A Pointless War

Steven Spielburg's War of the Worlds opened last night, and I was disappointed. After seeing that it received 72% fresh on http://www.rottentomatoes.com/, I expected much more from it, and, thus, I was let down. Spielburg's action is generally amazing, and this film definitely delivers on this account, but the story itself just seemed pointless.

Warning: if you have never seen the original War of the Worlds, or you have no idea what happens in this movie, you may not want to continue. I try not to give anything major away, but if you didn’t know this was an alien invasion movie, I suggest you go read another review.

There have been numerous stories of alien invasions, but the difference with this one is that we stick with Tom Cruise’s character (Ray Ferrier) the entire time. Besides brief expositions before the movie actually begins and again at the very end, we have no idea why this alien invasion has occurred, or even why it has suddenly stopped. All we see is Cruise and his kids trying to survive it.

Which isn’t all bad. The acting here is really great, and the family dynamics are interesting, too. My problem with this film is that there is no point to the invasion. I think back to Shayamalan’s Signs, which is a highly flawed movie, and I realize that what made that movie so compelling and different from other invasion movies is the reason for the invasion. The entire invasion occurred as a means for Mel Gibson’s to renew his faith in God. Crazy, perhaps, but it works to draw us into a logic behind the invasion. In Spielburg’s invasion movie, we know nothing. The narrator (Morgan Freeman) hints that the aliens were jealous of our planet, but this is never developed. Instead, the invasion simply happens, Cruse and company wade through it, and then the movie ends. As Bill Paxton says in Aliens, “Game over, man!”

The movie is also pretty tortuous for the audience, partly because of Spielburg’s mastery of suspense, and partly because of his relish of what develops into simple gore. This movie is “taut,” as one friend put it, because it keeps the audience on the edge of its seat the entire time. Even though we all know what is going to happen (this is a remake, after all), we still don’t know exactly how it’s all going to go down (Spielburg makes quite a few changes from the originals). Think Titanic on a global scale: yes, we know the ship is going to sink, but it can be a fun ride, too.

The goriness of War of the Worlds still disturbs me, because it’s unlike Spielburg. Saving Private Ryan was difficult to stomach, for sure, but there was a real point to it. We had seen similar things in Braveheart, but Spielburg was able to translate it to modern warfare, to show the human lives beyond the statistics. And it was compelling. And rated R. This movie is PG-13, and that’s a mistake, I think. One thing in the movie just seemed weird, and then it turned out to be really disgusting and, well, plain unnecessary. Spielburg knows that the hint is more terrifying than the specific, yet he eventually gets bogged down in this flick. He should remember Jaws, or Close Encounters and forget AI and Jurassic Park. In a lot of ways, this movie is akin to that dino blockbuster—it’s a big thrill ride gone awry.

What made his earlier films so good was the suspense but also the creativity behind the dramatization. Here, once we see the aliens, Spielburg is forced to just make us wait for it again and again. And the movie seems like one escape after another, until it simply, well, ends. And I was actually glad it did.
This movie is not all bad, by any means. The suspense and the visuals were worth watching. The digital effects were mind-numbing, making me say “how’d they do that?” That’s a phrase that I never say anymore, not since digitalization became so advanced. In fact, I don’t think I had said it since Jurassic Park. Like that movie, the digital effects may be the best thing War of the Worlds has going for it.