Swann's Way

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2005)

Spielberg is usually smarter than this, because this was doomed from the very beginning. Forget that nowadays if Cruise is in the thing, it has to be stretched from something whole to a platform for his posturing.
But quite apart from that there were already two excellent achievements for this. First we had the book, which has excellent energy: mechanical beasts as languid swans among us. Consummate language of inevitability.
Then we had Orson Welles on Wells; the radio drama that blurred the definition of sight. Yes, this is about sight and always has been. The 1953 version acknowledged this and took out all the religious stuff and replaced it with things whose sight is lethal. And what things those eyes were! Designed on Mars to emulate beaux art wrapping of what in the fifties was considered the ultimate in high tech vision: the three dots of color TeeVee. The saucers in this case were floating on legs of electricity and exterminated gracefully.
Sure, it was essentially a chase movie, but a chase of an eye following poor souls. What could be more cinematic? On the heels of this our genius in Hollywood decides to take the same material and scrub all the cinematic value out of it. Sure, he could have approached it with the same intelligence as "Close Encounters," which was a French New Wave film about the creative discovery of imagination. It was essentially a movie about movies.
Perhaps he didn't know. Perhaps he just didn't have time: this was pushed up two years ahead of schedule. Perhaps he just didn't care, since all his efforts at intelligent and meaningful film-making just blend into his more mundane commercial successes.
But he does know how to stage a scene that manages motion: the orchestrated motion of camera, foreground and often opposing motion in the background. He doesn't do well in three dimensions and you can see every static storyboard along the way. But when he's good at vision, he's good.
Plus. Plus this gives the opportunity of the extra motion of the swans, which is how Wells described the ships.
But no dance here, no cinematic composition. And no languid ships. These are a cross between the monsters of "Wild Wild West" and "Star Wars." At least those were apt. These ships clunk and grind. They destroy and collect. Their eyes and weapons are different from each other. Instead of being otherworldly, they seem distinctly human, as if they were designed by Lex Luthor.
Okay, so the story changes focus from being about invaders to being about Tom and kids. Even Mel Gibson in his basement was more engaging, and that's pretty damning.
One final insult. This starts the same as the 1953 movie, with a narrator giving background. With Wells always in our minds, who is selected? Morgan Freeman. You may even like his avuncular, low key acting-as-appearance. But as he who introduces doom? No.
Ted's Evaluation: 1 of 3 -- You can find something better to do with this part of your life.