War Of The Worlds (2005) Dir: Steven Spielberg
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Having read and loved the H.G. Wells classic from which this adaptation takes name and inspiration, I was still hesitant to give this a watch, mainly due to its modern, American setting. Even the directing pedigree of Steven Spielberg wasn't enough to give me a whole lot of hope, if I'm honest.
As it transpired, my doubts were pretty well-founded. The film wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't good. The film has exactly zero likable characters, terrible dialogue and a whole lot of story problems. I don't know why Spielberg wanted to make his characters as irritable as possible, but he succeeded in doing that regardless.
The visuals were mediocre. There was a weird, colour-sapping filter on the whole film that I truly didn't like, and visual effects which ranged wildly in quality, though never into the notably good category.
I wasn't a fan of the changes to the story, I think it lost all the intrigue of the book, and made the whole thing feel like a boring, typical alien invasion film. The modern interpretation of it also took away from the story, in my view. Again, it just made it feel very standard and uninteresting.
Tom Cruise was so unlikeable throughout the entire film, to the point that I was rooting for the aliens. It wasn't even his fault, the writing just made him into a horrible character.
A very young Dakota Fanning gives the only genuinely decent performance of the film, but even so, the writing of her character was dismal, and made her so much less likable as a character.
Justin Chatwin was rather inconsistent in his supporting role. There was a few scenes where he showed some good depth and emotion, but also a lot where he essentially came across as a whiny child. I will also give quick mentions to Miranda Otto and Tim Robbins for their small but palatable performances.
Overall, this was such a mediocre sci-fi film that failed to encapsulate what made the original story so enjoyable or scary. I appreciate what Spielberg was trying to do with the film, but ultimately, he failed to produce anything remotely special.
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