War of the Worlds (2005)

Most of what I read or heard about this Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg collaboration was negative so I avoided it until the other afternoon. Bad on me since War of the Worlds is not bad at all. Cruise does his generic grimace-filled acting (compare his running here and in Mission Impossible III, for example) but Spielberg, well he just knows how to make movies.

The story is updated to our times and technology, as well as our moviemaking style, with Cruise’s character Ray providing the focal point. Ray is decidedly lower (middle?) class, driving one of those huge container movers at a New Jersey port, divorced and not really grown up despite having two kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) with the much classier, remarried Mirando Otto (who you may remember as Eowyn from Lord of the Rings). Cruise does not do working class very well but Spielberg minimizes this factor by keeping him in motion for most of the film.

As in the versions by both Wells (HG and Orson), the invaders are far enough ahead of human technology that even the best the American military can throw against them is useless. We seem doomed as the massive numbers of the aliens combined with their merciless deathdealing leave little hope for survival. Even as Cruise, Fanning and Tim Robbins hide in a basement shelter (during which Spielberg gives us the only look at the aliens rather than their vehicles) the aliens begin to search doggedly for individuals and capture Fanning and then Cruise.

If you want a clue to the ending, watch the opening carefully. I missed the first two or three minutes and then caught them yesterday and the resolution made a lot more sense, as did hearing Morgan Freeman’s (who else) narration.

What I really liked about WotWs was the pace. Right from Cruise jumping in his car after a shift at the port and racing wildly home events just keep moving. There’s little time to wonder about the invaders, not that anyone knows anything, and stopping simply invites attention from a tripod’s death ray.

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