War Of The Worlds ***

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2006)

Although this may not have turned out to be the ultimate alien invasion movie everyone was expecting, it is still a spectacular, exciting and, at times, frightening version of H. G. Wells' famous sci-fi classic. I don't think that comparisons should really be made between this and the 1953 original (which, in itself, possesses a nostalgic charm totally absent from Spielberg's film) because of the enormous technological advances made in the special effects field but, in retrospect, it¡¦s interesting to note that both film versions of the novel can be seen as a Hollywood riposte to a recent catastrophic event which had hit the U.S. - the Cold War in the original and the attack on the Twin Towers in the remake; as a result - and thankfully so, I might add - Spielberg's approach to the material is refreshingly sober and intelligent, closer to that seen in SIGNS (2002) than the more jingoistic one adopted for INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996). Unfortunately, the anti-climactic "happy ending" seems more suggestive that if you are Tom Cruise nothing bad can really happen to you, rather than the more truthful message that if the family unit stays together under times of great emotional stress, it will eventually pull through despite the hardships and the losses. That said, Tom Cruise is ideally cast as the not-so-ideal father figure and delivers the goods in that respect; however, while Dakota Fanning steals some of his limelight, her character - and especially that of her brother - were something of a liability, coming off as rather annoying and one-dimensional. Also, it was a nice touch on Spielberg's part to give bit parts to the 1953 version's original stars, Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, at the very end of the film but, as I said before, the ending was misjudged, in my opinion, if not necessarily a fatal mistake.