Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
Steven Spielberg
Cast :
Tom Cruise……….Ray Ferrier
Justin Chatwin……….Robbie Ferrier
Dakota Fanning……….Rachel Ferrier
Tim Robbins……….Ogilvy
Miranda Otto……….Mary Ann Ferrier
David Alan Basche……….Tim
Yul Vazquez……….Julio
When it comes to directorial resumes, not too many people compare to the type of work that populates the resume of Steven Spielberg. With Saving Private Ryan, Jaws and the Indiana Jones trilogy populating his resume, amongst others, Spielberg can rest assured that he has nothing left to prove. Two Best Director Oscars coupled with an Best Picture Oscar win for Schindler’s List, as well as critical acclaim for large portions of his work, have cemented his place as one of the preeminent directors of his generation.
The same could be said of Tom Cruise. While never having won an Oscar despite several qualifying performances, Cruise has transformed himself from being a hot young actor to a solid leading man and then into an action hero. It’s a testament to his charisma and acting ability that at less than 5’7″ he can outmuscle such action heavyweights as Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Vin Diesel at the box office. There is no doubt that Cruise is the biggest star working in Hollywood today, as others’ celebrity is gauged against his and few can measure up to the sheer star power the diminutive Cruise provides.
The last time these two Hollywood heavyweights was one of 2002’s best films in the action thriller Minority Report, arguably Cruise’s best film to date and one of Spielberg’s top directorial pursuits. Both men have enough clout and established star power that they can be selective in the sort of movies they elect to make. There aren’t too many projects that can cause someone like Spielberg to drop plans to make a fourth Indiana Jones movie or cause Cruise to postpone plans for the third movie in the Mission Impossible franchise.
War of the Worlds is that sort of project. It is the movie that Spielberg has wanted to make for years and the project that Cruise dropped his signature franchise vehicle to make. And War of the Worlds is a good movie, if only due to the fact that previous alien-invasion, end of the world movies have been awful.
Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, deadbeat dad and dock worker. Arriving late to pick up his two kids, Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning), Ferrier isn’t the sort of guy that Cruise would normally play. Much like his turn as Frank ‘T.J’ Mackey in Magnolia and more recently his turn as the assassin Vincent in Collateral, Cruise isn’t playing the good guy destined to save the world. Ray is in a serious case of arrested development, keeping the engine of his Mustang outside. He’s a bad father and not a great person, and even his children realize this. He knows and does little with them; they respect him very little, if at all.
Everything changes when lightning strikes are the precursor to an alien invasion through which Ray and his children have to survive. While one would expect Ray to turn into some sort meat-eating superhero, pull out a machine gun and single-handedly take apart the invading alien occupiers all by himself. Spielberg opts to go in a different direction that follows Ray, Robbie and Rachel as they deal with the end of the world.
This isn’t a movie in the vein of Independence Day or Armageddon; War of the Worlds isn’t about defeating aliens and winning the affections of the daughter of a rock star. It’s about surviving the end of the world; War of the Worlds is a dark movie with dark concepts that finally treats the end of the world as something more than the footnote of a special effects marvel. There are lots of scary moments and dark overtones, as Spielberg avoids the pratfalls of disaster movies. By not destroying landmarks, filling up the movie with superfluous melodrama around important military leaders and government figures Spielberg crafts his movie around his special effects as opposed to featuring them as the movie.
And in that respect it’s a success, as the visual effects of the movie are stellar. The alien tripods, while silly in some aspects, are spectacular in look and are impressive in presence. Spielberg has invested a lot of time and energy in creating an invading alien force as well as the spectacular imagery of their invasion. This is easily his best looking film to date; for the large budget he was given Spielberg put every penny to use. There are an amazingly number of jaw-dropping effects, spectacular imagery and mind-blowing visuals throughout the movie.
Where he goes wrong involves the human drama of the end of the world. Cruise, Fanning and Chatwin are solid in their roles but Spielberg doesn’t focus as much on them as needed to get their story across. There’s so much unsaid about their relationships and their interactions that the requisite drama about their situation is muted. Cruise and Fanning, who dominate most of the movie, rise to the situation and are able to charm their way into creating sympathy for their characters, Spielberg’s story-telling ability is a bit lacking. He falls into a trap of having his actors tell the story as opposed to him guiding them along, which is unusual for one of the masters of the art. He is able to create powerful moments and memorable scenes, but his overall story lacks the sort of bite it should.
War of the Worlds is a very good movie, but it lacks certain elements that keep it from being on the same sort of quality level of previous Spielberg movies like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List.
