Movie Review: War of the Worlds (2005)
I really enjoyed this movie when it first came out, but I’ve reflected on it for years now, and it’s…decent. It’s definitely not Spielberg at his best, as I saw proclaimed on a DVD cover, but it’s pretty entertaining, and definitely has its moments.
The visual effects have dated a bit, but I still like them a lot.
The scene where the bridge goes behind the driving Tom Cruise and his kids looks fantastic. This was really the first post-9/11 Spielberg movie — a movie in which this catastrophic disaster was more reminiscent of terrorism than it was of something like what happens in Independence Day. That might date the movie a bit, or maybe it doesn’t affect you in any way, but I enjoy it.
The natural comparison of course is to look at this alongside the 1953 classic. I’m going to do my best to avoid that. They’re different movies, trying to accomplish different things, and they tell their stories in very different ways. The emotional heart of this movie surrounds Tom Cruise and his two estranged kids, played by Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin.
There’s some schmaltz of course (it is Spielberg), but it’s not too bad. It largely works, except for at the very end.
Before I get into my final point, I’m going to give my overall impression of the film. It’s good, but not great. It’s action packed and exciting, but not too deep, and not as well executed as Spielberg’s better movies.
My last point is something on how Spielberg has changed over the years. Prior to when Ready Player One came out, I remember reflecting upon when the last time Spielberg had a truly huge blockbuster. That used to be what he was known for. Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., the Indiana Jones movies, and Jurassic Park were all unbelievably huge. Before Ready Player One, this might be his last huge movie. And it wasn’t huge the way Jurassic Park was, of course.
Another way in which Spielberg has changed is very evident here: he’s stopped taking risks. This is a safe movie. So safe in fact that when even though it’s heavily implied that Tom Cruise’s son dies, he shows up at the end, uninjured.
Imagine that with old Spielberg. Sure, he always had some family-friendly sensibilities, but hell, people pointed guns at kids in E.T. prior to the re-release. Temple of Doom has a bunch of child slavery and people getting their hearts ripped out. A little kid gets eaten alive by a shark in Jaws. Raiders of the Lost Ark has a cute little monkey dying from eating a poison date. In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Shia LaBeouf swings from the trees like Tarzan with a bunch of monkeys.
I’m certainly not implying that War of the Worlds started this trend for Spielberg. It just seems like he’s been a different filmmaker since the early ’90s (I now think of the kid that’s attacked by compies in The Lost World, only to have Hammond later say that she’s alive). I bring this up because I think it may have something to do with why recent Spielberg hasn’t been too remarkable. The Post was as safe a drama as you can make. Bridge of Spies was sort of the same way. Catch Me if You Can is a very fun movie, but it’s also very shallow. The last movie I can think of Spielberg doing that truly told a bold story with challenging issues was Munich. It’s disappointing, and I think the lack of risk taking does hurt this movie a bit.
Rating: 6/10
