Movie Review: War of the Worlds (4.7/5.0)

I finally got the chance to go and watch ‘War of the Worlds’. Before I go in to details of this movie review, let me try to sum it up in just one word first. Kids can you say A-W-E-S-O-M-E? From the part of the thunderstorm and up to the capsizing of the barge, I was literally at the edge of my seat.

The movie is based on H.G. Wells' Sci-Fi book ‘The War of the Worlds’ first published in 1898. H.G. Wells also wrote such famous works like ‘The Time Machine (1895)’ and ‘The Invisible Man (1897)’ etc, which later on also were brought to the big screen not only once but twice. The whole plot of the original ‘War of the Worlds’ was that Martians invade earth and try to annihilate the whole human race in order for them to make way for their own species.

In the latest movie, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a blue-collar average divorced Joe. His X-wife (Miranda Otto) leaves their two children Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) with Ray for the weekend, so she could go visit her parents. The same day there are reports of severe isolated lightning storms around the world. One such storm strikes in Ray’s town of residence unleashing a giant alien tripod from underground, exterminating every human in its path with its vaporizing ray gun. The rest of the movie is all about Ray trying to escape the alien onslaught along with his children.

The alien tripod attack sequence is the best part of the movie. The action is so intense that it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole alien attack. The sound was so good that it made it feel like the theater itself was under attack. Whenever the alien tripods approached, they made this loud eerie sound; it sent shivers down my spine every time. The tripod reminded me of the alien tripod from Half-Life 2.

I would rank this number 2 on my favorite Spielberg movie list right after ‘Jurassic Park’. I really was looking forward to watching another movie like ‘Jurassic Park’ because that was the movie made by my favorite writing (Michael Crichton) and directing (Steven Spielberg) geniuses. I thought ‘Minority Report’ was going to turn out great, but it sucked. When the trailer ‘War of the Worlds’ came out, I was so hoping that it doesn’t turn out to be another disappointment like ‘AI’ and ‘Minority Report’.

The story had some significant holes. The part about the father-son relationship between Ray and his son was poorly written. I’m used to the unrealistic and fake reaction to fear by Americans in movies. But, I didn’t get Ray’s son’s bullshit behavior at all. I mean what the hell was he saying? It seemed like laziness on the writer’s part. They didn’t pay much screen time to explain about the red veins growing all over the place either.

Overall, I would give this movie a rating of 4.7/5.0 for the sensational action sequences.

Movie Trivia: The actor who plays Mary Ann's (Miranda Otto) father (Gene Barry) also played the protagonist Dr. Clayton Forrester in the 1953 version of the War of the Worlds.