wibble

War Of The Worlds(imdb)
My rating: 4 out of 5

Having been a fan of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War Of The Worlds, I went into the cinema with some ideas of what I expected the film to be. Of course, that was a different interpretation of the book, without the Spielberg treatment. I did find myself, however, waiting for events to happen that are in the musical version, and which didn’t happen (eg no Parson). What you do get though is a fairly typical ‘war-type’, ‘alien-invasion’ movie, with mass panic and the general breakdown of civil order, (shades of Independence Day) with everyone fending for themselves, and therefore ending up making things easier for any aliens by all being in one place at the same time. (ie the ferry)

Obviously, the film being done over a hundred years after the book, the pace of the film is much faster than a book could be, so things tend to move a lot faster. For this reason, I did not find myself getting bored at any part of the film. (Always a good sign!)

Little bits that I liked:
- The way the aliens (never referred to as Martians in the film) were portrayed, still like a tripod but much bigger than anything else surrounding them
- The heat ray was done nicely, and used indiscriminately. Obviously special effects have come a long way since the last War Of The Worlds film of the 50’s, so the vapourisation of human flesh is instant (interesting that clothes are left behind though)
- The alien cry - the Ul-la - was done more as an industrial sound, and not really sounding like a voice. Think of some of the low notes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and you know what I mean.
- The ‘unscrewing’ of the first alien was nicely done. Buildings crack and move slightly sideways before the alien makes its appearance. (After that buildings are no obstacle for massive monsters any more )

All in all, it was very enjoyable, and despite a few minor niggles, (for me too much screaming, and I don’t see the point of the opening scene) I would recommend it.

Note: during this review I kept wanting to refer to the musical version. I don’t remember reading the book, so I guess it’s time I did