SNMR 1.16: "War of the Worlds"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "War of the Worlds" (2005, PG-13, 117 minutes), starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto and Tim Robbins. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Yet another in a long line of DVD's I bought when it came out but had never got around to watching until tonight. I've kept putting off this review for a number of weeks in favor of other movies I wanted to review first.

Generally speaking, I enjoy Tom Cruise's movies, even if he's a tad weird in real life. I've heard good things about this movie. Cruise and director Spielberg worked well together in Minority Report; will they do so in this film also? I hope so. I'm also hoping that they do justice to HG Wells classic book.

From the DVD's dust jacket:

An earth-shattering adventure that both "rivets and amazes" (Michael Washington, Chicago Tribune), War of the Worlds reunites superstar Tom Cruise and Academy Award-winning Director Steven Spielberg for one of the most awe-inspiring cinemactic experiences of all time!

A contemporary retelling of HG Wells' classic, the sci-fi thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family. Fleeing from an extraterrestrial army of killer Tripods that annihilateeverything in their path, Ray Ferrier (Cruise) races to keep his family safe. War of the Worlds is an action-packed adventure that explodes with spectacular special effects.

I thought the movie was decent and somewhat suspenseful, even though I knew how the aliens die in the end. The special effects were all right but not the best I've ever seen. I thought that the most compelling charachter in the movie was Rachel, played by Dakota Fanning. She just had that really good freaked out look for most of the film. I haven't read the book in a long time, so can't really say how much it differed from the screenplay in the minor details, except of course for a contemporary, modern setting. The movie moved along fairly well, though there were a few parts that dragged on too much. There are worse ways to spend two hours, though. I'll give this film three and a half out of five stars.