Despite super effects, a huge budget, and the cinematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies (Jaws, Jurassic Park). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." --Doug Thomas

War of the Worlds at Amazon.com

The Soundtrack	The War of the Worlds (1953)	War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season (TV series)
Classic Sci-Fi Movies and Their Remakes	Aliens Invade on DVD	The Prog-rock Opera (no kidding)

Interesting but not the film it could have been

I had very high expectations for this film. War Of the Worlds is one of my favourite novels and I was looking forward to what a director of Stephen Spielberg's calibre, a professed lover of the book would do with this his film version.
Sadly I was disappointed, film makers have yet to achieve a definitive film of this book and while Spileberg's film has its plusses, the negatives bring it down to an ok at best.

On the plus side, Spielberg's depiction of the tripods is superb, they could almost have stepped out of the book itself. The way they look, the way that they move and the sounds that they emit are as near to Well's vision as you could possibly want.
Unfortunately Spielberg falls into the same trap as George Pal in his earlier version and makes the tripods invulnerable to the weaponry of mankind. This is not the case in the book where despite the technology gulf, the tripods could still be destroyed by cannon and shell fire. By following the same route as George Pal, Spielberg misses what the book does so well and that is to give the reader/viewer some (false) hope that humanity will be able to overcome the invaders. This would have been a superb false dawn for any film maker to have been able to have put across to an audience, using todays SFX. Could you imagine an audience watching on the big screen, the heroic but ultimately doomed stand by the battleship Thunderchild against a group of tripods? Like readers of the book, the audience would have been taken to the highs of the battle when the ship destroys several tripods, all the time being cheered on by crowds of people on the banks and on other ships fleeing the scene. Then to the lows when the ship gets blasted by the heat rays of the other tripods. This is an opportunity sadly missed by all film versions of the book to date.

To Spielberg's credit, another of Well's visions that is well realised in the film is the ghastly red weed of the invaders and its awful source....
The scene in the cellar where Tom Cruise, his daughter and Tim Robbin's survivalist have the encounter with the telescopic eye is great but is more of a nod to George Pal's earlier version than the book itself.
Spielberg is a master of crowd scenes and he puts this talent to good use in War Of the Worlds, as thousands of refugees flee the invaders in chaotic and spectacular style.

Tom Cruise is forgettable as the hero. However, Dakota Fanning gives a very strong performance as his daughter, and is clearly a young actress with a very big future ahead of her.
The film's fatal flaw though is the ending which is rushed and weak. It is almost as though Spielberg could not wait to conclude the film any which way he can.... And it shows. When I saw the film in the cinema, many of the audience did not understand the ending, and it was a discussion point on exiting the cinema. Obviously they had not read the book but as a film maker Spielberg dropped a real clangar there. I hope that any future Director's Cut of this film in the future will see a re-shot and more complete ending. It badly needs it.

On a technical note, the DTS soundtrack of the dvd is VERY LOUD indeed, and I had to lower the volume of my home cinema system to well below its normal settings so as to avoid damage to my ears. Superb sound nonetheless though, and definitely a dvd to use to test out just how good your speakers actually are.

To conclude, will a film maker somewhere make a film version of War Of The Worlds that is faithful to the book, please. The technology exists, this most recent version proves that! Just apply it to a faithful recreation of the book and the film maker doing this will have a mega hit, both commercially and critically on his hands. Only the will is needed.

War of the specail effects

This movie had my expectations raised, after all it was a blockbuster with big stars and Spielberg. The special effects were great, but for plot I preferred the George Pal version. True, this is closer to the novel in content, with a hundred year update. I did not really care what was happening to the characters. It was OK but not what I expected.

Simply Dreadful - Poor Acting, Poor Direction... Thank Goodness for the Visual Effects Team

I was told the acting was terrible. What I didn't realize is that the story line was equally awful. The direction, the flow, all dreadful. My friend and I turned to each other about 40 minutes into the movie, and we assured each other it really was a terrible film.

Of course the visual effects were grand - ANY studio with a HUGE budget can create amazing effects, no big deal in 2005.

And the story just kept getting worse. I never once felt any emotion for the people involved, not once. And Tom Cruise, well simply dreadful - and believe me, he has made some great films. This was one of his worst - makes "Risky Business" look like Oscar material.

The ending was Hollywood Horrible at it's finest. DO NOT waste a dime to see this movie. I wouldn't even recommend renting it.

I would have rather paid premium price and watched one of Steven Spielbergs classics again: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", or even "E.T.".

Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, Speilberg and Cruise - you should all be ashamed at this pathetic excuse of a movie for a classic by HG Wells.