Meh...

Rating: 5/10 (16 December 2005)

Just watched it and...meh.
(There be spoilers ahead)
I love the H.G Wells novel and while I understand that firing the aliens at Earth from a giant gun now sounds a bit silly it's NOWHERE NEAR as silly as the ludicrous idea of a bunch of aliens burying countless of their gigantic fighting machines 'a million years ago' (mysteriously not doing the obviously much easier and more sensible thing and simply colonising the Earth then and there) and not one single oil drilling, geological survey or what have you managed to stumble over one. Come on Mr Spielberg, I hear they've had to put castors on H.G's coffin it's spinning so much. Anyhoo...so the Martia..oops...unspecified aliens finally get around to turning up to wreak their havoc and while spectacular to look at...we hardly get to see them. Instead we're forced to endure Tom Cruise hiding in various confined, dark spaces (no not closets...cellars) with his annoying son and pointless daughter, while the aliens get up to no good unseen. Possibly the best section of H.G's novel is that involving the Ironclad 'Thunderchild' taking on a bunch of fighting machines to protect fleeing ships and when Tom and brats arrived at the ferry I thought 'aha, were coming to a good bit'...but it never happened, nothing, nada...even when a scene where the military were fighting some Tripods finally happened it was out of sight again (other than a brief few seconds). Why? I mean I wouldn't have wanted this to be a mindless action film but even good old H.G gave us the gratification of a confrontation and act of doomed heroism as the mightiest, most modern symbol of British Imperialist might was burnt to a cinder. Perhaps it was deemed such symbolism would be best avoided with the current American audience, either way the real stars of this film were relegated to a bit part which left me feeling somewhat cheated and more sick of the sight of Tom Cruise than ever. Now as to the ending...when H.G used the idea a century and a bit ago it was modern and clever, however reading his book now most would think...'erm, wouldn't supposedly super intelligent Martians have thought of inoculations?', apparently this thought passed Mr Spielberg by and the result is a fairly laughable anachronism, though given the mess he made of changing H.G's method of their arrival perhaps it's best he left the means of their demise alone...
So it gets a 5, mainly for the spectacular but all too brief effects (both visual and audio) and the few genuine moments of tension, but overall a disappointment and missed opportunity.