so long beneath the streets of a city crawling with subway tunnels, sewers, water and power lines, and foundations? And why didn't a civilization with the physical science to build and deploy the tripods a million years ago not do a little more research about conditions on the planet before sending its invasion force?? Like I said in The Island thread, it's recommended you don't think about it, as the movie falls apart!! The silly happy ending was awful too. I hope they at least invited Cruise in for a shower and a cup of coffee.
Most of the characters are still one-dimensional (very un Spielberg like). Cruise's character Ray is very un Cruise like. For me casting Cruise in the lead was a good choice, as it allows Spielberg to go against our expectations. Here, Cruise would be expected to be a heroic type, saving the world from alien invaders ala Will Smith in Independence Day. As only a true American hero can.
But no. We learn pretty early on that Cruise is a pretty rubbish Dad and as the movie goes through its first hour, instead of selflessly helping others, Ray is only interested of the safety of himself and his family (so he can return the kids to their mother) he also walks into a room and uncharacteristicly murders a man. Not in self defence, but cold blooded murder. The fact that he is doing it to protect his daughter, says he is behaving selflessly, but in the service of an ultimate selfish goal - the protection of his family. He does finally becomes selfless and effectively becomes a suicide bomber, so his daughter can live.
As a Dad myself, Cruise's son is possibly the most annoying person I have seen on screen for a while!! His complete lack of respect for his Dad, his own or his sisters safety irritated the life out of me. However he is more heroic than Cruise at times!! As a ferry takes off he runs to the ramp and begins to help people scramble aboard. Again and again he wants to make choices that would, in a typical action movie, be considered the heroic choices. Here they're all the wrong ones.
There are some classic Spielberg shots (objects in the rear view mirror) and themes (absent fathers) and the scene with the probe in the basement, was straight out of Jurassic Park, just not as effective as it was with the raptors.
War Of The Worlds grossed $234 million at the domestic box office (to become Tom Cruise's highest grossing movie to date) and ended the year the 4th highest grossing movie of 2005. Only Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith, Chronicles of Narnia And Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire grossed more.