Review: War of the Worlds

Rated PG-13 | 116 mins

IMDB Info

In 1938, Orson Welles terrified the entire nation with his radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. Everyday people, who had no other news outlet to rely on at the time, believed his dramatization of an alien-invasion of Earth to be real. Being the insane genius that he was, Welles refused to remind listeners that it was simply a performance. Over sixty-five-years later: enter Master-Filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s movie-remake of War of the Worlds, starring the couch-hopping, pill-stopping Tom Cruise.

And, boy, for its first act, the film is pretty freakin’ terrifying. Fiddling with his uncertain audience, Spielberg executes each scene with the utmost level of suspense. His actors play their roles completely straight, and triumphantly so—even when giant alien-tripods emerge from the ground of Boston. “Is it the terrorists!?”, shouts Cruise’s daughter (a terrific Dakota Fanning) as they run through the havoc-ridden streets, away from the tripods. At this point, War of the Worlds is in its finest form, perfectly capturing a modern-day tilt on old-school science-fiction.

Unfortunately, despite the contemporary flair that Spielberg provides the movie, he and his screenwriter, David Koepp, stay true to Welles outdated source-material in their adaptation. The second act of War of the Worlds, despite maintaining the tenseness and entertainment-value of the first, is full of typical Hollywood plot-gimmicks. The third is even worse, featuring an entirely ridiculous conclusion that puts even the most gullible of viewers’ disbelief to shame. Had the writer and director had the guts to alter the original plotline of the story, the result could’ve been a much better movie.

Still, it’s hard to deny the fact that the genuine captivation and terror that War of the World’s rise of action (and parts of its climax) provokes makes it worth seeing. The movie may fall victim to its nonchalant conclusion, but its many stirring—and even often horrifying—moments are hard to forget.