Coulda Been Worse... Coulda Been Better...

Rating: 6/10 (14 July 2005)

WAR OF THE WORLDS (3 outta 5 stars) Not one of the best Spielberg movies (not even the best Spielberg/Tom Cruise collaboration) but the movie has a lot of good stuff in it and is a lot better than the average "summer action" movie. The movie starts out pretty well... with some very believable and well-directed bits of suspense (the lightning, the wind, the cracks slowly opening up the ground). The alien tripods (and their accompanying sound effects) are a pretty scary sight for the most part. I found the death rays a little silly (uh, why are the martians blasting humans to atoms anyway when it is discovered later that they are harvesting their blood?) but the depiction of the panic and the widespread devastation get top marks. The problems with this movie are mostly apparent after the scene on the ferry. It seems that after that scene the filmmakers can't decide what to do next.. so Spielberg retreads old suspense "gimmicks" from previous movies. There is a ridiculous scene with three humans hiding out in a wide-open, bombed-out basement and remain UNSEEN (!!!) while a bunch of aliens walk around them (for no real reason, really... uh, sightseeing?). Firstly, it is very reminiscent of the kitchen scene in "Jurassic Park"... and seems like a too-desperate attempt at hooking the audience. Secondly, why do they have to show us the aliens anyway? (Dull, unimaginative aliens at that!) I think it would have been much more effective to not show them at all until the final scenes. Did Spielberg forget about a great, little movie called "Duel" where the identity of the driver of the killer truck was NEVER revealed? Did he forget how effective that was? How it added to the suspense? Spielberg's worst movie crime comes in the last 5 minutes of the movie... I won't say too much about it... just that it's totally uncalled for and it brings to mind Hooper's "miraculous" escape at the end of "Jaws". It seems like Spielberg is staying firm with all his bad habits and slowly shedding all his GOOD ones. Not much to say about the acting. It's standard disaster movie emoting... Tom Cruise plays a "bad" father (but in a kinda cute, lovable way, Dakota Fanning gets to scream and be annoying and Tim Robbins gets to play a possibly psychotic survivalist (more of that Final Act desperation I spoke of earlier). The movie's not all bad... it could have been a lot worse in less capable hands... unfortunately it also could have been a lot BETTER!