War of the Worlds (* * *)

War of the Worlds will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, well how can you go wrong. This is a good film with a lot of action and some great suspense. However the downfall of the movie is a lot of plot holes as well as some issues with leaving too much open without proper explanation. I am giving War of the Worlds 3 stars because it is a good movie, there is a lot of action, good acting, great music and some really cool effects. As always, spoilers follow.

The plot of the movie is very simple and because I don't recall much about the book (I read it a long time ago and am not really sure if I even finished it) I don't really know how true to the story the movie was. Tom Cruise, of course, plays the main character Ray Ferrier. Ray is a blue collar guy who lives in New Jersey, he is divorced from his wife Mary Ann played by Miranda Otto and has two children. It is assumed that he must have some sort of shared custody of his children Robbie and Rachel, played by Justin Chatwin and Dakota Fanning respectively, because they are sent to his house to stay for the weekend. Ray and his kids are forced to run from machines controlled by aliens set to destroy all of mankind. The focus of the story revolves around Ray and his kids as they run and fight for their lives trying to survive the extermination of earth. Robbie decides that he wants to join the military and fight for earths survival. Reluctantly Ray lets him go and continues to run with his daughter Rachel. The aliens are destroyed as they feed off the earth's water system, due to the fact that they have not built up an immunity to the bacteria that exists in the water. Surviving many attacks and lying low in a basement, Ray is able to make it to Boston to rendezvous with his ex-wife. As he arrives, he finds that Robbie has survived the attack and made it to Boston just ahead of him.

War of the Worlds does start off with a bang, it's only a few minutes into the movie that the action begins. Throughout the movie there is a lot of great alien attacking scenes and some really great suspenseful moments. There is really no let up in the action and the pacing is pretty good. There are a few scenes that do seem to drag, but overall it's not boring. The music done by John Williams (who does pretty much all the music for Steven Spielberg) is really good and sets the mood well, it also helps to emphasize the action and suspenseful scenes in the movie. The effects are excellent and also helps to bring realism to what is happening on screen.

There are some great tactics that Steven Spielberg uses to create suspense in the film. As a viewer you start by seeing a small portion of the machines that are doing the destruction and it's not until far into the movie that you actually see the aliens, this creates mystery and suspense regarding the enemy. Then there is the fact that Ray repeatedly leaves his kids to satisfy his curiosity or to do other things, and then the suspense really kicks in as you fear for the children to survive, not knowing where they are or what is happening to them.

The acting is good and we don't really expect anything less when we see Tom Cruise. Tom does a good job of playing the Blue Collar worker and even does good as the weekend Dad to his kids. There isn't really any cheesy lines that he has to deliver and don't worry his character isn't the "save the day" type, so there is very little of that. He is mostly a "run and hide" type of character. Dakota Fanning is, as usual, very good, she is young and yet has a brilliant acting resume. She does not disappoint and in fact does very well at acting frightened and screaming, she also is a character at the center of the small amount of comic relief. Tim Robbins makes almost a cameo appearance in the movie as a freaked out, paranoid man that allows Ray and Rachel to hide out in his basement. He does not have a lot of screen time, but plays the part well. Morgan Freeman doesn't make an appearance but does narrate portions of the film. But really the person I thought that did a really good job was Justin Chatwin as Robbie. He is virtually unknown as an actor and I don't recall seeing him in anything before. (He was in Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie, but I can't remember his part in that film very well.) Justin plays the angst ridden teenager set on really just making his father upset. Robbie is the character in the movie who has the biggest shift. As you might predict he does not get along with his Dad and in fact refuses to call him Dad in the beginning. As time progresses his character softens and you see him taking care of his sister and in the end showing respect for his father. Justin does a good job of playing this part and really had the most difficult character to play.

Now there are some major problems with the movie, and actually problems that I didn't expect with Spielberg directing. The biggest problem to the film was the fact that really not much is explained. People who have read the book or have heard the famous Orson Welles reading will most likely figure things out and not need much explanation. However, those of us who aren't as familiar with the story did struggle to understand the details. The first thing was the motivation for the aliens to destroy everyone on earth is not explained well at all. We do find out that the machines that the aliens use for destruction have been on earth for a long time, possibly millions of years, it's not really told how long. We also know through narration that earth seems to be a very desirable planet for anyone in the universe, (I guess we should be surprised that it hasn't been attacked before). But that's really all we know, we don't know where the aliens come from, why they can't live in peace with us and why their planet is so much less desirable than ours. We also never know what they intend to do with the planet once they have it taken over. They seem intent on destroying not just the inhabitants on earth but all we have built as well. We do see that they are creating some sort of organic, living plant created from human blood all over the planet, but we are never told what it is, or what it's for. Without much explanation as well is how the creatures die, we are told through narration that because they didn't have an immunity to the bacteria on earth that they are somehow poisoned or killed by it. There is really only one scene of them drinking water and it could be easily missed by a viewer as to how they really got the water into their system. I know this is a really lame and weak way for them to die, but it's part of the original story so they pretty much had to stick with it.

The movie comes in at under 2 hours and so I was disappointed that more explanation wasn't given. There was certainly time to do so, as well as several scenes that could have been cut shorter or extended to involve some explanation. There would have also been time to introduce and follow some supporting characters throughout the film, however we really only see what happens to Ray and his kids.

The movie is actually full of plot holes and continuity errors that are too large to overlook. Such as, after all electronic devices are rendered useless by the aliens, a man uses a video camera to film the destruction. It makes for a really cool and creative camera shot, but is a real continuity issue. Keep your eye out for it, this scene is not difficult to spot as well as several other continuity errors.

The Bottom Line...I really did like War of the Worlds, it was fun to watch and I was drawn into the suspense of the film. I like that it was paced quickly and I was truly on the edge of my seat throughout the movie. The acting, music and effects are great and really help to make the movie realistic and true. The downsides to the movie are little explanation regarding the complexities of the movie and a plot line that really only follows Ray and his kids. I was able to overlook the negatives and enjoy this movie, because of that I do recommend it because I think most viewers will enjoy it. I liked it enough that I will probably get the DVD and watch it again, especially if it has the original reading of the book by Orson Welles, which it is rumored to have. (A special side note on that is that as Orson Welles read the book over the radio, many people tuning in actually thought what was happening was real and it caused a panic around the nation. The movie was a little less convincing than that however.) War of the Worlds is rated PG-13, there are some disturbing images and violence, there is no sexual content and no problems with bad language.

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