Great story - why spoil it?

Rating: 6/10 (26 November 2006)

War of the Worlds is perhaps the first sci-fi story that puts man in an insignificant role in the natural world - it was written at a time when scientists were showing how much life is present on the earth, and linking bacteria and viruses to fatal illnesses in humans. Previous adaptations of the story have focused on the impotence of individuals unable to resist an overwhelming invasion.
Spielberg's adaptation starts doing this well - people forced to flee New York for their lives, the sheer awfulness of the 'tripods' and their death rays, and the futile heroics of the US Army.
However, after about 40 minutes, the programme then loses all this strength and turns into a third-rate Jurassic Park, presumably because we can't now show that humans are totally overwhelmed. One scene shows Tom Cruise et al being chased by a tentacle through a house and the alien intelligence being confused by a mirror - another has him in a car grabbed by a tripod - the aliens presumably having forgotten about their death rays... Even at the end, it has to be the army that finally destroys the tripods, not the bacteria! And then the 'dead' son turns up again.
Overall, could have been great, but falls short as have so many Spielberg films by failing to run with the real issues. War of the Worlds really calls for the horror of Schindler's List, not the family-friendly focus of Jurassic Park.