Spielberg *almost* shows us how it's done

Rating: 7/10 (20 July 2005)

When I walked into the theater to see Steven Spielberg's new film "War of the Worlds", I felt the back of my neck tingling... Surely, in this era of incredibly mediocre films, I found myself almost cheering for Spielberg, egging him on to show us that there are still good movies to be made. In this project, he has one of the most chilling tales to work with, that of HG Wells' chilling tale of Martians invading Earth and mercilessly zapping anyone in their path with ray guns. For the first act and a half of the film, Spielberg delivers. The introduction of Ray Ferrier's (Tom Cruise) family is intriguing, and the initial attack of the aliens is pure Spielbergian genius. Eventually there's even a nice little shout out to the 1953 classic in a scene where Ray and his daughter are stuck in a basement, surrounded by the aliens. Overall, I must say I was disappointed in War of the Worlds. By Spielberg's standards it is an average movie, but it is still worth watching and is deserving of some acclaim. In my opinion it doesn't measure up to Minority Report, which is probably the most comparable of Spielberg's recent works to this film. But as the box office slumps further and further due to people simply getting fed up with the rubbish thrown at them, War of the Worlds is a refreshing change. Keep them coming, Steve.