War of the Worlds

I love the disaster parts of disaster movies. The Poseidon Adventure. Titanic. Independence Day. The Day After Tomorrow. The Towering Inferno. I love those moments when large groups of people are dying @ the hands of some uncontrollable, unthinkable force. Not because I get a joy from seeing death on such massive levels....well I guess so. I know if it is effective, cuz I get a bit of a chin quiver. A sinking feeling in my gut. Why do most people like to see things and people blown up, killed in mass quantities? 9/11 was real, and even that, I could not tear my eyes away from the death and destruction. I don't quite get it, but then again, my college major was theatre, not psychology. I will leave it to a kind of sickness that everyone carries, and that will be the end of the discussion. The trailers for War of the Worlds turned me on, cuz obviously we were in for some nasty destruction on all things familiar. I did not have high hopes, nor low expectations. I went for a good time. I was a bit apprehensive, cuz I am experiencing a bit of Cruise backlash. Not necessarily cuz of what he is doing, saying, or how he is behaving. It is more of the fact that I am just plain tired of hearing about his comings and goings. Well, as with most of his performances, I go in thinking I will see Tom Cruise, and that his public persona will be foremost in my mind. I always end up enjoying him. Not because he is the best actor on earth, but because he generally blends w/ his movie surroundings. I guess that is the signature of a good actor. He takes on the personality of his character. He doesn't stand out, good or bad. He's just there to tell the story and to make you care about what is happening on the screen. Despite what everyone is saying about him these days, or in the past for that matter, he does good work. He is believable, and enjoyable. The real star of the film is Dakota Fanning. I have seen her in nothing before. Wow! The fact that many of the things she was reacting to, which of course were not there, makes her performance all the better. She was heartbreaking as they sped away from their home. Her eyes tell so many stories, portray so many levels of fear, desperation, and confusion. She is an actress destined for an Oscar. As for the movie itself, I loved the running, the chaos, the tearing apart of our daily existence. Once Cruise and Fanning reached Tim Robbins desolate underground shelter, I lost a bit of interest. The momentum seemed to come to an abrupt stop, and I actually found myself dwelling on that fact for longer than was probably wanted by the filmmakers. The scenes in the basement were good, and not too much time was spent on lovey-dovey Daddy-daughter banter. There was just enough to keep us connected. Now, I know that the scene of the probe had to have been an homage to the raptor kitchen scene in Jurassic Park. If not, then Spielberg has finally run out of ideas. While I was kind of excited to see the scene play out that way, for fun, I also had a bit of disappointment that I had seen this before. I cannot be sure, but the shot of Cruise moving to the other side of the sofa, seemed almost exactly the same as Joseph Mazello (in Jurassic Park) hiding behind the counter. As the probe/raptor came into view, they were both close the floor, sniffing. Tim Robbins role seemed pointless, and I don't see how it really did much for the story. It was a bit of drama, and gave Cruise a chance to be "bad", regardless of how much his actions were justified.
As for the score, I was glad to see Williams holding back. I did not leave the theatre thinking about the music. Generally, his score is an additional character. Here, it did not distract, and there was no "theme" that I recognized. I was ultimately pleased to hear no heart-wrenching strings or over-the-top "joy" music as the family was reunited in the end.
There were some genuinely disturbing images in the film; the bodies floating down the river, the initial vaporizations of the townspeople, and the wide-wide shot of the ferry town. There is something very creepy about the tripod creatures/ships. Is it a bug thing? Like giant spiders carrying out their feedings on those trapped in their webs? I cannot tell, but the shots of so many of them @ a time was something to behold.
The obvious 9/11 references were a nice touch, and I found myself comparing some items to the recent Land of the Dead. Morgan Freeman narrates the opening and closing, discussing complacency. Land of the Dead is also all about that. I find it most intriguing that we as a country/world can clearly see how complacent we have become, even in light of the recent terror attacks/alerts, and yet we still do nothing to change our ways. We will never learn. Do we need something like War of the Worlds to really shake things up? Was 9/11 not enough? Apparently not. I am just as guilty of moving on with my life as most others. It is plain as day how ridiculous most people's lives are. I recall reading/hearing something that movies are meant to entertain, educate and hold a mirror up to our own existence. Unfortunately, this one will go down mostly as entertainment. Just as I said for Land of the Dead, this one succeeds on a deeper level, that Joe Schmoe will never fully comprehend. Is ignorance better, or is the fact that I see my own shortcomings, and the problems of my society, country and world, illustrated so graphically around me, and yet I do nothing to change it. I guess it is better to remain a mindless zombie, going through life, believing all is well. Certainly, it is much more stress-free. Yes folks, we are primed for an alien invasion. Take a look @ this one, and ready yourself for entertainment, and the not so easily seen life lessons.
A good movie up until Tim Robbins appears. But don't blame him. He services the part well. Disaster. Mirrors (both figuratively and literally). Shirtless Tom Cruise. I would give this a B.