A decent little "War"

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2005)

If there is a director who is cinematically equated with aliens, it has to be Steven Spielberg. The man who brought us Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the ever-popular E.T. has chosen to revisit otherworldly beings again, although this time with a decidedly more malevolent bent, in a new screen version of the famous H.G. Wells novel, The War of the Worlds.
Unlike previous incarnations of the tale, or those that have used it for indirect inspiration (such as Independence Day), Spielberg and screenwriters David Koepp and Josh Friedman have chosen to focus the entire film on the point of view of everyman Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) and his daughter Rachael (Dakota Fanning) and son Robbie (Justin Chatwin). Ray is a blue-collar dockworker in New Jersey who is watching his children for the weekend while his ex-wife Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) and her new husband are visiting her parents in Boston. During the day, strange electrical storms occur that strike several places in the world, including near Ray's home. From the point at which the lightning struck, large tripod devices, obviously under the control by forces not from this planet, unearth themselves and begin laying waste to the human populations of the world. Ray and his family flee the area, moving towards Boston in a desperate attempt to locate Mary Ann, and hopefully, eventually safety.
War of the Worlds is a rather somber piece of cinema, to say the least. While not as downbeat as Schindler's List or parts of Saving Private Ryan, War of the Worlds is hardly a light affair. Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski films the entire picture in dark, overcast tones, never really giving us much bright to focus on. Even the scenes set in day are shadowed to a point, never really giving us much of a golden environment, until possibly the end. The character situation is equally downbeat. Ray is not necessarily a good dad, but obviously not a great one either. He has a tumultuous relationship with his son, and while he works better with his daughter, it isn't all wine and roses as well. Spielberg has often been regarded as bringing the view of the average person to the forefront in many of his films, and War of the Worlds is not different in this respect. The invasion of earth by aliens as seen by Ray is the same thing almost all of us would see in the same circumstances. This gives War of the Worlds a different bent, not putting us in the same room as the scientists or military officials that are planning a counter-strike. This is a somewhat refreshing approach to something that has already been done from the other point of view before.
Even so, War of the Worlds isn't exactly the most groundbreaking film when it comes to alien invasions. Aside from the original film version, produced in 1953, and such modern accompaniments, including Independence Day, as previously mentioned, War of the Worlds doesn't have a lot new to offer us in the way of imagery or events. We have seen other instances of humans and buildings laid waste to by alien energy weapons, and while the visual effects produced by Industrial Light & Magic and supervised by visual effects maestro Dennis Muren are spectacular and well-integrated into the live action footage, they are not as breathtaking as they would have been in the past. This is a well-trodden path that Spielberg has decided to travel, and he has a lot of baggage to carry. Much of what is offered up is a seeming retread of what has come before, and it is hard for Spielberg to shake that stigma.
Performance wise, Tom Cruise again displays that he a more than capable performer. His Ray is a man trapped in a situation that he doesn't fully understand and seems somewhat incapable of handling at times, made all the worse by having to deal with his two children, who are not on the best of terms with their father. Cruise has played individuals with sorted pasts before, and he is willing to make his character vulnerable and a bit juvenile, as appropriate. Dakota Fanning, easily the best working child actor today, gives her usual top-flight performance, but she is not really pushed to any unusual limits by the script. Justin Chadwick is a bit overdone as the rebellious son, and has to deal with some strange directions the script sends him in. He comes across as a bit of a whiner. Tim Robbins has a small role as an unhinged survivalist who proves to be a danger to Ray and his family.
All in all, War of the Worlds is an engaging entry in the alien invasion sweepstakes of cinema, and with it's more personal approach, it sticks out a bit in the crowd, but not enough to be an absolute knockout.