Film Review : War of the Worlds

WoW in my opinion was : Perfect.

If you were expecting a big summer blockbuster with mindless action and heroics tho', u'd be dissapointed.

No...despite being released during the summer season..WoW is more subtle than that.

To put it into context : It's the human side of Independence Day (ID4), or a continuation M Night Shyamalan's Signs if the aliens decided to invade Earth instead of retreating after one isolated incident (don't even get me started on THAT crap ending!).

Spielberg managed to portray an alien invasion from a humanistic point of view instead of showing big action heroics ala the aforementioned ID4. Yes, we DO get the money shots of huge tentacled alien warships wreaking havoc upon cities, buildings and people...but Spielberg humanizes the impact by letting us experience it from the point of view of Tom Cruise's family members.

Their journey is OUR journey as well.

Their FEARS are transplanted onto us as well.

Their losses HURTS us as well.

The book was basically about human-nature. And the movie portrayed this perfectly.

The beats started from people being naturally curious even in the face of danger.
Cue multiple scenes of groups of people staring in the sky at the electrical storms or gaping wide eyed at a 40-foot alien war machine structure moments before the death rays started. Comment: Humans are stupid!

Followed by how LOW humans would go in the face of common tragedy.
Cue the car jacking scene where hundreds of people rioted and even resorted to killing each other JUST for the chance of driving the only working vehicle around.

To how desperate people would do ANYTHING to save themselves.
Cue the rush to get onboard the ferry scene and how cold and callous the captain was when he decided to sail off eventho' there was space on the boat for another hundred people.

There's alot more examples of studies on human nature in this movie from Tom Cruise having to kill Tim Robbins to ensure their continued safety from being found out by the aliens (desperate times calls for desperate actions); to his son wanting to go into battle with the misguided belief that might makes right; to his daughter's neurotic screaming and hysterics in the face of trouble.

Different people react to tragedy differently...and that's what makes WoW so brilliant.

Like I told you...the movie is very, very subtle. It's SO dense with all this character studies yet you don't feel bogged down with it because Spielberg unravels it within the action instead of making it the main reason for the action.

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My only gripe which took me out of the movie for a second was the moment the Army G.I. suddenly jumped up to save Tom Cruise from being sucked up into the War Machine to be chopped up into human fertilizer.

WTF ??
WHY save Tom Cruise when moments before, no one made a move to save the poor business man who was sucked up earlier ??

THAT was one weak moment when the writers used a deus ex machina to keep the plot moving.

Didn't the G.I. realize that if they saved Cruise, the ship would just suck up ANOTHER different victim from the cage..heck it might even be the G.I. that could have been sucked up if they saved Tom Cruise?!

This section of the movie reeks of the writers writing themselves into a corner and not being able to find any other way to further the plot except by taking the easy way out.

Beside this minor gripe tho'...the film was a superb study in human nature and even followed the book faithfully by staying true to its ending.

Most people would balk and say what a rip-off ending it was that the aliens died to something as simple as germs. But think for awhile and realise the message that H.G. Wells meant to imply in his book; or why Spielberg stayed true to it.

The message at the end is:
Despite humans being flawed, cheating, lying scumbags that ONLY care about the safety and well being of themselves in the face of tragedy and danger, we CAN rise above that.

And in a way we have; for over a million generations, we evolved from the days when the common bacteria like flu or stomach ache would kill us.

In a way, EVOLUTION is the answer to us rising above our current state of mind and imperfections.

It is the ONLY reason humans are the rightful inheritors of this Earth and not the alien invaders.

And with that thought in mind, remember that how the world ends up (politically, economically and environmentally) is in all our collective hands.

Don't forsake the Earth for future generations in our rush to make our own lives in the present, better!

;-p