War of the Worlds (M, 117mins) Directed by Steven Spielberg ***½
Herbert George Wells has a lot to answer for. For more than a century, his groundbreaking science fiction story has been the foundation for others to shock audiences on radio, vinyl and the big screen.
While there have been few official War of the Worlds movies (there was only a 1953 version, more inspired by Orson Welles’ famous Halloween radio broadcast before there were two recent direct-to-video duds), everything from independence Day and Alien to Characters and Species were inspired by the former draper apprentice’s tale of Martians invading Earth.
Steven Spielberg’s 2005 take on Welles’ War focuses on New York dock worker Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), who resets the Victorian English source novel in contemporary America. Untrustworthy, unsanitary and ungainly, Ferrier is estranged from his wife and barely polite to his two children Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) during their infrequent visits to his bachelor house.
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Their last weekend of short conversations and takeaway is interrupted by a freak electrical storm. Lightning strikes not once, but 26 times in the same place, stopping all electrical equipment and cars. But much worse is to follow. The ground sinks and up rises a giant metal tripod that begins to burn the locals at will.
From Morgan Freeman’s opening voiceover, which paraphrases the opening lines of Wells’ book, writers Josh Friedman (Chain Reaction) and David Koepp (Spider-Man) demonstrate a strong intent to stick to the 1898 template. All the touchstones are there – the ship, the coal cellar and the red weed – with the main addition that the main character is dragging a couple of kids with him. While some of the changes don’t make sense (especially the aliens’ pre-planning for the attack), Koepp and Friedman’s script definitely keeps the action and human drama at the forefront. They also manage to cleverly capture America’s post-9/11 paranoia. “Are they terrorists?” asks Robbie.
“No, it’s something else,” Ray replies.
“You mean like Europe?”
Delivered
Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is a dark, grim and compelling disaster film.
Returning to the alien visiting genre that has served him so well (Close Encounters, ET The Extra Terrestrial), director Spielberg turns his usual visions of benign alien tourists upside down.
These aliens aren’t here to play an intergalactic version of the 1970s electronic game Simon — or eat our lollipops. Using portable cameras and natural light where possible, and aided by Janusz Kaminski’s (Catch Me If You Can) superb cinematography, Spielberg’s War is a dark, gritty and compelling disaster film.
The clever use of reflections and screens adds to the film’s sharpness, while the sparing use of John Williams’ ominous score causes the mounting tension to organically engulf the audience.
And yet, while it’s light years ahead of the 1953 version and the horrific 2002 remake of Welles’ other classic, The Time Machine, something is missing.
delivered
Dakota Fanning and Tom Cruise play daughter and father in War of the Worlds.
The celebratory pyrotechnics and visions Welles fans have dreamed of are all here, a pre-Katiegate Cruise is in fine dramatic form and Spielberg’s journey to the dark side is beautifully realized. But there’s just a hint of déjà vu about the procedure.
Spielberg originally planned to do this much earlier, but the advent of Independence Day in 1996 caused him to thwart those plans.
Unfortunately, the specter of that movie’s breathtaking opening hour, M Night Shyamalan’s Characters, The Matrixand even Spielberg’s own war films, Saving Private Ryan and Empire of the Sun, cast a shadow over what is otherwise a rare piece of lovingly crafted, intelligent, mature science fiction.
War of the Worlds will air on TVNZ 2 tonight, Sunday, July 24 at 8:30 PM, before it becomes available on TVNZ+. It is also available to stream on Prime Video.