War of the worlds, a real stinker!

Rating: 1/10 (29 June 2005)

Spielbergs War of the Worlds isn't the worst film on his resume, but it's a big step down from what he is capable of. Wells' novel was the first and last word on alien invasions, painting a bleak tale of Martian war machines that descend on Earth and lay waste to all before them. Had Spielberg emulated more of his predecessor's Halloween mischief, this might have been the definitive word on the definitive little green men story. Sadly, his crowd-pleasing instincts invade too much of the inky blackness, leaving War of the Worlds a powerful but fatally flawed near miss. Worker Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), who's stuck with his kids Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin) on the weekend the invasion occurs--is sort of a self-centered jerk whose growing devotion to his children never really convinces. Nor do the unique abilities the Josh Friedman-David Koepp script endows Ray with. Apparently's he's the only civilian who realizes how to get a car started again after the alien energy bursts immobilize them, apart from the TV news van that's still conveniently running (?) and all the military vehicles that are apparently unaffected; and later on he alone not only proves able to bring one of the Tripods down from the inside after being captured by the aliens but is also the first to notice that the alien force-field shielding their machines from bombardment has gone down. But even within the limitations of the writing, Cruise's performance never gets much below the surface. And the children aren't any better. Fanning is as mannered as ever; she comes across as a stiff, porcelain figure whose main contribution to the proceedings is a piercing shriek that occurs with distressing frequency. The verdict? Steven Spielberg turns the end in a sugar sweet family value spectacle. Maybe the regular Joe Bob or Alice in America find this great and wonderful, I don't. This anti-"Close Encounters" is a spectacular technical exercise, but in the final analysis it's as loud and soulless a piece of equipment as the aliens' Tripod Death Stars.