Stunning

Rating: 10/10 (19 June 2005)

I attended the screening of the movie in Marseilles, and I would like to start off by commenting on how much this movie surprised me. I had heard a lot of talk about how personal the story would be, but I was not expecting it to be such a damn tragedy. The movie starts off with Cruise getting his kids from ex-wife. It is established almost immediately that he is a rather s***ty fellow, through his mannerisms and the way he acts towards his friends and family. His attitude is the biggest problem - he is arrogant, but it's not the Tom Cruise arrogance that we've come to know. It's a different kind of arrogance, one seemingly routed in the fact that he still hasn't accepted the blame for the ruin of his marriage. The exposition is very quick, lasting approximately twelve or thirteen minutes. The action ramps up exponentially at this point, dumping the audience directly in the middle of the start of the war. I will try to refrain from major spoilers, but let me tell that the tripods, which have only been hinted at in the trailers and advertisements, look very, very nice. The fact that the scenes featuring them clearly were not shot against a blue screen add to the astounding achievement by ILM here. They look positively real - blended and contrasted perfectly amongst the real-world light, shadows, and dust. This movie is very different when it comes to big action sequences - the camera stays below and/or between the characters and the antagonists. It would also appear that at some points Spielberg used a hand-held camera, because I was reminded of Omaha Beach. One scene in particular, immediately following the emergence of the tripod, is so absolutely intense that you wonder how it could not be a documentary. Perhaps Spielberg's wisest choice in these scenes was to actually let the extras compliment the major actors, rather than just focusing on the recognizable faces. That is not to say that they are not almost always prominent, but it is awesome to see Cruise's reaction amongst about 150 other literally 'devolving' citizens. The panic and hysteria has taken over them all - they trample and kick and punch like nothing that I've ever seen before. I am actually very surprised that this movie is PG-13. There are four scenes in particular that make me question how they got this, because they are something that I never expected to see. One of these starts off beautifully, with Dakota going down to the riverfront. The scene has an almost surreal feel - it seems as if Spielberg used filters here to bring out the glowing quality of the sun. Then, without warning, a corpse flows in front of her, following the river's current. This is followed by more, and then even more, until the whole river is covered with bodies. The camera cuts to Dakota - she has such a look of disbelief and incomprehension - ah, it broke my heart. There are three other such scenes that really took my breath away at how awful yet beautiful they were. The acting was also more than I was expecting. The aforementioned Dakota Fanning proves why she is the go to girl currently. She adds a complexity to her role that is seldom seen amongst child stars. Rather than just acting off of Tom Cruise and reacting to him, it would see as if she actually inhabited her character and gave it its own personal qualities and pathos. Tom Cruise also did well, showing us that he can portray other things that his well-known personality. The scenes with him and Dakota (one in particular after the departure of another character) are absolutely breathtaking. I literally was on the verge of tears in one of them. I think that Spielberg has a big hit on his hands here. Because of the apparent press blanket, there hasn't really been that much early hype, but I'm positive that this will change after the release. The film will undoubtedly benefit from excellent word of mouth, because, simply put, it is stunning.