Solid, intense movie

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2005)

This movie managed to surprise me in a positive way. For a Hollywood blockbuster, this movie is somewhat different then you might expect. The overarching theme of "War of the worlds" is a world-wide alien invasion on Earth. Like most disaster movies on this scale, you might expect scenes of mass destruction from all over the globe. Not to mention huge battles between human resistance and the invaders (like those in Independence day). Well, in this case those expectations are wrong. Instead of showing an epic struggle between mankind and aliens, this entire movie is shot from the perspective of an average Joe called Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) and his children. The real theme of this movie isn't the alien invasion, but the desperate struggle of the average man (or family) to survive in times of crisis. What do you do when everything you took for granted is wiped out in mere seconds?
I guess this might be a bummer to some who'd like to see as much explosions on screen as possible. But this perspective turns out to work wonderfully well, thanks to the execution.
The acting and dialogue in this movie was mostly good and felt realistic. Tom Cruise does a pretty good performance here. A fine example is the scene when he comes back home after just surviving the first encounter with the alien invaders. He's utterly lost, confused about what he just saw. There's only one thing he can think of: RUN! As fast as you can! He portrays all of this very well. There's no typical American action hero's here. There's panic, desperate attempts to escape. How this can lead to very extreme behavior, is shown in a very effective scene were people fight with each other like animals over a car, which finally even results in murdering. Quite disturbing.
The scenes where the alien machines actually appear and start blasting everything to oblivion are very intense and sometimes downright scary. During the first encounter it feels like you're actually THERE running along with the crowd, trying to get away. The gigantic "Tripods" are really menacing and add a real sense of danger and fear to the movie, something that is often lacking in Hollywood blockbusters. Spielberg still knows how to create tension and intense action.
That said, the movie isn't flawless. After nearly two hours of intense and fine footage, the ending feels a bit rushed (beware: some major SPOILERS here).
The way the aliens are "defeated" is pretty refreshing. Finally it's not because of great American heroes and lots of firepower, it's because of bacteria. It might disappoint many viewers though, since this means the movie doesn't go out with a "bang". It all happens quite fast (maybe a bit too fast). What really feels out of place though is the family reunion at the end. It's a bit too happy and almost seems to pretend that nothing happened (you'll see). Besides it'sa bit unbelievable that everyone survived.
Other then that, this is a very exiting and intense movie experience. Recommended!