What it is and what it’s not…

I was really enthusiastic about seeing an updated version of "War Of The Worlds," being a casual fan of the original version made by George Pal and company back in the later part of The Golden Era. That version was one of the motion pictures that made the SF (Science Fiction) genre almost respectable, and spurred a whole sub-genre about "Alien Invaders." (Or, at the very least, perfected it.)

I had also read the book in it’s original text during one whole weekend, one of the first books to go on-line via the internet, and then again a year or two later when I was working for a book distribution company and I was asked if I thought the version we were trying to sell was any good. (My only issue was that the cover art was a little deceiving.)

… I also read up on the "Mercury Theater" broadcast and the chaos that it created back in the late 1930’s. With that said, I’m pretty well versed in the original story and the other works it was based on or inspired and excited to see that Steven Spielberg would do is own take on the novel.

This should be pretty exciting stuff, shouldn’t it? Mr. Spielberg is the guy who picked up where George Pall left off when it came to "Visitors From Outer Space" movies and made literally hundreds of millions of dollars on the theme with "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and "E.T…" Spielberg also turned the theme around by making the movies about Aliens being peaceful explorers and man-kind the aggressors.

With "War Of The Worlds," Mr. Spielberg was going back to his home turf and getting his "A-Game" back on while making an updated yet loyal adaptation of H.G. Wells’ book! Its a rabid Fan-boy’s dream come true, isn’t it?

The results were both fantastic and disappointing… it’s a road movie, it’s a family drama, and it’s a disaster flick. It's not his best...

Family Ties…

The perfect symbol of this family tragedy happens shortly after the family loses their ride* - when they’re walking down the street of some small sea-side village and heading towards the ferry when they come to the rail road crossing… and everyone waits calmly as the train passes… and it’s going faster then you can possibly imagine… on fire!

(* "What! They lose their ride? Ren! How can this be a family road picture/endless succession of chaise scenes if they lose their wheels?" Trust, me… losing the mini-van they steal early on just speeds up the action.)

The Train is on fire, a burning shell with everyone on-board dead… racing through town like a bullet… to be sure that it’s just a matter of time before it jumps the tracks or speeds off around a curve elsewhere. Being on a train that's on fire is pretty bad, unless you're already dead then it's going to get a lot worse soon.

And the train passes and the gates come up and people continue their marathon to the seacoast to the waiting ferry. There’s no sense of horror; there’s no look of shock or despair. Just like the way the members of the Ferrier talk and treat each other is pretty shocking, there really isn’t any reaction from non-family members.

Tom Cruise essentially plays himself, or a version of himself if he never became a world class actor and became a dockworker with two kids and one failed marriage under his belt. This isn’t Tom Cruise at his best… this isn’t the hero of "Top Gun" or the JAG Lawyer from "A Few Good Men" or sports talent agent with a heart "Jerry Maguire" or even "Minority Report’s" "John Anderton" - this is The Creepy Tom Cruise of "Vanilla Sky" and "Eyes Wide Shut…" unconvincing as a New Yorker or a resident of New Jersey.

Dakota Fanning does a great job as his young daughter, "Rachel Ferrier," the 10 year old girl trying to play 30 years old as a result of a complicated life between going from lower/middle working class to upper middle class when her mom trades up for an upwardly mobile husband. Who are we kidding, right? She’s then next Drew Barrymore from "E.T." in a roll that’s essentially a more developed version of "Gertie" from more then 20 years ago and "Taken" mini-series back in 2002.

Justin Chatwin as "Robbie Ferrier…" I’m not the first to make this observation, but the guy reminds me of Bille Joe Armstrong from the band "Green Day." While maybe his character has an excuse to be rude to his dad and calls him by his first name, the act gets a bit tiresome once the whole neighborhood is vaporized by the Alien Tripods, block by block.

Finally, There’s Tim Robins playing "Tim Robins as the weekend warrior wanna-be 'Harlan Ogilvy'," a creepy opportunist who seems to be waiting all of his life for something awful to happen just to have something to rise up and fight against, who just MIGHT be a child molester as hinted at when he says to "Rachel" – "If anything happens to your daddy, I’ll take care of you." The guy just couldn’t die fast enough for my taste, and it’s a shame that it couldn’t have happened at the hands of the aliens during some horrific experiments or in a last ditch effort to redemption as he sacrifices himself in an effort to erase our possible misconceptions about his creepy nature…

All of this, combined with other characters such as Ferrier ex-wife played by Miranda Otto, and her invisible new husband and the father of her next kid, throw away neighbors and a massive stream of victims sort of make this story about humanity fighting against alien invaders a bit contrived and convoluted. All the back stories and family melodrama doesn’t make us care more about the people in this movie, rather sort of sucks the humanity out of this teleplay.

