Seven Ulaaahs Out of Ten!

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2005)

This film isn't perfect but it's well worth seeing.
It's worth seeing for the tripods alone. They are extremely well realised and fairly scary given the limits of the 12A certificate. The first time appearance is particularly breath-taking. They were so good I could almost say we didn't see enough of them despite their prominent role.
Overall the special effects are great. The film leans heavily on them of course, but they are always to used to advance the story or wind up the tension - they never completely overwhelm (Are you taking notes Mr George Lucas?)
I also loved the nods to the 1970's musical version. I was about the age of Dakota Fanning's character when that first came out and it scared me witless!! There was the brilliantly done heat ray, the hiding from the alien appendage in the basement, the character who was a mix of the parson and the artilleryman. Looking back I'm surprised that the parson character wasn't included in this version - a man who believed the Martians were sent from Satan would have fitted nicely into an American version of War of the Worlds. Maybe Spielberg is just a bit too Establishment to have a poke at the Bible Belt ... never mind.
Some people seem to have given this film a hard time. Maybe they're the lucky ones who haven't seen Revenge of the Sith!
I did say this film wasn't perfect though and it lost points with me for these reasons -: 1) The ending was a bit sappy and pathetic. Why wasn't Boston wrecked like everywhere else? 2) Tom Cruise doesn't really convince as a tough labouring guy - he's way out of touch with that way of life. The acting all round seemed a touch wooden to me (But compared to Revenge of the Sith it's Oscar calibre) 3) Seeing the aliens out of their machines was rather unnecessary and slightly diminished them in my eyes. I wish they'd stayed in their scary tripods. 4) Lack of ulaaah's (but that's a personal thing!)
When I left the cinema I wondered if anyone round George Lucas would have the courage to tell him that War of the Worlds was a thousand times better than Sith.