Review of War of the Worlds (2005) by Eric L — 24 Dec 2015

Tom Cruise plays Ray Farrier, a character with a distant relationship with children, who finds himself in a middle of an alien invasion. We are told the aliens have been planning this for a million years. Why wait so long? Did they just want to see us suffer?

The tripods looked a little out of place as the film appears to be set in the 70s; in such a time the alien machines would look a little rudimentary. Also, the aliens alternated between zapping humans to harvesting them and this inconsistency is never touched upon. The young characters- particularly the son- were not particularly well written; why did the boy suddenly decide to join the army?

There are individual moments which are good. The sense of dread and destruction as human society falls apart is clearly apparent, particularly when the tripods are not on screen. The underground shelter scene heavily borrowed from Signs but was still tense. The final scene and explanation is also interesting and unique.

It remained faithful to the original work but you get the impression this is largely to the film's detriment.