Awesome Wells?

Rating: 6/10 (4 July 2005)

The vast, cool and unsympathetic intelligence responsible for this latest version of H.G Wells story is a little too good at recreating the author's cold lesson in human humility. In many respects its a success - the relocation to modern day America works perfectly because its the superpower of the moment, as much the centre of present day civilisation as Wells' Victorian England. Therefore there's no better place on Earth for a bit of otherworldly extermination, no better backdrop to see social order breakdown and people take on the animal mentality that the author cynically described in his original Novella. Spielberg's decision to keep the invasion grounded from one character's perspective is also a smart move. Not only is this faithful to the old narrative but it manages to effortlessly dodge all the old alien invasion movie clichés, ensuring this isn't just a serious version of Mars Attacks. So as an update it works quite well and allows the Sugarland Express director to indulge in his talent for show-stopping spectacle and psychological giggery-pokery. So why only 6/10? Because Worlds is just a shade too cold for its own good. The diminutive Cruiser is fine but ONLY fine and Dakota Fanning continues to impress but on this occasion Spielberg's favourite old stand-by, the dysfunctional family doesn't deliver the goods, initially because we've hardly got to know them before they're on the run and that they're all just a little bit slight and uninvolving. The 'Berg is the real star of the show as he often is, handling the material with his usual deft touch and efficiency but this time, bereft of any emotional core, it plays in a fairly so-so kind of fashion. Technically there's no problem here but about an hour after this ended I caught Close Encounters on T.V and realised and what this movie lacked was all there - Warm Characterisation, a bit of breathing space to invest in the protagonists, a mountain of mash potato and a highly effective score by John Williams who here is disappointingly anonymous. Wells was famously dissatisfied with most adaptations of his work but I think he would have had a hard time deriding this one - the problem is that for once, a little modification might have brought it up a few notches.