A worthy tribute to the classic tale!

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2005)

I am a huge fan of H. G. Wells' classic War of the Worlds, the first and penultimate tale of an alien invasion from space. Smart, witty, and terrifying, it is a story that has never been matched by any sci-fi authorever. So, when I discovered that Steven Spielberg, America's reigning genius of the cinema (and I don't use that term lightly), was crafting his own version of this classic story, I was greatly excited.
My verdict? Pure genius---but not perfect. Let me explain.
War of the Worlds (henceforth, WotW) is a remarkably complex film---so complex that it almost resists classification. Is this a science fiction film? A horror film? Poltergeist meets ET? Hitchcock meets Wells? The truth of the matter is that it is all of these elements, each blended masterfully by Mr. Spielberg into something that can best be described as a psychologically-harrowing cinematic experience. The plot of WotW is so ingrained in our culture that no real explanation of the premise is needed; suffice to say that aliens, hell-bent on the extermination of mankind, launch a surprise global attack that sweeps all before it. The original story had the aliens, Martians to be exact, landing in meteorites which also contained their mechanical killing machines. Mr. Spielberg plays with this original concept a little by positing the notion that the alien war machines had been pre-positioned below the surface of the earth some millennia before mankind arose. However, the alien operators (Spielberg offers no explanation as to the origination of the invaders) of these tripod machines arrive via massive EMP-generating (electro-magnetic pulse) lightning storms.
Needless to say, in the wake of the lightning storm, aliens run amok murdering all that cross their path. Into this maelstrom the movie's main characters are thrust. Tom Cruise plays the blue-collar and somewhat irresponsible single dad Ray Ferrier. After witnessing the terrifying arrival of the first alien tripods, he rushes home to retrieve his teenage son, played by Justin Chatwin, and young daughter as portrayed by the always superb Dakota Fanning. The trio quickly find themselves swept along with untold thousands of other refugees from the alien onslaught, thrust into life-or-death situations that would have been unimaginable a mere handful of hours earlier in their pre-invasion humdrum lives.
At this point, I need to pay special respect to Mr. Cruise. Even though he is quickly becoming the self-righteous thespian all the world loves to hate, Mr. Cruise's performance is absolutely brilliant. His "flawed everyman" portrayal is dead-on, serving to humanize events that are often portrayed with the clinical coldness of epic-history (in this case, pseudo-history). To watch Mr. Cruise is to empathize with him as he battles both aliens and his fellow humans in his desperate struggle for the survival of himself and his family. Mr. Spielberg also deserves a pat on the back for, at long last, bringing some depth of character to a science fiction flick. In a genre often littered with protagonists that are little more than two dimensional heroes, WotW brings the fantastic down to the level of ordinary humanity, allowing an all-to-rare breath of fresh air into the oft stale environment of sci-fi. Again, well done!
WotW also defies the genre in other ways. This film could have easily been yet another vehicle for mindless special effects and action sequences. Mr. Spielberg defies the trend by deliberately taking his film down a very different road, a path more in keeping with Orson Wells' War of the Worlds Halloween broadcast of 1938. Instead of a big budget light show, we get a very frightening movie that plays out in the deep recesses of our minds. WotW is very Hitchcockian in nature, at times more akin to Psycho than Independence Day. The movie dwells not on fireballs and big battles, but on the horrific nature of being hunted by aliens and their machines. Not content to stop there, Spielberg also taps, very subtly, into our contemporary fears by using our disturbing memories of 9-11 to punctuate key moments of the film. These clever techniques, combined with the perfect musical score of John Williams (again, also very Hitchcockian), combine to make a film that resembles Poltergeist (also by Spielberg) more so than it does any previous telling of Wells' tale.
I have few criticisms of the film, and those that I do have are more matters of preference than an actual disapproval. For example, as a purist, I do prefer Martians and their meteorites to unnamed aliens and their bolts of lightning. To me, there is nothing more properly sci-fi in nature than an invasion begun by a meteorite storm from Mars (as well as being plausibly realistic).
I also would have preferred more scenes of outright battle between the aliens and the armed forces. Again, I understand how Spielberg wanted to keep the film pointedly focused on the intimate plight of ordinary citizens just trying to survive another few hours. However, what is the point of imagining an alien invasion if not to provide at least one grand battle? As such, the aliens always seem to be more of a shadowy threat just over the next hill than an actual, tangible enemy force. Disappointing, but only minimally so.
So, what does this all add up to? Is Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds the ultimate cinematic version we fans have been awaiting since the release of its dim-witted sibling Independence Day? Alas, no. Mr. Spielberg's interpretation is truly excellent, as well as innovative, but George Pal's 1953 version still reigns supreme as it maintains the best balance of end-of-the-world calamity versus personal horror. Nonetheless, Mr. Spielberg's film is a fitting tribute to this classic tale as well as a worthy addition to our shared science fiction cinematic heritage. By combining two disparate genres, sci-fi and horror, WotW becomes something very original and worth watching. I give it 8 out of 10 deathrays.