A great epic, but a bit too much ET and hidden meaning

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2005)

I came to this movie with some preconceptions, my image was clouded by two names. Spielbergs tendency to be very off form of late and Cruise who has been bigger than any character he's played, and my fear was that seeing him on screen would bring thoughts of his antics offscreen rather than of the character he's playing.
I wasn't prepared for the movie that I saw, and some excellent screen moments from both Cruise and Spielberg. Here they both prove that they are on better than ever form and that when needed to they can deliver the best in Hollywood.
Let's start with Cruise. His performance begins like the Cruise we think we know, it's almost as if Spielberg knew that the audience would need to be guided along to this character rather than just dropped in front of him. The first moment I saw him I thought of the actor, the name.
Then Spielberg pulls you down to ground level and there he is, grinning his hugely perfect and confident grin, stepping proudly to a big mustang and speeding through the corners parking at his house. Suddenly there's a change, you see him step down the performance, there's still some swagger and confidence, and you can still see the personality Cruise, but as the seconds move on and the characters are introduced, so does the personality Cruise disappear. Until the moment the kids have left the car and you're staring at a defensive, embittered and distant father.
Early on he's firing with all cylinders playing the angry father trying to find some way to get to his kids without letting real emotion come through. His kids don't accept him as his father, and the daughter is taking a mothering role while the son is rebelling and lashing out.
This protective exterior comes crashing down quite early on in the movie, as the invasion begins its initial stages. The scene that marks the turn most effectively is when her returns to his family and they begin to ask what has happened. From this point onwards I didn't even think of the personality or even the name of Cruise again, he was just a superb actor.
Throughout the movie he's called upon to display some really strong moments of emotion, particularly of the paternal kind, and I just can't begin to say how convincing and utterly compelling he is during these scenes. It just goes to show what a truly great actor really can do.
The supporting actors are good in the movie, with Dakota Fanning giving an excellent performance as a confused and panicked young child. There's no doubt that she is one of the strongest child actors there is in Hollywood just now, and if she is nurtured well and does not fall for the trappings of Hollywood, she just might become a superb actress. However, her character is called upon to whine, cry, scream, and generally be difficult, and this does get quite grating by the latter half of the movie, although it is fair to say that in such circumstances that's probably how a child would act.
I think this is probably the only time I'd say this about Tim Robbins but his character seemed out of place, and didn't seem to serve any other dramatic purpose than to show that the father wanted to protect his children, yet we knew this already. The character appears out of nowhere, waves over two people amongst the masses running from the battle. I just couldn't fathom that and it seemed merely a need to recreate a section of the original story, whereas the film might have carried better either without it, or a much toned down set of scenes.
The action sequences and effects are stunning. The the tripods walking around the cities firing their rays; people exploding and being vaporised; cars, buildings and roadways being blasted and thrown across the screen with amazing realism, and the action sequence with the boat crossing, all are just stunningly created on screen. I actually couldn't distinguish CGI from model from fullsize, and in the end from reality. It's superbly created and crafted and shows that Spielberg is most definitely back on form.
I found that throughout this telling of War of the Worlds I was thinking of Shymalans Signs again and again. There are many comparisons, and Spielberg is telling the Worlds story from the family viewpoint, yet taking them out of the house.
There are flaws in the story, and it's obviously here to serve a more current purpose with all the terrorism links throughout, yet it is done in that huge epic style and a very impressive one at that. Cruise is stunning in this role, more than I've seen him in a long time, and I totally forgot his personality and who he is off screen and was lost in his performance.
The best thing throughout this movie that I haven't yet mentioned is the overriding feeling of dread that comes out of the movie. I sat through the film with an unease of what was, or could, happen, despite knowing the entire story. That feeling shows a good movie, it drew you in and took you along for the ride making you as anxious as the characters you were watching. This was utterly compelling on screen, yet, in the end, Spielberg wins.
After all this suspense and edge of your seat excitement, we're treated to a typically Spielberg ending, and I have to say that we were surprised beyond words at the twee-ness of it all. To be quite frank it was a complete cop out, designed to give you that nice pat on the head and say "look, everything will be okay" and I hated it. With the message that was being given out throughout the movie we expected an ending that was based more in reality than the world of E.T..