War of the Worlds (2005) Review
Written by: TERRORWATCH
To define a good SI-FI movie, firstly start with a good cause of making a movie, go ahead and don't spare anydetail were possible and finally make it work. Sadly War Of The Worlds didn't really have a clue until the creditsstarted to role. Directed by the masterful Steven Spielberg who's works include, Jurassic Park, Saving PrivateRyan and Jaws. The movie did deliver the basics that a Spielberg movie would, action and excellent specialeffects but it didn't have what i was promised when viewing the trailer. The 2005 movie was a remake of the1953 classic, with more corny scenes and just a bigger budget. The movies advertisement for this movie hasbeen major, throwing at us posters, TV spots and bus banners left right and centre, this makes the movie moreof a let down than ever.
We see one name in this movie thats on the posters, cards and movie magazines and thats Tom Cruise. So ifSteven Spielberg is directing it and Tom Cruise is the lead role in it its got to be one good movie?, no. The movie at many times meant nothing and like it had no purpose to be on screen but the acting however was something to comment about. Movies like Independence day, The Day After Tomorrow always seem to have too much action and miss out some important emotion. This movie had it both, for some reason the movie gelled emotion and action very well and came out excellent on screen. The story was outlined by a dad and his children that don't live with him and its their bond we see grow through the movie as the family are put to the test in every scene. The movie had emotion and a really warm one, you could really believe that this family had problems but when danger comes everybody looks after their own and it really was nice to not see all action. Tom did a great job in being the hard trying dad, times he was extremely frustrated and at others he broke down like his young daughter. Also the nice thing to see is Tom actually being the non hero and just being a average guy that is taken by the events happing not grabbing a gun and within minuets hes a skill full sniper. The movie was real for real emotion and had a decent amount in, this was the movies strong point.
Being a Steven Spielberg picture we are always going to be satisfied with the special effects within the movieand this one wasn't a disappoint totally. The movie ran through showing, alien attacks, towns crumbling and people turning into a powder dust. The CGI was excellent and you couldn't really make it out on the high action stuff. However with all these great scenes and great action comes disappointment. The movie for me did show allot of close shots of destruction, like focusing on one house being blown over rather than a hundred houses. This caused allot of the scenes to look not that impressive and the overall feel and total destruction on screen was brought down and made to feel like the aliens were re locating a couple of houses, the on screen impact was lost. Another point i didn't like was the the people turning into dust, it almost reminded me of Blade when the vampires in the club were getting sliced and diced. It felt very unreal and if that was going to happen I'm sure we would of seen a hint of red spray. Another harsh point that the movie has was a great loss of detailed violence. I noticed that the movie was only a 12A here in the UK and it dawned on me that the producers went for the lower certificate so they could make more money other than shocking us a bit more. For me allot of the scenes were great to look at and was real eye candy but allot was lost without the bigger shots of destruction that makes a action movie really.
Scores and effects were great in the movie and very, American freedom feel and at times just your average space SI-FI tunes. The movies scenes were all nice to see and looked very well with CGI slapped all over them like a dirty tart looking for attention. The movie also reminded me allot of Independence day and The Day After Tomorrow which was horrible and i didn't really like it i thought they could of done something better and moreoriginal than make a movie like a movie that was made 2 years ago. The movie is un doubtly corny, from the scenes were the son doesn't die after being engulfed by 3 miles of flame to being dragged around across the country the family just happened to end up to the place they were going to like magic. But this is a Hollywood movie so hey its allowed to be that corny.
Overall the movie is OK for a quick fix, i doubt that many people will be amazed at what Spielberg has done tothis remake. For me the cards were dealt at the start with the movie showing the basic aliens from the first 10minuets to the last 10 minuets it just got rather boring and i was expecting to see a mother ship or somethingbetter. Long scenes made it sometimes hard to watch like the whole idea of being in a cellar with a crazy dudedidn't really make scenes and didn't really contribute anything to the movie other than a alien finds them. Alsothe movie seems to not make sense having a massive alien army killing and overcoming the us army then all ofa sudden they all die i just felt they rushed that bit of the movie and i was left to wounder why it happened. Themovie didn't seem to have any direction and no point I'm just sorry to say that the new 2005 remake was ascorny as the 1953 shamble.