Spectacular but ultimately disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2005)

WARNING: CONTAINS EXTENSIVE SPOILERS
After eagerly looking forward to this film since it was green-lighted late last year, and being a keen sci-fi and Steven Spielberg fan, I would have to say I am disappointed at the result. I understand now why there has been such a mixed reaction to the film.
In many respects, the film sticks closely to the original H.G. Wells' story (of which, I suspect, most people will have little intimate knowledge). An alien invasion at the beginning a new century, unstoppable devastating fighting machines (tripods), death rays, the ferry and basement scenes, the red weed, humans captured in a great metal basket under a fighting machine, the cause of the aliens' defeat - and of course the voiceovers at the film's start and end, straight out of the book.
The film is impressive from a dramatic point of view - the earth's masses stripped of their technology by the electromagnetic pulses emitted by the strange lightning and quickly reduced to an unruly and desperate mob (very reminiscent of those in Dawn/Shaun Of The Dead), a sad mass of refugees stripped of any dignity and prepared to sink to any level to survive. "The rout of civilisation, the massacre of mankind". And of course Ray Ferrier's personal plight to survive and save his family.
The battle scenes remind me, in concept, of those in Wells' book, where mere token attempts are made by mankind's military to repel the invaders, before control of the Earth is relinquished to the aliens. In the 1953 film, a nuclear weapon was used, but here there is no hint of nuclear munitions being employed. Spielberg seems torn between trying to adhere closely to the original story yet bring it into a modern context. Assuming that trying to do the former would not wash with today's audiences, then at least the fullest extent of today's technology should have been employed in what was clearly a do-or-die struggle. And while the crashed airliner scene is impressive (much better than the one from LOST!), if the aliens were really so militarily superior and human forces such a pushover then several detailed scenes of aliens destroying fleets of warplanes, massed ground forces or salvos of incoming missiles with their deathray would not have gone astray (as well as being easy to create), rather than the few skirmishes actually shown.
These logical inconsistencies disturb me greatly:
* Alien tripods have lain buried in the earth for millenia, just awaiting activation - wouldn't some have been discovered meanwhile? Modern mining regularly penetrates to a few km beneath the surface, though these machines seem have to been buried just under the surface. In the original Wells' story, alien cylinders are evidenced lifting off from Mars by Ogilvy the astronomer (not the basement oddball) from Mars' surface by the luminous green plumes they emit. Well it would be difficult to convince anyone today that such life exists _on_ Mars (though what about underneath?). But at least their origins then were not shrouded in mystery as in the present film.
* Aliens ride down lightning beams into the tripods - ride down from where? The film seems anxious to avoid the idea that this is just another invasion from outer space (competition with ID4?), but it's either that or "another dimension"
* The basement scene is great drama but reminds me of Nazis hunting WWII escapees. The aliens apparently have no thermal imaging technology or don't realise that humans are warm-blooded
* The aliens' sudden demise is as per the book. Like Polynesian cultures in the 19th century exposed to Europeans, their immune systems were simply unprepared for exposure to earthly organisms. But surely alien intelligences with such advanced technology would have sussed out any possible microbial threats and devised defences? Even our 20th century armies immunise their troops to try and avoid biological warfare casualties
This last point seems to have been the source of considerable contention (if not outright mirth) in audience/critic reaction.
The week before War Of The Worlds was released globally, I happened to catch Minority Report on TV. The innovation and brilliance of that Spielberg effort whetted my expectation of what was to come - maybe this enhanced my negative reaction somewhat. WOTW is not a bad film by any means - 6/10 - and I will watch it again sometime. I only wish it had been the 9-10 I was hoping for.