War of the Worlds 2005

It’s quite satisfying to observe Cruise’s character living in a chaotic row house, with an engine resting in the dining room and more auto parts than edible food stored in the kitchen. We all know guys like this, but none of them have blown off Nicole Kidman.

It’s Spielberg’s karmic realignment, an alternate reality universe where Cruise gets what he deserves as well as an epic chance to redeem himself.

Bonnie’s Rating: A+

Also Receives: Teenager Grunt of Approval

One of my neighbors told me he couldn’t sleep for weeks after seeing the original War of the Worlds back in 1953. Whenever something moved outside his bedroom window, his little 13-year-old self trembled uncontrollably because he just knew it was an alien looking for him.

Spielberg’s movie has very good tremble factor, considering no creatures burst out of human abdominal cavities or take a chainsaw to teenage campers. In fact, whatever makes Spielberg tick needs to be studied to learn how he achieves a sense of mayhem and extreme gore without actually spilling guts over a kitchen table.

Tom Cruise does a good turn as Ray Ferrier, the desperate dad who redeems his lackluster parenting past by doing whatever it takes to keep his kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) alive. Perhaps this role works so well for him because in real life we see him as a bit of a couch-jumping screw-up, unable to keep a steady relationship or refrain from jabbing his anti-psychiatry foot into his Prozac-hating mouth.

Frankly, it’s quite satisfying to observe Cruise’s character living in a chaotic row house, with an engine resting in the dining room and more auto parts than edible food stored in the kitchen. We all know guys like this, but none of them have blown off Nicole Kidman. This is Spielberg’s karmic realignment, an alternate reality universe where Cruise gets what he deserves as well as an epic chance to redeem himself.

I Liked:

• The railroad crossing scene. False hopes created, destroyed and replaced by grim resignation in just a few seconds of footage. Nicely done.
• The fluttering clothes. Clever parallel to the fluttering office papers of 9/11 that isn’t as blatant as the white dust.
• The foghorn alien sound.
• The way the special effects enhance the story rather than got in the way.

I Didn’t Like:

• That whole farmhouse scene. It slowed everything down.
• The abrupt ending.

I Don’t Get:

• The hype about Dakota Fanning. She’s expressive and cute and a good screamer, which qualifies her to be the next generation’s Jamie Lee Curtis, but it doesn’t mean she steals the movie.
• An airplane crash with no bodies?
• Aliens incinerating most humans but keeping some for a purpose we won’t spoiler here… were they just thinning the population? It doesn’t make sense and neither does…
• The alien sight-seeing scene. They blasted through everything else, why’d they keep that one place for a tour?
• And while I can believe in alien invaders, I just can’t believe the outcome in Cruise and Tim Robbin’s last scene together. I mean, think about it: who would you put your money on?

My Recommendation

It’s worth the price of a ticket but if you must wait for DVD, it’ll be a fun ride on a small screen, too. It gets the Teenager Grunt of Approval, too.