War of the Worlds (2005)
Well, by now anyone who wanted to
see Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise's version of "War
of the Worlds" already has, so there's not much to
discuss. We all know the problems which stick out
like sore thumbs here.
The most obvious is the contrived
and test-audience friendly ending which finds Cruise's
character Ray coming to Boston with young daughter
Dakota Fanning in tow to find his entire family alive
and well. The worst flaw in this ridiculously silly
ending? His teenage son, who was obviously killed
in an earlier scene, is still alive. Hogwash. What
a crappy conclusion.
The film really starts to fall apart
when Tim Robbins comes on the scene as a crazy conspiracy
theorist nutjob. This is so ridiculous and Robbins
plays the character so over-the-top that the entire
verisimilitude of the film which, up until this time,
has been quite palpable, erodes like a sand dune in
a hurricane. Robbins is so awful here that he actually
ruins the film. Since "Mystic River," Robbins seems
to be playing the same character over and over.
And even worse, we are forced to
believe that Cruise's character would actually kill
Robbins'. Not only is this totally out of character
for Cruise's Ray, but it is also a totally unnecessary
resolution to the problem. Tie the guy up and gag
him. Tape his mouth shut. But kill him? I don't think
so.
The first half of the film is quite
good. Cruise builds a chemistry with Justin Chatwin
(he was in Spielberg's cable TV series "Taken") as
his troubled teenage son (a real cutie) and Fanning,
the robot girl who can play any character (who -surprise,
surprise - was also in "Taken"). Fanning is getting
old fast and she has absolutely nothing to do here.
Her character is lousy and she doesn't have any idea
how to play it anyway. But it's Dakota Fanning the
robot girl, so we like her all the same. She does
much better than most of the annoying young girls
being cast in films these days.
The best scene in the film finds
the family, in a van, one of the only vehicles still
moving, coming into a populated makeshift camp of
people and being besieged and overtaken. This is a
harrowing scene and Spielberg presents it perfectly.
Cruise, Fanning and Chatwin enact it perfectly. The
sense of reality in the scene is terrifying. This
is one of the moments that really works to build the
film towards its climactic moments.
Another scene I liked was when the
trio move into a even darker backroom in the basement
of their house and everything goes black. In the darkened
theater, screen black, we see nothing and hear only
Fanning's childlike voice ask, "Are we still alive?"
It is exactly what a child would say at exactly that
moment. Brilliant.
But "War of the Worlds" cannot stand
above its mid-film ridiculousness and its wildly populist
final moment. You know, if the son wasn't alive at
the end of this film, I might have even liked it.
Note:
Viewed in Austin in July 2005.
