War of the Worlds movie review

Here's what you need to know; no one involved is happy that Ray has to look after his kids while his ex wife is in Boston, but bigger problems arise when the area is hit by a freak lightning storm, and something massive rises up out of the ground and starts killing people. As entire continents go dark and more machines appear across America, Ray struggles to keep his broken family alive in the midst of the extermination of his species.
I was, and am, a fan of a few of the adaptations of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, loving the 1953 film, and the Jeff Wayne musical. But one adaptation I didn't hold in as high a regard was the 2005 film; a film I admittedly haven't seen in years, while I've been soaking up the musical and original film at a certainly unhealthy rate. Recently I snagged a fresh batch of cheap Blu rays, and the 2005 War of the Worlds was in there, so I watched it, and, to be honest, I was surprised, let's go.

Like the 1953 film, this film opens with a narration to set the scene, only this narration is better, because Morgan Freeman is the narrator, and adding Morgan Freeman's voice to anything makes it better, fact. We then get an introduction to Ray, the estranged dad out to save his kids from the aliens, and thankfully I found myself liking his character a lot more as the film went on, his every man type and family issues don't make him a very unique character, but his desire to protect his kids and the lengths he goes to for that make him more complicated than that, and it makes for a surprisingly interesting character. The same can be said about his daughter Rachel, when she's not screaming that is, she's a surprisingly smart kid, and it's fascinating to see this invasion through the eyes of a child as well as an adult, even if her screaming is annoying. Robbie on the other hand is a character I personally think the film could have done without, as his contribution to the plot was pretty much being aggressive to Ray, and his character's not even around for the entire film, just kind of vanishing in the second half, which makes his inclusion confusing. The film is relatively devoid of major player besides Ray and his kids, Ogilvy, whose name is a lovely homage to the book, seems to be a bizarre blending of several characters and elements from previous versions, his introduction is very abrupt, and with a crucial change this film made to the Martians, the scenes he is in lack a lot of the original context, what I do like however is his descent into madness and eventual demise is more morbid than any previous version, and the addition of a kid makes it even more unpleasant. Something I love about The War of the Worlds is 'the rout of civilisation', I loved it in the 1953 film, and I liked it in the musical, and this film goes for it too, and it is easily head and shoulders above previous adaptations; the film has some genuinely unsettling scenes as refugees go at each other. There's a great scene with a van that is very effective in showing how morbid things would get in this situation, it's excellently done, and it makes this the darkest adaptation of The War of the Worlds by far, obviously more things are possible now than in the 1950s, but it's more than that, it's visceral and personal, and it is actually quite scary. Speaking of scary, this film goes with its Fighting Machines being Tripods again, and wow are the Tripods scary in this film; their introduction when one rises from the ground and starting heat raying people is one of the best scenes in the film, and the Tripods themselves are huge, towering machines, and they are a genuinely menacing presence, for some reason the film loves to show them rising up over hills, and it's brilliant, again, more is now possible, and the Tripods have been turned into something that can actually be feared. And to make it worse, elements from the book like the Red weed and the blood have been brought in, and that shit's nasty. Sadly though, just like the 1953 film, this film's ending is very abrupt, the conclusion is again very much more an issue with the material than the film, but it just comes out of nowhere, even if it's more elegantly explained by Morgan Freeman's narration.

From a visual standpoint this film is as close to flawless as a film its age can be; watching it on Blu ray, the CG holds up really well, especially on the Tripods, and the Tripods are very nicely designed and animated, looking monstrous and alien, but still mechanical, it is weird though that Steven Spielberg, the guy who directed Jurassic Park, didn't opt for practical effects in the basement scene, which is very reminiscent of the Kitchen scene from Jurassic Park, only with Martians and a robotic eye instead of raptors. On the subject of that scene, it too is a great scene, as the humans sneak around and try to hide, while first a tentacle camera thing is looking for them, and then a group of Martians, who are the most obvious CG in the film, while two of the characters are clashing, while also trying not to be found by the Martians, it's a very intense scene. The film also sounds great; the Tripods make an excellent sound, again, monstrous and alien, being more comparable to a roar than any mechanical noise, and the film's soundtrack is cracking, composed by John Williams, of course. The film also has some really awesome scenes; the Tripod reveal is excellent, the Ferry scene is excellent, there's a plane crash scene that's done in a very interesting way, and is great, and there's a horrible scene involving a van, which is excellent. All of those examples are in the first half of the film however, and at a point the film loses it's fast pace, and starts doing a really bad job relaying time. Ogilvy's descent into madness is morbid, but it feels rushed, like either he was already a lunatic, or they've been in the basement a while, long enough for the red weed to take over the landscape, that or it grows really fast, the film is never clear on how much time passes in the second half, and as a result it starts to drag. The second half still has some highlights, mainly the basement scene, but the film loses a lot of its enjoyability in the second half, and where the rout of civilisation made the film dark and tense in a good way, that's gone in the second half, replaced by wonky pacing and a guy who wants to dig tunnels. And while the ending does have more of a build up than it did in 1953, setting up a tiny bit of mystery at the end, it's still very abrupt, and a final scene which re introduces a character makes very little sense, not only that they're alive, but that the Martians and the red weed somehow overlooked an area of a major city, it's just really silly.

All in all War of the Worlds is a film I was at least partially wrong about, the film has some excellent things in it, and even does some things better than the original 1953 film. War of the Worlds is also great to look at and listen to, if very morbid at times. It's a shame then that in other areas the film completely drops the ball, and loses a lot of what made it great in the second half, and makes a few decisions that detract from the overall enjoyability of the film. Regardless of the flaws, War of the Worlds is still a film I had a good amount of fun with, and I would recommend it, it's worth watching.