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| Bad ET invades with an on-form
Spielberg |
WAR OF THE WORLDS
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Certificate 12A
THIS is the highly anticipated movie of the summer – directed
by Steven Spielberg and surrounded with leading man Tom Cruise’s
personal excitement of announcing his engagement to Batman Begins
star Katie Holmes.
Consider that money doesn’t always buy excitement, this is
as extremely exciting as it is dark – a foreboding and massive
piece of entertainment machinery which certainly makes use of every
trick in the cinematic book.
A remake of the classic tale of alien invasion by H G Wells, a story
that inspired a terrifying radio broadcast in 1938 by Orson Welles.
Using a script by Howard Koch, Welles’s radio play was so authentic
it sent spasms into the American population and a permanent mark
on the American psyche.
No matter how you feel about the soft Spielberg touchy-feely brushstrokes,
they are merely parts of an amazingly visual film which features
– without giving too much away – astonishing scenes of
terrifying beauty. The aliens – thankfully tripods – are
shown reflected in mirrors, through dirty windows, etc, a clever
pitch which enhances their realism and the fleeing terror they bring.
Cruise seems to be having fun playing bad guys. Here he is a bad
father who takes his teenage son (nicely played by Justin Chatwin)
and young daughter (too-old-for-her-age Dakota Fanning – pictured
here with Tom Cruise) on the identical weekend aliens have planned
an earthly takeover.
This is a film everyone will want to see yet may find it more enjoyable
if one ignores Spielberg and Cruise and the millions spent on this
film. Ignore Cruise doing his typical ‘Top Gun’ congratulatory
hug, and you’ll discover a story so primal that it didn’t
need a movie star to shore it up.
The only thing War of the Worlds needs is tripods – and that
it has in droves – and the audience’s imagination. |
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