"this is not a war--This is an extermination!"
Then why don't they call it "extermination of the worlds?" (wait for laughter)
Based loosly on the cult classic novel and raido show by H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds is about an alien invasion upon earth that leads to the story of an indivitual trying to survive and find a way to end the enemy's destruction.
But of course when you base a movie off of a one hundred year old book, there are bound to have to be some changes.
Let's cover a little history for all you who haven't read the books (cough nerd cough); The narrator, an english writer, recalls about how he obsirved several explosions coming from the surface of mars. Years later, after metorites hit the earth, strange alieans start appearing out of the ground and vaporize everyone with thier heat-ray guns. Being also a smart scientist, he is able to predict how the oppressers will be destroyed. Herego, the rest of the book explains his struggle to survive, and get back to his wife and brother.
Well, let's start out with the basics; The movie adaptation takes place in New York, and not only is the main character not an intellectual writer, he knows nothing about anything, and is just as shocked as anyone to see these monsters appear on the scene. Not different enough? Well how about throwing in two kids in there, to whom the main character is a bad father to, but tries to redeem himself by protecting?
Tom Cruse plays Tom Ferrier, the writer-turned-construction worker who one day takes a rare weekend with custody of his two kids, his teenage son (Justin Chatwin) and 10 year old daughter (Dakota Fanning). After proving that he is a horrable influence to them, he finds that a huge lightning storm has transformed his home in New York to a science fair. He goes to inspect, when a huge alien tripod jumps out of the ground and starts vaoprizing everyone in sight. Now he has to find a way to take both the kids back to the rest of his family in boston, where they can then recoup and thing of a next-step.
Tom Cruse's performance is well played, as always, but the real surprise in this movie is the young Dakota Fanning, who rivals most adult actors out there in the world today
The amount of imagination in this story is absloutley unbelieveable. Of course, what else can you expect out of spielberg and the crew at ILM? The alien tripods look scarry, ominus, beautiful, and at the same time, quite true to the book. Instead of having the pods come down from the sky in the form of asteroids, they are cloaked withen an enormous lightning storm, making a beautiful composition that leavs you stunned visually.
But the most fun part of this movie MUST be the amount of edge-of-your-seat suspence. Remember that sequence in Jurassic Park where Tim and Lex are stuck inside a kitchen with raptors ready to eat them? Same scene here, but this time there's a character who wants to make a susicidal "last stand", that adds another element of danger to the whole thing. And the best part is, although it changes the characters around, it plays with the same scene from the book with additional dangers.
The music is awsome, credit of John Williams, but being a darker movie than what is usually done by him, gives him a bit of a challance to sound dark, moody and suspensefull, but all the while being enjoyable.
Well, fellow cult-classic-cultists, this is deffinally worth seeing once--or twice-- in thearters. And absloutley a special edition DVD-worthy purchace, when the time comes. Even aside from the book and raido intrests, it's an interesting survival/war movie, that will more than deffinally put you at the edge of your seat. All in all, i give it an 8.