Movie Review: War of the Worlds
July 3, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton
Yet another remake… I vaguely remember reading War of the
Worlds a number of years ago. I do recall it actually being a fairly good read.
I wonder if Spielberg read it, or if he just took some major (loose) plot
points…
Anti-psychiatry guru Tom Cruise stars as a father who
doesn’t know how to father, Ray Ferrier. His daughter, Rachel- played by Dakota
Fanning, is the real star. Ray also has a son, Robbie, played by Justin Catwin,
but I began to hope he would be incinerated- even though he was wearing a Red
Sox hat (he was that bad).
War of the Worlds has some good action sequences, great
special effects- especially the flower at the end, but it really has no
significant plot. Obviously there’s a problem, the world is being attacked by
aliens, and the problem’s resolved, but there are so many holes in the plot
it’s like watching Matt Lauer interview Cruise about psychiatry. In fact, I
could have sworn I saw Ray lecturing his son about the history of psychiatry at
some point. If you take psychiatric medication, you may end up like the loony
character played by Tim Robbins, who was also only decent. The ending was
predictably cheesy and irreconcilable with the plot.
Cruise was okay. Justin Catwin insulted me by wearing
the Sox hat; he was horrible. Dakota Fanning was spectacular. It’s too bad her
and Morgan Freeman (narrator) had to be tied to this flick. The great effects
and Fanning’s acting can’t redeem this rather mediocre film. Perhaps George
Lucas rubbed off on Spielberg and he lost his senses. It was not worth the $10
and I don’t think it’ll be worth a few bucks to rent either. Maybe it’s worth
borrowing if you have a friend who’s duped into buying it. While it’s probably
too frightening for children, nothing in it frightened me. There’s also some
language. Go see Revenge of the Sith or Batman Begins again instead of this
one.
Related posts:
- Movie Review: Elizabethtown
- Movie Review: Batman Begins
- Movie Review: Star Wars- Revenge of the Sith (NO Spoilers)
- Movie Review: Fever Pitch
- Movie Review: Constantine
- Movie Review: He Was a Quiet Man
Posted in Main Page, Movie Reviews, Roger's Posts
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July 3rd, 2005 at 7:20 am
Ah, but Tim really liked it. Showdown! Fight! Who's right?
August 7th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
I do not understand how you can say Justin Chatwin did poorly in this movie. He was one of the strogest actors in the movie, and I would gladly go see him in another movie.
August 21st, 2005 at 12:28 pm
It did have great special effects and thx helped it grab you – but the acting was not very good and the plot was sketchy. For example: an EMP would have rendered all electrical circuitry in the area useless. Therefore a new solenoid wouldn't have helped the car – the new one (along with spark plug wires, coil, battery everything electrical would be useless). The easy solution would have been to have a deisel that was still running which he could have swiped. Deisels don't rely on electrical sparks to run! But the IDIOTS who wrote this put no science into the fiction.
I saw this in Myrtle Beach and noticed one major difference between this and the first film.
The church, which played a pivotal role inthe original, was not even in the remake. The first film ended with the narrator telling us how God in his infinite wisdom had decided to make germs. This was missing from the schpeelberg deal –
AND that was the whole point of the movie – the design that God had put into the Earth!