WAR OF THE WORLDS REVIEW!!! - DIETRICH FILM FAVORITE SERIES

Initial release date: June 29, 2005

Studios: Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures/Amblin Entertainment

Tagline: They're already here ...

Plot: Dockworker Ray Ferrier struggles to build a positive relationship with his two children, Rachel and Robbie. When his ex-wife drops them off at Ferrier's house, it seems as though it will be just another tension-filled weekend. However, when electromagnetic pulses of lightning strike the area, the strange event turns out to be the beginning of an alien invasion, and Ferrier must now protect his children as they seek refuge.

Cast

Tom Cruise - Ray Ferrier

Dakota Fanning - Rachel Ferrier

Miranda Otto - Mary Ann

Justin Chatwin - Robbie

Tim Robbins - Harlan Ogilvy

Rick Gonzalez - Vincent

Yul Vasquez - Julio

Lenny Venito - Manny the Mechanic

Writer(s): Josh Friedman (Avatar: The Way of Water; Terminator: Dark Fate)

David Koepp (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny)

H.G. Wells (based on the novel by)

Director: Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans; West Side Story)

Rated PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and disturbing images (116 minutes)

The Dietrich Theater will be showing the 2005 Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg sci-fi collaboration War of the Worlds as part of their Dietrich Film Favorite Series. Over the years, I have seen this movie quite a few times. So, here's my quick take on this movie!

The first half of this alien invasion flick can be really suspenseful and absolutely thrilling. When you see the invasion begin with the tripods rising from underground, it's really awesome and tense. There are even some very memorable moments, such as when you see a moving trail engulfed in flames and where you see a river filled with dead bodies.

Throughout the first half, the movie can be really fast-paced and with all the invasion sequences going on, it helps keep the pace going. But, once it gets to the second half of the movie, the pace slows down a bit.

Despite the movie slowing down a bit during the latter half, the tension is still there. The basement scenes where Ray and his daughter Rachel hide out with a stranger (Tim Robbins), it can seem a little dragged out, but can still be tension-filled. The visual effects could've needed some more work in some parts.

War of the Worlds is an enjoyable movie, despite the few flaws it has!

Here are some fun tidbits for War of the Worlds!

• When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book; the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they don't use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.

• One scene shows Ray running out of the house to find Robbie while dozens of people are right outside his house photographing the storm. To film the scene, producers hired people on the street to come to the street at the time of shooting with the camera and film so they could get a picture of Tom Cruise for free.

• Ray's horror at discovering ash all over himself after stumbling home was influenced by 9/11 survivor stories.

• The crew started filming only 7 months prior to the movie's release, after a pre-production phase that lasted a mere 3 months (almost half of a normal schedule). Filming was done for 72 days spread out over 4 months, and in order to finish all 500+ CGI effects in time, Spielberg did all the big action scenes in the early stages of shooting.

• Tim Robbins' character is a combination of three different characters from the novel: the Curate who gets trapped in the ruined house with the main character, the Artilleryman, whose behavior and dialogue is the main bases for the movie's character, and he's named Oglivy, after a friend to the Narrator.

• After her actions in the movie, Dakota Fanning's character was voted "most useless thing to have in an apocalypse" by MTV.

• The tripod design for the alien machines is based on H.G. Wells' original description of the Martians' "fighting machines" from the book, including the heat rays at the end of its arms. The aliens "need" for humans is also from the novel (where the Martians have no digestive organs, and rely on blood from other species for nourishment), as is the "red weed," implied to be the reason why the surface of Mars appears red.

• Spielberg originally intended to shoot War of the Worlds after Munich, but Tom Cruise liked the script so much that he suggest Spielberg postpone the former while Cruise would do the same with Mission Impossible III.

• War of the Worlds has earned $234,280,354 domestically and $603,873,119 worldwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM6aEEjc5hA