A good enough film with good acting, but does contain some flaws.

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2005)

I have been a fan of the War of The Worlds story for a long time. I liked the situation of the radio broadcast causing panic in America because it was believed to be real events. The 50's film was well made even if it is a little dated now. As for the Geoff Wayne album... I laughed the first time I heard Uuullaaa (as I was young), but soon came to love it. Forever Autumn was fantastic. When I heard Steven Spielberg was going to make a new version, I could not wait. I watched it last night, and I must say, it did not grip me quite as much as I would have liked. I know the camera style was very well done in following the main characters and having events going on around them, but it seemed to be missing something. Maybe it was a lack of dramatic music used to heighten suspense, I can't say. Anyway, it was not a bad film. Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins in particular were excellent. The new concept of the alien craft being on earth for a million years was novel if a little hard to believe, as wouldn't the aliens be able to create better machines during the million years and how would they know where the cities would be? I know most people picked up on the camera inconsistency, but 2 other things that were a little hard to swallow were the fact that after a passenger jet landing on their estate and causing a blast of flames and leaving destruction everywhere, they were still able to get into their intact van in the middle of where it landed and drive off. Also, when they were being pulled out of the van, and Tom pulls out a gun, only one other person has a gun! In America!, with an invasion going on! Get real, I'm sure there would have been a few mini guns etc... :) I did feel that some things could have been explained a little more and that the film could have used about 20 to 30 minutes more to do this. By the way, did they mention at any stage that they were Martians? That aside, I did enjoy the film on the whole. The heat rays were very well done. I am sure I will get this when it come out on DVD as I have everything else on the story.