Alien Reality [War of the Worlds review]

National Review on line ^ | June 29, 2005 | Frederica Mathewes-Green

[demnomo]

Just got back from seeing the movie. It was much better than I expected. Cruises' acting was much better than expected. His expression and eyes when he proudly watched his fifteen-year-old son help the people on the ferry and then the corny (but effective) "letting go" so his son could go and fight the aliens was better than expected.

I've always liked Dakota Fanning. Spielberg obviously does, too, since he has had her in a few of his productions--like "Taken." Fanning has way more charisma than Cruise. Hope she doesn't wind up like some over-the-hill kid star in desperate need of therapy (or jail time) in a few years.

The car mob scene was awesome. The flaming train was awesome. The creepy, crazy guy in the cellar was awesome. I thought for sure he was gonna try to off Cruise and do something awful to the little girl. Cruise did the right thing.

It was not what I expected. The ending was really corny. Personally, I would have not been disappointed to know the son died battling for what he believed in. (I'll bet the test audiences wanted to see him alive at the end--so the ending was changed.Oh, well.)

[zook]

Great to hear you liked it. I saw Batman Begins today, and while it was entertaining and had an interesting story, it didn't "move" me the way WotW did.

[demnomo]

I'm with you on Batman. I saw it the day it came out. My hubby and son wanted to see it--they are big Batman fans. They enjoyed it. I was not horribly taken with it. Good, entertaining, but not great.

I am fearful of the upcoming Fantastic 4. My brother and I grew up on Spidey and the Fantastic 4 comic books/cartoons. When STAR WARS came out in '77, my brother and I knew where Lucas got his inspiration for Vader--Dr. Doom! Now I read that Doom is no longer an East European dictator with the hots for Sue, but just another evil white capitalist guy with the hots for Sue. Groan. I probably will go see it out of curiosity.

[World'sGoneInsane]

I agree the ending was hokey. If the plot had been better developed it would not have been so. However, I did not read the original book and many here said Spielberg followed the original plot line. I didn't get any anti-war message from this movie. Many have commented on it being some type of liberal propaganda tool. It was not like that at all. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Spielberg should make a movie of the night Orson Wells read the War of the Worlds play on the radio. He would have more license with what was going on, rather than having to stick to a book. He could do a real life theme of how rumor and innuendo effect society, and how people's imagination can be their own worst enemy! Of course, if he really makes something land in the end, then that would be okay too.