War of the Words!!

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2005)

This movie rocks!
First, I want to say a little something to the very astute commentary of the deep thinkers who chose to compare WotW 2005 with WotW 1953. WotW 1953 was directed by Bryon Haskins, not George Pal, with a most excellent screen play by Barre Lyndon. The opening narration by Sir Cedric Hardwick out does Morgan Freeman, although Morgan Freeman's voice isn't bad. Its just that Sir Cedric Hardwick's voice is truly mellifluous, cultured, and beckons in eloquent tone to the era in which War of the Worlds was written.
Whoever started the false information that George Pal directed War of the Worlds 1953 is just full of it! Nice try poser, but try to keep the facts straight, OK? Although I do like some of the commentary regarding hero worship and the lack of such in the current rendition of WotW, spreading false information kills your credibility.
Many critics point out that the video cam guy is able to video his approaching death while the electromagnetic pulse has taken out supposedly all electronic devices. Yes, it seems like a huge flub...but the moral here is that when 200 foot tall alien tripods are wrecking everything in sight, forget about trying to get something on America's Funniest Home Videos, "put the video cam down and RUN!!"
Regarding Tom Cruise's level of acting and all the collateral damage that surrounds his life. Yep, I totally agree. A more sympathetic actor that doesn't have so much controversy in his off-screen life would have been welcomed. Instead of going with a pretty face in the "hero" role, I would have liked the father figure to have been cast with someone like Paul Giamatti. I know Giamatti is a character actor but that guy CAN act!!! Giamatti would have knocked the character of the feckless, disrespected, loser father out of the park. Transforming someone like Giamatti into the unlikely hero to me, seems like a task more worthy of the talents of a director of Spielberg's reputation.
Regarding the observation that with all the carnage going on, someone in Ray Ferrier's family needed to die. OK, I can go along with that, but I don't think it should be Robbie. I think Spielberg keeps Robbie alive for a reason. I believe that if Spielberg comes back with a sequel Robbie will play a pivotal role in the next segment! Here are the clues: Robbie's obsession to see what was going on might not have been an obsession to join the war and fry. Robbie is a slacker who despises his father, and if not careful will turn out to be just like his father. Seeing the alien war machines might be the catalyst that gets Robbie to apply himself and become an authority on the alien vehicles. Robbie becomes the unlikely hero in the next segment that his father Ray became in this one, but on a much larger scale. I'm thinking Robbie becomes the future Dr. Forrester character(i.e. Gene Barry's role in the 1953 original movie).
Regarding why the machines were buried and abandoned by the aliens. Millions of years ago, the earth was mesozoic...with molten pools of lava, very hot atmosphere, very dense vegetation and populated with dinosaurs. Its possible that the alien's mission was to excavate minerals and ores, and the tripods gigantic size would be necessary to wade through pools of lava, and wrangle a T-Rex or two. They probably got a lot more mileage out of milking dinosaur blood too. The aliens probably abandoned earth when the event that killed off the dinosaurs occurred. The machines became buried over millions of years. The earth's crust is very deep, indeed. Unless you're specifically looking for 200 foot tall alien war machines buried thousands of feet deep inside the earth's crust you probably won't find'em.
Regarding the way people act in the face of the unknown, when the tsunami hit Indonesia earlier this year, many people on the beaches had no idea what was happening when the ocean receded so far from the shore. The indigenous peoples saw this as an opportunity to go out and pick up the stranded fish, not knowing that they were only mere moments away from being killed! Also, if you're convinced its the end of the world, it is only natural to want to spend your final moments with your loved ones. For Ray to risk everything to get his children into the arms of their mother is probably the most poignant motivation in the film. Imagine just having a gun held to your head, your car stolen, and your chances of surviving this catastrophe have just gone from zero to negative ten! You're sitting in a café crying your eyes out because you realize you can't protect your children from the aliens or the human beings for that matter, but your own children do nothing to console you because you've been a total mess of a father for most of their lives? This is why Spielberg is the master of what he does, he knows how to bring the nuance of human behavior and emotion to the screen, in all of its delicate beauty, or violent brutality, but in every case Spielberg manages to keeps it totally real.
Finally, the movie does have a Hollywood ending, but hardly a happy ending. If you're Ray Ferrier, you've already lost everything you ever should have cared about when you were an absentee father. With the invasion over, and your kids are back safely in the care of their mom, you've got nothing to go home to. Heck you don't even have a home to go home to. This is probably another reason why the ending manages to really grate on some people. You never know how much something means to you until it's gone.