War of the Worlds

One of my favorite horror movies!

Apart from the bodacious special effects, perhaps the best thing in this film is Tom Cruise’s excellent performance as Ray: well-modulated and always believable, a likeable everyman. And the most annoying elements are Ray’s unbearably horrible children. The son is a snarky impertinent and callow spoiled egotist, whose anger is largely posturing (he spends half the movie with a curl in his lip or a grimace). And the daughter is even worse: a quintessential snowflake some years before the term became prevalent, who has panic attacks at the drop of a hat, during which she screeches and makes godawful scenes, having to be coddled at every step of the way, always having meltdowns at the most perilous moments, when any child of ordinary intelligence should know that this is NOT an ordinary state of things, and that making a ruckus might well result in death… again, a function of the narcissism and being so lily-livered one faints at the merest breeze. I short, I cringed through most of her scenes. I was reminded of the horribly bratty little girl in ROBOT MONSTER, and how relieved I was when Ro-Man finally did us all a favor by shutting her up permanently.There were some problems with the premise of the tripod machines being buried -- that many, buried all over the globe, and they were never detected? That strains an already quite strained credulity almost to the breaking point. I did like the homages, though. Setting the initial attack in New Jersey was a nod to the legendary Orson Welles broadcast. (Though in Jersey City, not Grover’s Mill—it has been pointed out that the fateful intersection where the tripod emerges has a street name, Van Buren, which is the surname of Ann Robinson’s character in the George Pal 1953 film. It is, however, also an actual street name in Jersey City.) They also quote the 1953 film, where General Mann says, “Once the tripods start moving, no more news comes out of that area.” There are a number of things harkening back to the original novel: the red weed, the scene where the train engulfed in flames passes, and the aliens harvesting people (to drink their blood). And a fine visual nod to INVADERS FROM MARS: when Ray’s daughter flees the farmhouse basement and Ray goes after her, he approaches a hillside down which a line of split-rail fencing snakes, and beyond which is a reddened swamp or fen, just like the swamp in the earlier film where the aliens were buried.The aliens seem to have only one, not two, rays; and it’s a bit beyond credulity how the heat ray works: any ray which would reduce the body to ash would almost certainly do the same to any clothing. But the explosion of ash and empty clothes IS an impressive effect.Unlike the 1953 movie, not a single landmark building is destroyed. I’m sure this was to avoid “the cliché” of such scenes, but then, in disaster porn, they’re part of the whole aesthetic.On the whole, a fun film, with some exciting and engrossing attack sequences, especially if you can wink at the illogical parts, and mute or fast-forward through the scenes with those flesh-crawlingly awful kids.

Great movie

When this movie first came out in movie theatres, I liked it so much I saw it twice! When it finally came out on DVD I knew I had to get it. I have watched this movie several times since, and although there are some flaws in this movie, I am able to overlook them and enjoy one of my favorite alien invasion movies.Forget about the corny Independence Day alien invasion movie, War of the Worlds doesn't showcase famous landmarks being destroyed or showing the optimism and hope of humanity battling aliens. While that movie was entertaining, it was far less realistic and that was one reason why I liked War of the Worlds. It had a more gritty, dark, and depressing undertone to the movie (for instance, the scene before the Hudson ferry scene with the mob surrounding the van Cruise's character, Ray, and his kids were in, very scary and realistic!). Instead of showing multiple perspectives, in War of the Worlds, you follow one man and his children as they try to survive this disaster of apocalyptic proportions.My favorite parts of the movie was definitely the parts with the alien tripods. I thought the huge, towering tripods were very scary with their metallic, machine sounds and the eerie, creepy trumpeting call that froze people in their tracks like deer before a car. My favorite scene was in the beginning, when you're with Tom Cruise's character watching in shock as a huge tripod breaks out of the ground. Simply awesome. Another great scene is the military battle scene upon the hill when a tripod comes up out of the flames of the wreckage, or the scene where Cruise steps from the house he was hiding in to a red alien land. Yet another great scene is the part where everyone is boarding the ferry to cross the river, one of Ray's children looks up to see trees swaying up on a hill behind the crowd. Suddenly, a tripod appears and as one the entire crowd turns around and there's a moment of stunned silence as everyone takes in the appearance of the tripod. Then chaos and panic breaks out right when the tripods start making their weird bellowing and trumpeting calls.While I enjoyed this movie a lot, what prevented it from being absolutely great was a few things I felt Spielberg should have done different. The main character's son was very annoying. I wanted to slap him upside the head for being a stupid fool wanting to go off and fight with the Army against the aliens. He's what, a teenager in high school, and he was clueless just wanting to go off on his own. I think the director could have portrayed the dislike between father and son differently. He didn't have to make the son an annoying fool to the point I felt no sympathy for his character and was relieved when he didn't get screen time later.Another quibble I had was the ending of the movie. I felt the movie ending was too happy and perfect, and didn't go well with the tone of the movie, which was very dark and despairing. For a very realistic movie, the ending was so unrealistic it was jarring.The last annoyance I had was Spielberg's decision to show us what the aliens looked like. If he had just shown us the alien tripods destroying cities and harvesting humans, I think that would have been enough. Showing what operated the machine tripods disappointed me because the aliens were not frightening at all. They seemed ordinary and so after that the tripods didn't seem as scary as they did before seeing what the aliens looked like. By showing us the aliens, I felt Spielberg took away from the creepiness and mystery surrounding the alien tripods.Yet, I think if you can overlook those flaws, the movie is still quite enjoyable to watch. I have watched it several times and I never get tired of watching it.

Not a Tom Cruise fan, but this was a great movie!