It's official: Dakota Fanning is scary good!!

Rating: 8/10 (6 July 2005)

If ever there was a sure fire, safe bet kind of a film this year, it was always going to be War Of The Worlds. You have the ingredients there for a great movie. We have Spielberg multiplied by Cruise which is the square root of Dakota Fanning. It is a simple mathematic equation; that these elements combined will make at the very least a good movie. War of The Worlds, while not the best addition to Cruise or Spiely's catalogue is still a top class summer movie and the best Alien invasion movie so far. To sum up War Of The Worlds you could say that the first 2 acts are classic, top draw stuff, perhaps the best this year, while the third act drops the standard when introducing a needlessly cast Tim Robbins, before ending, some felt, rather abruptly. More on that later however.
Firstly the films strength's. This film has amazing action. Really amazing action, the best use of CGI this year. The CGI is used so effectively and made to look so real. The camera never sits still and lovingly gazes at the computer imagery to the point we see that it is fake and see the seams as it were. Spielberg uses the camera to disorientate and give flashing glimpses of massive killer tripods zapping people into dust while Cruise and his fellow publicans run like the wind. The effects are astonishing but we don't focus on them too long in each shot, allowing us to keep the feeling we are seeing something genuine. As the action ripped along I was on the edge of my seat. The effects, the sound, the direction all combining to create some truly chilling and pulse pounding sequences, especially the first sitting of the tripods. As well as the action we have a core family story we care about. Now of course they have raided the cliché box as this is after all a disaster movie made in Hollywood, so Tom Cruise plays the bad father who eventually comes good, while Justin Chatwin is his angst ridden teenage son. Thankfully young starlet Dakota Fanning is given a character a bit different to the norm, a freakishly intelligent and quirky daughter. Of course this is due to the fact that Fanning is a freakishly good actress and plays a role 99% pf child actors couldn't play, so generally the play little hyperactive brats. At times Fanning is the heart of the movie thanks to having a fairly unique character combined with a unique level of talent for someone her age.
The movie is helped along by it's primary cast. Cruise is superb. He really delves into the character again and it's not the usual heroic and faultless character again that Cruise plays, it is another departure for him for this type of movie, much like the flawed character in Last Samurai. Cruise can act, no question and here he gets to stretch, while the chemistry between himself and his kids, Chatwin and Fanning, really make the family dynamic engaging. Cruise could be an outside bet for an Oscar nod this year, having been unlucky in previous years missing out for Samurai and Collateral. Justin Chatwin is excellent as well. He pulls of a stretching role for someone fairly new to the business. Then there is the frighteningly good Fanning who just darn well scares me because she is too good for an 10 year old. Remember feeling that way after seeing Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense? A performance of such intensity and maturity that it seemed like it had come from a veteran of 40 years. Fanning is the same, and in some ways too good and mature to be a realistic kid. However her character, like Osment's in Sense, is a strange character with strange tendencies and the part is good. It's a character actors part in some senses. I still find it scary though. Elsewhere Miranda Otto has an extended cameo and little to do, while Tim Robbins seems to serve little more purpose that to have some extra complication and to add a star name.
Spielberg is on fine form and goes quite dark in parts. The central character Ray for example steals a car at someone else's expense, who were probably left to be zapped to oblivion while he also beats another guy to death. The action is also top notch as I mentioned earlier but for as much as Spielberg goes dark, he does end up playing it safe. Where he could have wiped out a few characters he chose to have the happy ending for the Ferrier family. Also while the film was a departure for Cruise, we still had a few super Cruise moments, with him being the first person to both damage and destroy one of the aliens machines. The film ended abruptly and felt like a good 15 minutes was chopped. Not so much the explanation which I liked and which stayed faithful to the book, very much an ode to Darwin, but the way it shifts from one setting to the sudden end of the film without necessarily having a final showpiece. The ending itself was good and the explanation worked but what was slightly off was the pacing of it.
Overall despite some off moments this is still a great movie that won't disappoint. Fine performances combine well with cracking action. Technically as well this is superlative from the music, to the cinematography and effects, absolutely top class. ****