Spielberg's Bad ETs

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2006)

Steven Spielberg has always been known for his optimistic sci-fi flicks, such as Close Encounters and E.T., where nice aliens befriend humans and develop very special connections. In War of the Worlds, there's no such thing: this time, mankind has to run for its survival, as they're followed by tripods ready to incinerate them. It's like Mars Attacks!, only a lot more serious and much, much darker.
At the center of the story is Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), a single dad who's trying to be friends with his kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin). Too bad Earth is being attacked at the same time, which means he has to postpone the "I love you, guys" speeches and go for a more traditional, but efficient, "Let's get the hell outta here!". It's all a long escape, with visual references to other Spielberg movies like Jaws, Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan.
War of the Worlds is unusually dark to come from the director of Indiana Jones, and it's certainly his scariest opus since a certain water-related shocker from 1975. Like Alfred Hitchcock did with The Birds, Spielberg refuses to explain why the ETs are invading our planet. It's our reaction to that apparently pointless event and our excessive fear (the 9/11 parallels are quite obvious) that interests him. Okay, so not telling us why the war is about to begin is a wise choice when it comes to adding suspense, but it also leads to a serious plot hole towards the end of the movie, albeit one you might not notice immediately because of Spielberg's ability to keep you amazed the whole time.
Alongside the dread, another remarkable thing about War of the Worlds is the performances that two actors give: Fanning is the usual child wonder, Chatwin and Miranda Otto (who plays Ray's ex-wife) are OK and Tim Robbins is perfectly creepy and creepily perfect as the paranoid Ogilvy, who appears briefly halfway through the film. But it's Tom Cruise who deserves more attention for his very convincing portrayal of a Normal Guy: Ray Ferrier is probably as far from Ethan Hunt as he will ever get.
So, apart from a few weaknesses in the plot, War of the Worlds is a riveting blockbuster, another great Spielberg/Cruise collaboration after the superb Minority Report. Rumor has it they're planning to make a couple of other movies together (a Western would be one of the options). If they're gonna be as good as the two they've already done, it looks like a very promising cinematic future.