Impressive post-Schindler sci-fi hamstrung by a thin plot (includes spoilers)

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2005)

Adapting H. G. Wells' novel into a Hollywood movie is always going to be hard. We all know the story, for a start - or we should. Moreover, the book is an allegorical attack on the excesses of British imperialism, where story is secondary to political intent. It's brutal, unsentimental, and it certainly doesn't follow the three-act pattern of heroic motivation that Hollywood movies require. Ultimately, the world is rescued by accident - microbes and our own white blood cells save the day - not the cleverness, pluck and heroics that are Hollywood's stock in trade. There's plenty of violent action, but the "hero" doesn't really do much except interpret it all through the lens of liberal philosophy. You can get away with that in a novel because it's a more luxurious and ponderous form. But it's hardly the stuff of Hollywood sci-fi. Drop the reflective narration and what are you left with? A pretty thin script, that's what. Fortunately, the arc of the story is broad enough for Spielberg to plug the gaps with his favourite elements - a fractured family, gutsy kids, and gob-smacking CGI (ILM's best work in years). Friedman and Koepp's adaptation is also wisely loose enough to include some fine suspense sequences and some physical heroics from Cruise. It's all handled with the absolute technical mastery you expect from Spielberg and his usual crew. It's astonishingly realistic, and I don't just mean the CGI - the scenes of mass human panic are spot-on, and the performances from Cruise and the amazing Dakota Fanning are exceptional. But all this can't overcome the impediment of the wandering screenplay and utterly unmotivated ending - it might accurately capture the powerlessness of the characters, but for the audience it feels like a cheat, even when you know its coming. Not so in the novel which is less reliant on motivated action and where the philosophical themes are to the fore. So it might have been more effective if Spielberg had either: (a) "metaphorized" the microbes and made it not only about biology but also about finding "the power of what's inside you" in an emotional sense, i.e. your courage, your determination, your uniquely human will to overcome insurmountable odds; or (b) foregrounded the theme of imperialism, given that America now lives in fear of reprisals for its own. He gestures to the contemporary connection - "Are they terrorists?", a plane crash, and a dust-covered Cruise looking just like a 9/11 survivor - but he ultimately opts to make a darker version of the same popcorn movie he's made a dozen times before. "Take one family, add a big scary threat, and top with a generous dash of syrup..." But this is post-Schindler Spielberg, so that syrup has a bitter aftertaste - and is all the more palatable for it.