With the bickering and infighting, I never really got into what was going on – since there were no characters that were likable or cared about, the melodrama of seeing someone either lost or killed doesn’t carry any punch. When someone disappears or dies, there’s no emotional pay off.. regardless of John Williams’ score that is usually good for a few restrained tears or some choking up.

And, speaking of John Williams… is it just me or did it sound like he wrote a score for a better movie?

Signs from the Invasion of The Third Kind Farscape Aliens... on Independence Day...

While I enjoyed this version of "War Of The Worlds," there were elements that made me feel that this was recycled. There was something familiar and "Deja Vu`-ish" about this movie, and I’m not just talking about he creatures and the machines. There was an element to this that just felt too freaking familiar beyond just the story. I just kept feeling as if I had seen this before, but I was seeing it again for the first time with different actors.

Aliens: The look of the Aliens that were invading Earth looked too familiar from the neck up, while from the neck down they were truly ingenious on the part of FX masters… the body shape was something I don’t think I had ever seen before and they way they moved looked genuinely alien. The heads of these aliens looked like they were the same aliens from other movies such as "Invaders from Mars (1986)" The Alien from "Alien" directed by Ridley Scott and "Aliens" directed by James Cameron, "Independence Day" and maybe a touch of "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind…"

Themes: Another aspect of familiarity, the Ferrier household in New Jersey looked a bit like the home of the Hess’s in "Signs" Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. More so, I thought that Steven Spielberg’s "War Of The Worlds" was more of a rehash of "Signs" and some of his other favorite “Alien Invasion" movies and perhaps the TV series “Taken" that he was the Executive Producer of a few years ago.

Also, like “Signs," there were a few plot holes that someone could have parked stolen mini-vans into. While "Signs" never explained why Aliens who were allergic to simple water (in over-abundance on Earth and in comets through out the solar system...) Steven Spielberg’s “War Of The Worlds" never goes into how it is that after the aliens have been planning this invasion for hundreds if not thousands of years, how come there were never any checks to see if the microbes in the air or something else on earth could be a danger to them? (I’m well aware of the fact that this was an attempt at being a modern adaptation to the work of H.G. Well… but come on! NO explanation?)

Also… naked Aliens? Why are aliens always naked in these movies? You would think that if the environment here could be so dangerous that these Aliens would have some sort of protective suit. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of the Eagle capsule after landing on the moon… were they wearing environmental suits or beach wear? Another example… when-ever I travel and where ever I go, I’m wearing long sleeve shirt and long pants, comfortable shoes and socks, and obviously my fedora: but I also bring along my jacket, a sweater and shorts with my carry-on and many changes of clothes that’s adequate for the length of my journey. Hey… I’m a mid-20th Century guy traveling in a 21st Century world… and I’m prepared. You would think that a society that’s advanced enough to travel the vast distances of space would be prepared.

Also, The Aliens leave their war-machines buried in the ground for centuries? So with all of our excavating, mining, drilling for oil… we never found one or caught a glimpse of one until they popped out of the ground and killed the first few hundred thousand people? I don’t know, but besides having someone to relate to or cheer for, that  bothered me the most about the movie.

There’s also a whole list of things that seemed to have been borrowed from other SF movies or TV shows like “Farscape" and “Stargate…" and lots of missed opportunities... just too much to get into.

Wrap-up… this time with out any cool Morgan Freeman voice over…

Do I recommend this DVD to The Fedora Chronicles readers? Well… conditionally. It is after all, a “Steven Spielberg" movie who’s been responsible for some great “Block Busters" in the past… his first major motion picture “Jaws" was the inspiration for that phrased being coined.

“War Of The Worlds" a great, incredible Special Effects movie, fueled with some great ideas, tense or creepy moments… all held together with a plot about a dad who’s kids were Collateral Damage from his divorce and don’t like each other very much yet have to stick together during mankind’s darkest moments.

It’s a dysfunctional family road movie, a prolonged string of chaise scenes, some commentary about humanities ugly side about how we pray and take advantage of the weak, sprinkled with some class envy or class war-fare, and serious opportunities to see things broken, blown up or vaporized to the music of John Williams. Only thing that was missing were better costumes and a well blocked dark fedora for Tom Cruise to go with that leather jacket…

Seriously… this takes me back to my days of working with Aaron Gantt on “The Indy Experience…" this movie would have worked better if this actually took place in the 1930’s – as if The Mercury Theater’s radio show really happened (which is the inspiration of our annual contest for Halloween – create artwork of what an alien invasion happened in 1939 and became “World War II" in an alternate time-line… more about that later.) The movie might have worked better as “Indiana Jones Versus The Saucer Men" and worked along the same angle as a tribute to “H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds" in the same way that “The Temple Of Doom" was a tribute and partial re-make of “Gunga Din."

It’s not a bad movie, and if you’re able to suspend disbelief for two hours, it’s good entertainment. Don’t take it for anything more then what it is, and you’ll have a great time if you haven’t seen it already.

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More articles from Ren can be found here: The Rant Archive