I was informed that, had I properly prepared for seeing “War of the Worlds” this afternoon by having watched the original movie — preferrable, presumably, to having read the book — I would have been less surprised that the so-called “war” wasn’t really a war at all. Still, my review of my late Saturday afternoon at the movies goes something like this:
1) Going to see any two-hour long movie when you’re sleep deprived and have just eaten Cold Stone isn’t necessarily a good way to begin.
2) Nevertheless, going to see any movie with someone who’s extremely excited to see it, and has been talking about how excited he or she is to see it for more than a week, when you have a lower (but not nonexistant) level of excitement about seeing said movie — not necessarily a great combination, either.
3) The aliens weren’t very creative.
4) I don’t like Tom Cruise.
5) Dakota Fanning wasn’t given enough of a chance to show off her acting skills.
6) The characters were extremely shallow in terms of character development.
7) The special effects weren’t what I’d call ‘special.’
8) Too much time was spent focusing on three people — the family unit with Tom Cruise as a pretty inept father — who, by all accounts, should not have all survived.
9) {Plot spoiler} They all MIRACULOUSLY survived, as did the kids’ mom and grandparents.
10) The aliens mysteriously began dying off because, Morgan Freeman’s voiceover told us at the end of the movie, they weren’t prepared to cope with the little bacteria in our environment.
With all that having been said, I would NOT say this was a movie without potential. Had there been any meaningful dialog (besides your endless variety of “AHHHHHH!!!” while running and screaming) between any characters besides Tom Cruise & kids, I would have been MOST appreciative. They could have made the Tim Robbins character *so* much better. (TR acting? Good. TR character? Crap.) I would have also liked to see more plot, beyond just “Holy shit, there are aliens and I must run! AHHHHHH!!!” I mean, I *get* that the aliens screwed up a lot of stuff and made it hard to develop close relationships between characters — too many people were dying, except (of course) Tom Cruise & kids. Still, it was two hours of people running, and then, POOF! The aliens are dead and life can go on. In the words of Jon Stewart, “Whaaaaaa?”
I guess maybe I’m not the Steven Spielberg fan I thought I was. “ET” rocked and remains one of the seminal movies of my childhood. But seriously, this incarnation of “War of the Worlds” could have been SOOOO good, and instead, I’d say it was just another in a long tradition of light-on-substance summer blockbusters engineered to make money, rather than make you think. Like, bummer, dude.