Delivers several quick punches rather than one, more drawn out experience but the hits hit the mark

Rating: 6/10 (14 August 2008)

If War of the Worlds proves anything, it is that Steven Spielberg knows how to master the situation of placing ordinary and innocent characters into a scenario of great, fantastical nature and allowing things and events to play out in a rapid and exciting manner. This is the sort of film that is chalk and cheese for Spielberg, something he mastered in films like Jurassic Park where innocents in the form of children and every-day people were placed into a predicament they could not possibly comprehend they'd ever face (that event being hunted by dinosaurs). He also did it on a much, much larger scale in Saving Private Ryan where American troops were in Europe; were alienated and pushed to extreme measures after questioning with one another the very reason several of them were being risked for one.
Like those two films, War of the Worlds gives us three things: firstly an expansive and inescapable canvas on which to allow the adventure to play out. Secondly, unspectacular characters dropped into a predicament that forces them to become somewhat spectacular even if it is to merely survive. And thirdly, an enemy that is either mysterious or unseen for most of the time but most certainly hostile and one that the protagonists will have a hard time fighting since they are either hopelessly outnumbered or outgunned. War of the Worlds is hardly a crowning achievement but for Spielberg, it's the sort of film he relishes making  the sort of film that does not need advanced characters or a stupendous story but has enough within the premise to etch two or three dramatic scenes out of.
In terms of extra-terrestrials, the Martians in War of the World are certainly the most unfriendly in Spielberg's collection. The idea that they have watched on for centuries immediately establishes some sort of superiority in the sense they must be highly advanced to even see our planet, let alone observe it  and what do we have to show? The Hubble Telescope, is what. So the drive for the antagonism is weak in the sense what it boils down to is mere inter species envy that films like Se7en taught us is not a good thing to be harbouring. Another thing I noticed was that their recall klaxon sounds oddly like the opening two beats of the Halloween III: Season of the Witch theme tune.
But rather than a gripping story, War of the Worlds gives us a nice, reliable and somewhat effective cause and effect fuelled passage. On the whole, it works and the film glides effortlessly between locations and situations, all of which revolve around desperation as a group struggle to take a car; the chance arises to hide in a basement and then what to do once down there. The hero, played by Tom Cruise, is Ray Ferrier; a man established to be the sort of person we are not supposed to like what with his outlandish attitude and ignoring of his children. This is a test of survival but looking deeper it is clearly a metaphorical journey for Ray to undertake so that he may prove his worth as a father and as a fatherly figure in times of crisis. There is no coincidence Ray is struggling with a divorce and is established in the manner he is, nor is it by chance he has priority of his kids when the initial incident occurs.
So apart from most things including being a damn good ride, War of the Worlds is a journey of survival but also self-discovery and proof that an egotistical American male can balance both his ego and his fatherly figure at once. The film is Independence Day and Mars Attacks! done right; it is both these films with heart and is one that does not rely on the mere visualisation of exploding buildings and destroyed pieces of iconography to get across thrills. War of the Worlds is the sort of film that has a fierce battle going on between tanks and the aliens but refuses to either pan or cut to it and instead remains on Ray and his son go through a short but required conversation about masculinity and 'where one belongs'. For son Robbie (Chatwin) it is the battlefield, for father Ray it is on the run with daughter Rachel (Fanning) acting as the protector.
On one hand this is a post-9/11 blockbuster that was made well after 9/11 and the following invasion as the United States struggles to a; come to terms with an attack of this magnitude from the outside and b; cannot seem to finish off the enemy once they are confronted. There are some annoying obligatory scenes and the logic falls apart once or twice towards the end, the disappointing dénouement being one of them, but War of the Worlds' study is all about getting to that point rather than what happens after it's arrived there. Satisfying and tense on one or two occasions, War of the Worlds does make the grade.