H.G Wells is Spinning in his grave.

Rating: 1/10 (30 September 2006)

My predictions about this movie were correct. Not only did it barely follow the book at all so could not really be called War of the Worlds, as a sci-fi movie it in itself was just plain average, maybe even lower end average because it is forgettable. Good points first. Decent special effect. When the walker first comes out of the ground and starts killing people that is good. Quite good seeing more of them attacking places. But that is about all I can think off for good points, and trust me I did try hard to think of others. Onto the bad. The main character is annoying because he is a Pratt. He is like a teenager stuck in a 40 year old mans body, irresponsible, not knowing how to control his kids or even knowing important things about his kids like that his daughter is allergic to peanuts. The daughter is another of Speilbergs annoying useless scream types. Screams like mad, freaks out, even starts throwing a tantrum in the car that she wants her Mom even though she knows her Mom is miles away in another city and there is no way her Dad could suddenly make her appear. She is a weak plot hook for the main character to look after her which restricts this movie, but more on that later. The son ...stereotypical late teen son who hates his Dad for reasons unknown, insists on calling him Ray rather than Dad, is a general Pratt, sulky stubborn does silly things like steals his Dad's car. Yet he wants to go and join the army to fight the aliens even though he apparently loves his sister very much and she needs him and the army are getting their backsides well and truly kicked The pace of the movie was pretty awful. I know in the book lots of action first half and not so much second but still could have had it moving a bit better in the second half. The parts in the house avoiding the Alien probe was done too long. What was supposed to be suspenseful got tedious. This left things unsatisfying which meant as it came to the end of the movie you just wanted it over with, or at least wanted a bit of action to see the movie off. There was a bit of action to see the movie off but that was a bit dull too. Okay onto my biggest beef. Ever since I read the book, listened to the War of the Worlds Album I have wanted them to make a proper, authentic War of the Worlds movie set in late Victorian England as H.G. Well's imagined it. I don't care if some of it would seem strange to our minds now after watching so many sci-fi's going back would be a very interesting and imaginative form of cinema and it would be paying homage to the novel that started sci-fi as we know it off. Respect was needed. Spielberg showed none. He took the novel and mangled it. He scavenged from it some of its ideas and made a movie that is not particularly good from it. He went for what would appease the big directors in the film studios rather than take the brave and imaginative road. He also did not understand the fundamentals of the book. He ignored what drove the book and the messages. In the first half of the book there was still hope. Yes the martians were winning but humans were fighting bravely, slowing them down, even sometimes getting victory over them such as where the batteries of cannons took down a machine before the martians destroyed them. This even led to the most important part of the book. The part those who have read it know best. The part where you get goosebumps reading it. The Thunderchild ironclad standing between the Martian war machines and the ferry, not budging, protecting it. Being heroic and then swooping towards the war machines and destroying, one, two, three of them. Building all who watches hope they can win. Building the readers hope up they can be beaten before eventually the martians manage to bring it down and as the Thunder Child sinks into the water, the hope of all who watch and read sinks. humankind is defeated yet that brave acct of human spirit saved the ferry boat from its destruction and it got away. In this movie there was none of that. they got on a ferry, the martians overturned it and sank it. Just compare what could have been a great scene with so much emotion invested into it and instead Spielberg opted for a rather standard oh they are attacked and scramble to escape. Spielberg denies it but this is far more based on the 1950's movie than the book. Set in modern America not England is he so jingoistic that he cannot let another nation be the centre of things? Must it always be about America? The Alien warships have shields which means the humans cannot even penetrate them just like in the 50's movie. In the house the probe on the long arm comes in like in the 50's and when discovered he chips it off with an axe. He is protecting someone though in this it is his daughter rather than a woman. And that also bogs it down, in the novel he is alone which frees him up and means he encounters far more interesting things and people, this bogs him right down with a daughter, slows the movie pace down, which means interesting major characters are left out and other pale imitations of characters in the book are not done right nor do you see the process of them becoming the broken people they are. Having waited a long time for a proper version of this book to be made and it looks like I am to be kept waiting.