War of the Worlds | Review

How Spielberg loved the bombs and stopped Trying.

With Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial to his sci-fi genre credentials, if there had to be one director to pull this off, Steven Spielberg is certainly one of the few who could successfully accomplish that task. So it comes as a little bit of a surprise that lightening does not indeed “strike thrice” in the outer world domain. With a splendid, apocalyptic visual interpretation of a David and Goliath/Man versus Machine appeal, War of the Worlds is the sort of radioactive fest that encompasses the necessary elements to become this year’s main summer movie popcorn event – but the against-all-odds plight of the protagonists and the story that takes us there is far too demanding on viewers who aren’t willing to sacrifice somewhat believable narrative with a stupefying one.

The New York to Boston escape route isn’t exactly a walk in the park – but when a determined and decidedly newly mature father makes a pledge – he keeps that promise. Spawned from the literary classic from H.G. Wells and inspired by the original The War of the Worlds, this Josh Friedman scripted universe initially commences on the right foot – without the necessary pit stops that show viewers how the Eiffel Tower or the leaning Tower of Pisa are doing – this brings on delightfully constructed sights. Spielberg offers a promising second unit footage docu-aesthetic and a great feel for life before the storm with an authentic, nicely-shot backyard mise-en-scene of a father trying to get on the same playing level as his distant children. Unfortunately, when a young girl played by Dakota Fanning is made to explore the post 9/11 syndrome by delivering a line with the inserted word of ‘terrorist’ – then the rolling of the eye moments begin to flow. There is the whole strained father-son relationship to contend with, plot devices which spew out the most convenient of coincidences and a couple of locked in the basement moments that defy logic – basically there’s a horseshoe in the protagonist’s rectum area makes many of the sequences a hard sell. But when such moments are diced up with a bunch of eye-candy friendly strategies featuring a million times increase of what of the word ‘mayhem’ could possibly mean then this fortunately culminates into a somewhat watchable film – a least for those with a higher tolerance level to over the top plot twists or better suspension of beliefs.

The world in which Spielberg creates is a satisfying one – the balance between CGI and larger-area set and location design offer the perfect drapery for three-legged pods/seedlings with Godzilla strength and stature. Sometimes less is more and sometimes more is more and the American director usually gets the look of the film tuned to perfection. The gripping first half gets eventually dogged down by the slower paced moments which awkwardly go against the film’s fine pacing – at least when Cruise’s character is spreading peanut butter on a slice of bread you feel as if the story is going somewhere. A fair warning for audiences is to love the mayhem – because you won’t get much from cracker character like in the one Tim Robbins plays and you won’t get much from the hurried need to get from point A to point Z. Choosing to conveniently speed items up – an interminable NASCAR driver skills dodging a highway full of cars takes precedence over the lack of casualties, the lack of how nature would react and a lack of explanations – period.

A commendable film from a technical standpoint – special effects take up a lot of the room and provide plenty of bang for the buck, but what is missing and what is so vital to this sort of contemporary reissue of the sci-fi approach to the destruction of humanity is a tone which goes beyond horrifying looks and loud shrieks. It’s one thing to show players with a ‘I just saw ghost look on their faces’ – but it’s whole other proposal when the element of fear kept people off the beaches for a good decade with Jaws. Here, the director alienates the audience from feeling that fear – which is what the film was aptly capable a becoming – sort of in the same tradition as a simple radio hoax created mass hysteria. War of the Worlds offers plenty of rampage – but it comes with a certain controlled chaos. The mass crowds in the film all react in the same manner and always running in the same direction – you won’t find suicides, heart attacks or people urinating on one’s self. What may have been more refreshing is if this were delivered in a bloodier, darker, bleaker and more nihilistic vision – the red stuff covering the landscape, the unsuccessful car-jacking sequence and when Cruise’s character gets a one-stitch scratch on his upper eyebrow do not count. If you’re into Spielberg then wait until his take on the tragedy of the Munich Olympic Games. If you like to leave logic at the door and desire more Morgan Freeman narration, then you’ve found the right place with this roller-coaster ride full of explosions, destruction and aliens.

Rating 2.5 stars