Review of War of the Worlds (2005) by Harry W — 14 Oct 2013

War of the Worlds isn't as good as you'd hope from Steven Spielberg, but it's mostly good.

The whole intro scene in War of the Worlds seems really two-dimensional, because the setting for the family based drama doesn't feel that convincing for some reason, and next comes characters which appear to he clearly staring off into a green screen as the visual effects in the background don't blend in with the setting, but rather they form a line between the sky and the land which separates the visual effects from the real world. It does this consistently, and the visual effects seem always to be too behind the characters to blend into the atmosphere.

Plus, War of the Worlds is a lot more about the survival of Martians attack, as opposed to the climactic science fiction disaster movie it was advertised as. Although it does succeed in capturing the essence of its humane drama, it never captures the essence of the science fiction disaster instead of leaving it sit there and seem hollow, and so as a science fiction film, War of the Worlds is sub-par which is a shame considering its a Steven Spielberg effort.

And the lead actor Tom Cruise attempts to pass off a routine effort for his lead role, but Tom Cruise is an actor that can never succeed on a routine. He is expressionless the whole time with his only signs of emotion being the scenes in which is voice gets louder and more high pitched as usual, but by this point in his career it's too low-brow to be doing that. He doesn't succeed in his portrayal of a family man, he doesn't succeed in his portrayal of a man of action. He doesn't succeed at all, and for his character to be leading this kind of story he has many responsibilities, none of which he bothers to follow up on. He is more beneficial to the success of War of the Worlds for his name than he is for being an actor.

However, although War of the Worlds isn't that good as a science fiction movie, as a character-driven disaster movie, it is ok.

The intensity in the situations that the Ferrier family faces is fairly strong and surprisingly effective, with the disaster theme being brought down to a humane level and succeeding well because of the atmosphere having a real apocalypse feel. I mean, in the first earthquake scene, it's easy to feel like the world is actually shaking. Steven Spielberg again proves that he can bring deep drama to such a big scale story, and he succeeds this time at that more than achieving the big scale.

And War of the Worlds is mostly successful from a technical perspective because of mainly how the cinematography gets easily up close and personal with the dynamics going on so its easy to get sucked into them and for the viewer to embrace the approach of the drama.

And Dakota Fanning is incredible. Her ability a line deliver and facial expressions is immensely ecstatic with talent that it's easy to forget that she's just a little girl instead of a very experienced actress, but she reminds us that she is just a little girl by doing the same thing and showing the brutal stare of a young girl's shattered innocence as her family drives away from an explosion. Dakota Fanning id absolutely magnificent in War of the Worlds, and she shows promise of being one of the greatest actresses that the youth of America has to offer who could even win an Academy Award one day. I wouldn't be surprised if she did.

Tim Robbins was also good in his small role because of how he unhinged himself and showed off his deepest self, the kind one only sees when a person's life is in jeopardy. Tim Robbins succeeds in convincing that, and so he does a good job.

So War of the Worlds doesn't complete what it sets out to achieve and it ends rather abruptly, but overall it's fairly successful.