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August 08, 2005
I will survive?
Banal, terrifying and dull, anonymous. War of the Worlds is a survival story depicting a family against pure evil. Scary, "War" lacks the kind of details and breadth of ideas that elevated later Spielberg efforts like "Minority Report" to the ranks of instant classics. Spielberg has decided to cast his version of the H.G. Wells novel as another affirmation of his peculiar brand of fractured family values. As an alien race makes a smash-and-grab attempt to eliminate humans and take over Earth, we view the action solely through the eyes of one family, a divorced dad (Tom Cruise) shucking off a lifetime of selfishness to protect and cherish his two children. The movie establishes the family dynamic in its first 10 minutes. Blue-collar dockworker Ray (Cruise) has custody of his 15-year-old son, Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and young daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning), for a couple of days while his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) goes to visit her parents with her new husband. Robbie resents Ray for years of neglect; the girl tolerates her Peter Pan father (will Cruise ever show signs of aging?). These relationships will be tested when Ray wakes up one morning and finds his neighborhood torn by a menace that has been long watching the planet with envious eyes. For the next hour or so, Spielberg has us in his grasp and keeps tightening the vice, serving up the devastation from a street-level point of view that highlights the brutal and horror of the events.
The movie draws on very specific 9-11 imagery but since it is tightly focused on its single family, there's never any attempt to broaden or do anything with this very obvious metaphor. It's effective, but facile. Spielberg affirms family unity at the expense of logic and in the face of the pitiless tone of all that has come before.
All in all, our 5-year-old tester was not at all scared which draws negative to the overall. Not recommended.
Posted by lck at August 8, 2005 11:22 PM
