2008 Woodie Awards
More like 'Bore' of the Worlds
Phil DeSantis
Issue date: 12/16/05 Section: Tempo
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Put together one of the great directors of our time and an acclaimed actor in a proven sci-fi winner, get ready to hand out the Oscar, right? Not quite, if the blanks are filled in with Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, and H.G. Welles' War of the Worlds. The difference between the original vision of Welles and the Spielberg family drama take War of the Worlds from an exciting ride to a disappointing waste of time.
The movie starts with Cruise playing dockworker Ray Ferrier, deadbeat Dad that can't or doesn't want to make time for his kids. Spielberg quickly makes it clear that this will be unlike most sci-fi, end of the world films. The camera follows Cruise the entire film, never cutting to something he doesn't see or know. The very subjective camera angles leave the viewers feeling afraid along with Ferrier, but also frustrated to be as ignorant as he is to the situation. Lightning brings huge alien war machines to life and destroys almost everything with an engine in it. Ferrier and his two children are able to somehow find a working car and escape a city quickly being destroyed by "something." The viewer knows it is aliens, but suggestions of terrorism surface.
The rest of the film is a vulgar display of alien power as the tripod machines continue to fire microwave rays that vaporize anyone that touches them. This obviously rocks; a human being turned into a cloud of soot with a zap is sci-fi at its best. Things get even better as people are ground up to fertilize the aliens' newly conquered planet. Ferrier finds himself locked up with an insane and excellently cast Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins); Ogilvy is trying to fight a guerilla war against the aliens with nothing but a shovel and his broken sanity. The films most powerful scene shows up here as Ferrier is forced to be a man for once and take care of his daughter. Unfortunately for Ogilvy, that means killing him.
The feeling I get from War of the Worlds is the problem, the film might have been good, but in the pit of my stomach everything is wrong with it. First and foremost, the biggest issue I have with storyline is the parental conflict Spielberg focuses on. Ferrier's 16-year-old son (Justin Chatwin) seems totally focused on fighting with his father, regardless of the end of the world. This constant bickering stole the plot away from aliens harvesting the world for people, making an invasion the subplot. The real plot of the film was learning to deal with responsibility and raising children in the 21st century, not the idea behind Welles' War of the Worlds.
The movie starts with Cruise playing dockworker Ray Ferrier, deadbeat Dad that can't or doesn't want to make time for his kids. Spielberg quickly makes it clear that this will be unlike most sci-fi, end of the world films. The camera follows Cruise the entire film, never cutting to something he doesn't see or know. The very subjective camera angles leave the viewers feeling afraid along with Ferrier, but also frustrated to be as ignorant as he is to the situation. Lightning brings huge alien war machines to life and destroys almost everything with an engine in it. Ferrier and his two children are able to somehow find a working car and escape a city quickly being destroyed by "something." The viewer knows it is aliens, but suggestions of terrorism surface.
The rest of the film is a vulgar display of alien power as the tripod machines continue to fire microwave rays that vaporize anyone that touches them. This obviously rocks; a human being turned into a cloud of soot with a zap is sci-fi at its best. Things get even better as people are ground up to fertilize the aliens' newly conquered planet. Ferrier finds himself locked up with an insane and excellently cast Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins); Ogilvy is trying to fight a guerilla war against the aliens with nothing but a shovel and his broken sanity. The films most powerful scene shows up here as Ferrier is forced to be a man for once and take care of his daughter. Unfortunately for Ogilvy, that means killing him.
The feeling I get from War of the Worlds is the problem, the film might have been good, but in the pit of my stomach everything is wrong with it. First and foremost, the biggest issue I have with storyline is the parental conflict Spielberg focuses on. Ferrier's 16-year-old son (Justin Chatwin) seems totally focused on fighting with his father, regardless of the end of the world. This constant bickering stole the plot away from aliens harvesting the world for people, making an invasion the subplot. The real plot of the film was learning to deal with responsibility and raising children in the 21st century, not the idea behind Welles' War of the Worlds.
