A lot of people are expecting two things from “War of the Worlds,” out today: 1. For Tom Cruise to jump up and down on a defeated spacecraft pronouncing his love for Katie Holmes, and 2. For someone to give a rousing speech at the end declaring, “Today, we celebrate our Independence Day.”
But despite its leading man’s recent PR foibles and its striking similarities to the aforementioned “Independence Day,” the film is strong enough to stand on its own, granted it may need a banister to lean on now and then.
Adapted from H.G. Well’s sci-fi thriller of the same name, “War of the Worlds” follows anyman Ray Ferrier (Cruise) as he and his two children Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin) desperately flee from an outer space army determined to exterminate the human race.
“Worlds” keeps you on the edge of your seat, or, more accurately, curled in a ball toward the back of your seat, because for a good solid hour, the movie is actually very scary. Like most summer blockbusters, though, it could benefit from a little less character development and a little more blowing things up.
The weakest points in the film take place in the beginning where we see Cruise complaining to his superviser about union issues at his blue-collar job only to go home to his rundown dwelling in northern New Jersey. We’ve seen Tom Cruise portray a lot of things in recent memory: a hitman (“Collateral”), a secret agent (“Mission Impossible”), a lieutenant (“A Few Good Men”), but somehow he’s incredibly unconvincing playing Johnny Construction-worker. I’m sorry, but no one in northern New Jersey has abs like that.
Luckily, it doesn’t take long for the action to pick up and once Cruise steps into his more comfortable action-hero role, you almost forget about his interview with Matt Lauer and that water gun incident in London.
When we are introduced to our alien invaders, it’s impressive. Director Steven Spielberg forms a lethal combination of mind-blowing special effects and camera work that stays right in the thick of the action. There are some very gruesome scenes, but as we encounter leveled city after leveled city, there are some almost beautiful land-scapes as well.
The aliens themselves are quite terrifying; not so much in appearance as they are in methodology. In “Independence Day,” the aliens targeted a few major landmarks and seemed to hope the ensuing fires and
infrastructure collapses would finish the job. The creatures in “Worlds” are far more meticulous; going to great pains to ensure there are no survivors. They are ruthless, yet you can’t help but admire their thoroughness.
Still, in between dodging vaporizing lasers, falling 747s and life-seeking probes, the film gets bogged down in Ferrier’s family problems. It seems since divorcing the children’s mother, Ray hasn’t been much of a father, thus creating the rebellious teenage son and the skeptical daughter.
While Fanning takes time out from doing a really good job at looking terrified (she recently picked up an MTV Movie Award for Best Frightened Performance in “Hide and Seek”) to add depth and idiosyncracies to her character, Chatwin’s Robbie comes off as bratty and completely inappropriate. (The world is being attacked by aliens, this is no time to be angsty!) He could have benefitted from some mood stabilizers, but surely no son of a character played by Cruise would stand for that.
Beyond the obvious conflict between humans and aliens, the most chilling scenes actually feature humans turning against themselves.
In a scene that mirrors the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” a crowd of desperate and frightened people attack Ferrier’s van (one of, if not the only, working vehicles left) and then turn on each other in hopes of escape. The camera work here is crafty, taking us from the inside to the outside of the car and then back again; jumping between the two panicked scenes.
Later, as we are briefly introduced to Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), we see once again the extent to which the surviving humans are being driven mad. It’s not long before Cruise and company are running from the neighborhood as well as the aliens.
Without giving too much away, some people may be disappointed with the ending (don’t bother guessing, you probably won’t get it. No seriously, don’t bother), but it’s important to note that Morgan Freeman does what he does best here and narrates the beginning and end of the film. Really, anything Freeman says via voiceover is automatically gospel. That man could narrate anything and it would be a box office smash.
Don’t let the recent couch-jumping, Scientology-spouting antics of Cruise stop you from taking in “War of the Worlds.” Spielberg delivers an above-average summer film, complete with heart-stopping tension and big-budget explosions. Be warned though, you may never view E.T. the same way.
