j* Movie Reviews 2019

War of the Worlds (2005)

This was reviewed back in the J* days, and I rarely re-review, I'll post the retro review at the end. But my tastes on this have apparently changed. I used to hate Tom Cruise, apparently, but now I can quite dig him (I hadn't seen Top Gun enough in this era). I wasn't as into horror back then, and big-action was only barely a thing that existed.

And this film really stands alone as possibly one of the few BIG-ACTION-HORROR films. It retains all the perpetual waking nightmare of the alien invasion. The hopelessness of a war film seen from the losers' side. Endless, excellent and varied action scenes... some modern superhero films are not this inventive for action. It takes all the freedom and it runs with it, big, long and hard.

The scenes with the misting, drifting blood, the creepy blood landscape and the fibrous alien roots. The aliens themselves, so cute, so harmless, so just doing their jobs. The enormity of the unstoppable tripods... the chaos of the human harvesting basket and that super-Freudian aperture. The radicalised teen. The *save the family* at all costs. The descent into human-crowd madness. The humanity of the refugee waves. The Morgan Freeman intro and outro.

Oh. It is but a great big scale horror. Yes, it has great action, but it's heart is far darker and more despairing. Again, hit me up if there is anything comparable.

J* give it 5 stars.

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RETRO REVIEW written in 2005:

I really hate Tom Cruise and I really love Dakota Fanning (see HIDE&SEEK not a great movie, but great acting from her.) The main reason I wanted to see it was because it was released on my birthday Wednesday movies never come out on a Wednesday. That and I love the concept of the chaos caused by the original radio play.

So put aside all you preconceptions that a movie has structure. This one doesn't, its two hours of elongated chase scene. Its like a nightmare when you can't wake up. Its gritty and its tragic. I felt a little bit Gulf War, a little bit "oh the humanity." I love the blood misting. I loved the superb use of subsonic Dolby. I loved the jokes, of which there were far more, at least in the first 30mins, than I was expecting (many of these are visual jokes) think peanut butter sliding down glass with the reflection saying "nobody lose control." The number one quote from an audience member, in response to the destruction of the Mum's fancy neighbourhood "its just like Lost meets Desperate Housewives."

The tension is suspended the whole way, and the action is ongoing without any breathers for D&M or plot development. When you're being exterminated by Tripods plot development is the last thing on your mind. Tom Cruise gets to maintain his cardboard cut out good dad bad dad thing the whole way, Dakota gets to be wise beyond her years and act with extremity, and that son gets to survive, wrongly. I had a good time the whole way through, and I found myself sitting up straight and prepping into the movie.

When I love it, I give it:

THREE & HALF STARS.