WOTW - With Out The Wow factor

Rating: 5/10 (12 July 2005)

Over the past few years Spielberg has come out with A.I, Catch Me if you can, Minority Report and The Terminal, none of these are really vintage Spielberg (Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan) and as for War of the Worlds well it sits some where in between this list. As a film that strikes terror and fear into the viewer it succeeds in part, well at least the first hour does. But then Mr Spielberg decides to go into the fantasy land he exposed us to towards the second part of A.I, which just blows apart all the hard work used to build up the atmosphere in the first part, and the story spirals out of control from this point and ends abruptly ! The story centres around a troubled family, Ray (Tom Cruise) is a divorced father with an estranged teenage son and a 10 year old daughter he never even knew was allergic to peanuts ! As the kids are dropped off with Ray for the weekend the film exposes us to Ray's strained relationship with his kids, but before we're able to say "what a bad father he is" all hell breaks loose and the streets of New Jersey begin ripping up beneath our families feet.
From here on Ray takes charge and takes his kids and flees the town, whilst watching innocent people being vaporised in his rear view mirror. All Ray wants to do is keep his kids safe, this is where the film does a very commendable job, you really believe Ray wants to make up for all the years of bad fathering and neglect he's put these kids through and if he can do one thing its at least keep them safe.
The terror of the earth being attacked by Aliens is not a new theme (Independence Day, Men in Black) but rarely is it explored for the "fear" point of view, and the widespread panic and evacuations of the cities is filmed really well, I was really enjoying watching the panic stricken people creating such a manic atmosphere up until we're introduced to a troubled new character who has little justification to the story (Tim Robbins), then we are suddenly almost rushed into being introduced to the aliens and their reason for invading the planet. From the scene where Tim Robbins character is introduced to where Ray takes down one of the Alien's Tripod machines the film feels rushed, unexplained and looses all the suspense and thriller aspect Spielberg had done so well to create in the first part.
It really does the job of leaving a bitter after taste in your mouth, Tom Cruise can't be blamed, he does his best with an inadequate plot line, Dakota Fanning as the terrified daughter plays it well and really hooks you in with her performance, its not the worst movie of the year, but it certainly ain't the "summer Blockbuster" we were all expecting.