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| War of the Worlds (Spielberg)
Synopsis |
Big budget retelling of the classic story. Set in present day New Jersey, the story follows Ray ( Cruise ) as he tries to protect his family from the invasion. Previously scheduled a couple of years ago, it was put back because of the World Trade Centre bombings. The tag line 'They're already here' gives the impression that the film is going down the Quincy Jones 'The Invader' line of the aliens being indistinguishable from humans. The film is mainly faithful to the book. The book was written to be set in the readers current time. The fact thats its not set in Victorian times is a non-argument. If you want one set in that timeline, go watch the Hines version. The aliens and the tripods are as described in the book looking like one another.
The differences are Ogilvy isn't an astronomer but a slightly mad survivalist. It's not set in Britain. Thunderchild doesn't make an appearance, a ferry is the stand-in for the battle-ship. Not so much a Heat-Ray but a Death-Ray instead. Mrs Epstein becomes Sheryl and there's only a brief mention of her. There's no priest trying to banish the monsters. The main character has children, the book there's no mention of them, just the wife. The aliens in the book arrive from Mars in cannisters. In the film, they're already here. They arrive thousands of years ago, burried below the ground. Strange electrical storms wake them up from hibernation. There is a scene where the family meet a TV crew. They explain that the electrical storms were covers for objects being fired into the ground to watch the sleeping robots up. Hardly the cannisters descibed in the book.
The most frightening parts of the film were when the tripods were seen, the thrashing about of the buildings. The most disappointing part of the film was nearly three quarters of the way through the film when the army engages the tripods over the hill. It's all implied, you don't get to see anything. It would have been great if we had been able to see the battle take place.
The voice over at the start of the film and at the end is by Morgan Freeman. He doesn't appear in the film so don't try looking for him, you will be disappointed.
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