No one would have believed . . .

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2005)

From the perspective of someone who loved the original book, I was first in line to see Spielberg's adaptation, and I tried to watch it with an open mind. It was inevitable that any modern retelling would be subject to a large dose of poetic licence, but I was left with the impression that someone really didn't think things through.
The whole idea behind how the invaders got here in the first place seemed to be dreadfully hashed together. Gone was the suspense of the original story; one minute they weren't here, then suddenly they appeared in all their destructive glory without any satisfactorily explored reason (bar a few mumbled possibilities involving them being buried ages ago, and not one underground survey, rock slide, tectonic shift or quarry blasting team has come across one since). The whole premise behind the invaders 'riding the lightning' was novel, but I couldn't help feel it was just an excuse for some nifty special effects to help speed the story along.
The ending was a disappointment. In the original story, the hero confronts the invaders in order to end his life from his intolerable sense of loneliness and alienation (excuse the pun). Not once did I feel this was adequately explored or portrayed. I was left feeling somewhat cheated, half expecting someone to turn to camera and say, "well, now everything's back to normal then". There was no personal loss (quite the contrary!) and no sense of horror to the terrible events that had just happened. Too rushed, too schmaltzy and far too convenient.
The characterisation, I felt, was fairly weak. Tim Robbins as Ogilvy was a gestalt of three major characters; the parson, the artilleryman and the astronomer, but didn't really end up being any of them. No fault of Robbins Â– an excellent actor but victim to a considerably flaky script. Cruise's lead was, if anything, a pleasant surprise. Not really being a fan of his work, I was impressed by the level of credibility he transposed into Ray (the independent all-American blue collar worker facing adversity beyond his personal comprehension). The scene where his 'tough guy' mask fell away and he broke down in tears in the diner was especially poignant.
Don't get me wrong, this was not a bad movie and I would advise people to see it. It was very well acted, the direction easily equalled Spielberg's high bar and the special effects were outstanding. The tripods were exactly how I imagined H G Wells had envisaged them, right down to the grabbing tentacles and awesome heat ray. The whole ferry scene was excellently done (cobbling together the Weybridge battle and Thunderchild scenes from the book) as was the opening attack by the first tripod. I just couldn't help thinking that it was let down by a poorly developed screenplay. It may be interesting to see if there is an extended DVD version which may help to paper over the cracks.
Final score: 6/10