Close Calls of the Spielberg Kind

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2005)

The planet Earth has been invaded countless times by marauding aliens who want nothing but the worst for us. It is a tale that plays to primal fears, but not all attempts have done it justice. The worst example is Ed Wood's unwatchable "Plan 9 from Outer Space", and the more recently gung-ho "Independence Day" was skewered by the comedic  if somewhat irritating - "Mars Attacks". Previously, HG Wells' novel caught the world's imagination, then caused mass panic in Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast and scared audiences of three generations in the 1953 film. Steven Spielberg takes the novel and obliterates the earth and buries the previous media incarnations while honoring the original work by the Grandfather of Science Fiction. However, things wind up just a bit too perfectly, and it leaves an indistinct but unpleasant aftertaste.
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a bitter man-child who works the loading docks of the New Jersey shore and works on car engines at his kitchen table. The resentment is mutual all around when his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops their kids (Rachel and Robbie played by Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) off for the weekend. If nothing spectacular was to happen, they could be an intriguing group dynamic to watch, however, these three are the human lens through which we witness the alien invasion that begins with massive electrical storms and earthquakes from which piloted alien Tripods emerge and begin wreaking merciless devastation. The mass amounts of electricity cause electro-magnetic pulses, which short out every electronic device in the area, but Ray, Rachel and Robbie snag the one working car and barely escape. Over the coming days, they struggle against each other, the elements, the authorities, the aliens and what turns out to be the most unpredictable, other desperate survivors, in an attempt to reach some safe haven.
No director has created as many summer blockbuster films as Steven Spielberg, and he clearly knows how to grab an audience. Everything that alien invasion films of the past have done wrong, he does right, or more correctly, doesn't even go near. There is no sky-borne fleet of ships reigning fire down upon world capitals or New York City. When the Tripods do emerge, they are frightening to see, and there are no glossy shots that might indicate an effects technician who draws the length of a shot out just to linger on an intricate monster. The effects are there to serve the tale and to terrify. The hero is a flawed and common man who has no real answers as to what is going on. His mission is not to save the world, but to save his family. This is in spite of the fact that he cannot seem to plan lunch, much less an escape route.
John Williams' score is another element that is dialed down from all of his other collaborations with Spielberg. As one of the top Academy Award nominees and winners of all time, Williams has produced a wide variety of works, and the rousing marches to "Star Wars", "Superman" and the "Indiana Jones" series are among the most memorable. Here, Spielberg uses the music is used far more sparingly to create a mood more akin to "Shindler's List", and when the music comes in, it is only there for subtle reinforcement. Williams is saving his marches for another film, and succeeds in giving this film great undercurrents. Actually, the music sequence that sticks with you most afterwards is Ray's impassioned and tearful rendition of "Little Deuce Coupe" as he tries to sing Rachel to sleep.
As harrowing as each situation is and as realistic as the obstacles in front of them appear to be, when "WoW" begins to pull to a close, Spielberg's intentions seem to become muddled. The story, at first, seems intent on telling an invasion tale using this family to show us what happens, and there is a natural shift to the subject of survival. But when the focus starts to shift to the family itself (and ultimately Ray's redemption in the eyes of his children) it goes a bit off the deep end. The one action-hero sequence is where the shift took place for me. (It's the scene with the hand grenades. I will say no more.) Tom Cruise's wonderfully crafted shell of desperation comes loose, and we get the guy who was clinging to the rear of a high-speed train and dodging bullets at the end of "Mission: Impossible", and we know he won't be allowed to fail. Although it isn't until late in the film, the suspense in the remaining scenes was gone for me, and I hate admitting that because the majority of the movie is just so damn good.
This "War of the Worlds" is a magnificent invasion film that gets right what so many before have missed. Even with the transplanting of the story to 2005, this really does justice to the original 19th-century novel and remembers the much-respected 1953 film with a gracefully matched visual near the end. However, the ending and how it handles its characters created for this film all rings up a little too neatly. Although a suspense-laden, cliff-hanger, call-for-a-sequel end would not have been appropriate either, dispelling the hard atmosphere of desperation and misfortune with a glossed ending just doesn't ring true. There is too much "E.T" love and not enough "Close Encounters" unknown here. Morgan Freeman's narrator speaks of the human race carrying on, but it is the price paid by the people lost that those who survive  and those who are watching - should carry with them.
7 out of 10 - even with the ending.