A real Roller Coaster Ride

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2005)

This is one of those films that you have to see in the cinema if only for the effects and probably the loudest (and impressive) Dolby soundtrack I have heard in a long while.
Thankfully, this is not an 'Independence Day' film. No silly one-line gags, marvel comic over-the-top characters or that gun-ho Patriotic 'Let's go bomb the *****rds' Hollywood crud that often makes one stretch the finger down the throat.
No, this is trying to be as ordinary and 'real' as it can be by trying to convince us that we all live in cities like Newark. Spielberg uses the events to show us the ugly side of ourselves in our struggle for self preservation The film dispenses with opening titles - Whoo! Hoo! So we're spared what would have been a long 3 minutes of rendered water droplets around rippling main titles and instead get taken straight to the docks where we meet our lazy blue collar worker Ray (Tom Cruise) who is loading Cargo. I had trouble believing this 'Ray' Character as lazy bad parent. Why? Because it's Tom Cruise; that's why!. I mean, the guy is now a parody of himself. Every character he plays is "Tom Cruise". So the 'vices' of this particular character appear to be 'bolted on' rather than believable. That's not to say his acting is poor. In fact, I think he does rather well in the 'lullaby' scene when Spielberg tugs the emotional strings as Ray tries to re-establish himself as the Father he never was to his Daughter. However, the best actor in the film has to be Dakota Fanning who plays Ray's Daughter 'Rachel'; She is truly believable as the frightened little girl. She was also a strong character in the opening scenes where she seemed to be more of a responsible 'Parent' than Tom (Cruise) did! After 15 minutes of the obligatory character and relationship building, the film begins with the cloud gathering (reminiscent of Close Encounters) and then we are introduced to the aliens in a rather quick-paced loud 'Jurassic Park' style-soundtrack...and we're off on a multi-layered CGI roller-coaster ride. Audience members at this point are likely to cover their mouth in unexpected shock! The film is full of 'Hitchcock style' suspense, yet some terrifying scenes of menace, which seem a little strong for a (rated 12a/PG13). You actually feel like you are spending time experiencing exactly what the characters experience.
The Tripods are not the flying sulphur-street lights we saw in the 1950's version but are absolutely huge nonetheless. You get a real sense of this in the film, which wouldn't have been so dramatic if they appeared in the Films Trailers or PR. Many of the evening landscape scenes seem to stretch for miles on a large theatre screen and have a dynamic range which you're only going to appreciate on film - not on a DVD.
The CGI is so realistic and quick that you give up trying to work out 'How did they do that' because 4 more visual effects have flashed by in the time you thought about it. The effects are more in line with the film "Twister" but are not as blatant as overlaid cows and tractor wheels hitting the camera lens. How many films have we had to watch were every explosion has to throw a car at you? In this film the effects are more realistic backdrops and are more shocking. It looks as if every brick of every building has been rendered before it's crushed. Spielberg shot all the action scenes early in the production schedule to give the CGI guys enough time to work on them before the films release.
The Cinematography is excellent and the use of the camera is so justwell, Spielberg. The scene of the Car driving along the highway and avoiding every other vehicle on either side, whilst we are able to complete two continuous 360' camera arcs around the outside of their vehicle is amazing.
The ending arrives rather abruptly and could have really occurred at anytime after the middle of the film, as the film has no other sub-plots. It's a sequential time-line of one battle moving to the next battle and Spielberg using each battle to show some ugly side of how people react when fighting for survival. There's no real drawing together of character resolve or any sub-plots. It was as if they thought 'Well we've the shot the end scene' so lets see how many scenes we can fit in before it, until we run out of CGI money. OK, I didn't expect the aliens to go: "Gee! Mankind, you're right  it is better to love than to kill. We're dreadfully sorry about all of this mess. But we'll pay for the damage and let you have a copy of our impressive tripod mobility technology.". No, it's just that the narration more or less says "That's all folks!" and I expected the screen to say "Insert another set of coins to continue play or else play will end." Overall I did enjoy the film. It is one you have to see before you read the reviews, which may hype it up too much for you or lead you to believe it is a plot that is flawed. Personally, I saw it as entertaining roller-coaster ride. It's not a great story on film, but the shock, horror and suspense factor is well worth experiencing.
By the way, look who is playing the grandparents: The leads from the original film.