War of the Worlds Review

Well it looks like we have a winner here. Over the years Steven Spielberg’s name has become synonymous with summer blockbusters and with good reason. He pretty much invented the genre with Jaws in 1975, which to this day stands as arguably the greatest summer movie of all time. 18 years later he released Jurassic Park which ushered in the modern era of event movies where CGI finally reached maturity and became a staple of blockbuster filmmaking. In my last review when I stated that Batman was my favorite movie from 1989 to 2002, I may have misspoken a little. In fact it was my favorite movie on and off for that period. When Jurassic Park hit it was like an atomic blast. As far as I was concerned there were no other movies worth speaking of. Jurassic Park was THE movie. Of course after a little while my interest in dinosaurs waned and superheroes became king once more. Spielberg then took a step back from event movies focusing on more personal films like Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. He made a return in recent years with AI and Minority Report with limited success. Minority Report was a good movie but lacked that Spielbergian touch, feeling more like the works of James Cameron or Ridley Scott. AI on the other hand was a complete mess. To be fair though, AI was originally planned as a collaboration between Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, a filmmaker who I consider to be one of the most overrated directors of all time. With War of the Worlds we see the triumphant return of the Steven Spielberg that has given us the most compelling films of the last 30 years.

I realize this may all seem like pretty lofty praise for a movie that looks like a rehashing of Independence Day and the numerous other invasion epics we’ve seen in recent years. After all, this is the man who brought us Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Calling a movie one of Spielberg’s better pictures is higher praise than the vast majority of films deserve, but I feel that it is entirely justified. The excitement I had coming out of that theater is not something I feel often. I had it after Kill Bill and I had it after the first Spider-man, but I can’t think of too many others in recent memory. You know that feeling. The idea that you’ve just witnessed something that you’ll be enjoying again and again for the rest of your life. The moments you can’t stop thinking about and the exhilaration of being on the ground floor of something special. It’s moments like these that are the reason I spend hours every day browsing movie sites, and the thought of having a part (how ever small) in bringing people these moments is what makes me want to work in the film industry. And as for that Independence Day comparison? Trust me, after seeing War of the Worlds, you’ll never feel the need to watch that movie again. So what makes the movie work so well? For starters this is without a doubt Spielberg’s scariest movie ever. I really don’t think anyone is anticipating the level of terror to be found in this movie. I know I didn’t. This isn’t Jaws scary where you get a few truly terrifying moments that you know are coming when you hear that familiar music. This is two hours of the absolute grimmest material you can imagine. And as scary as those aliens are, they’ve got nothing on the horror that we see come out of human nature. What about the performances you say? Well Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise. He’s a great actor, but he doesn’t really disappear into his role the way you want him to, and I think the enormous amount of press he’s been (let’s face it) bringing on himself for the past month didn’t exactly help him. When you watch the movie 10 years from now though, you won’t be thinking about any of that, so thankfully it’s just a temporary problem. As for Dakota Fanning, what can I say? To add to my hyperbole I will say that Dakota Fanning is the greatest child actor of all time. It’s a bold statement, I know, but she is just the epitome of the word “prodigy”. How many child actors can consistently steal scenes from Oscar winner after Oscar winner? I just hope she doesn’t self destruct the way so many other child actors unfortunately have in the past. Then of course there’s Morgan Freeman who lends his voice to the opening and denouement of the film, because if you’re going to have narration in a movie you might as well go with the best. He’s great as usual and just makes me wish that in the future there will be technology that can change my inner monologue to his voice. I’ve heard more than a few complaints about the end of the movie, but I felt that it worked perfectly and is really the only way the film could have ended. The entire movie follows the perspective of a civilian so I doubt that those complaining would have been happy with any ending where the invaders weren’t defeated by the star of the show. I will say that there is one element of the ending that I could have done with out. You’ll know it when you see it. It’s the cheesiest element of the film, but I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Other than that though I loved everything about the movie (as you may have guessed by now). I give it two thumbs up, four stars, and any other recommendation critics tend to write. The only question remaining is whether or not it will be topped by that other remake coming out this December. I am of course speaking of the one that previewed before WOTW in most theaters (not mine sadly). I’d be lying if I said that Mr. Jackson didn’t stand a fighting chance, but at this point he certainly has his work cut out for him.