In 1938 author H.G. Wells stunned America and caused a ripple of fear when he broadcast his story, War Of The Worlds, to the country. Telling the story of an alien invasion on Earth, Wells and his co-actors played it completely seriously making it sound like an authentic newscast. In 1953 there came the first film adaptation of the famous story, 1988 saw the release of a syndicated TV series, and now, in 2005, Steven Spielberg, one of the most influential filmmakers in the last thirty-years lets loose his take on Wells' tale (this isn't including two low-budget efforts based on the book that came out in 2005 also).

With a bigger budget and more advanced special effects wizardry, Spielberg sets this up to be the greatest filming of the book yet, and while there's a lot to like about this version, there's a few obvious flaws, co-star Dakota Fanning's constant screeching, and a total cop-out of an ending to drag it away from greatness.

Tom Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, an average everyday working man who's basically a jerk and spends his time away from his job on the docks trying to make life miserable for his ex-wife and the two kids he only gets to see on the weekends (played by Fanning and Justin Chatwin).

But this weekend is bound to be different as all sorts of weird things start to occur. First there's some weird electro magnetic pulses in the air, the weather starts to act strangely, all general "necessities" stop working (like hydro and the telephone), and soon there's a series of meteors crashing in the nearby ground. It's the start of a large-scale alien invasion of Earth with Cruise and his children in the middle of it.

After the first of many attack set pieces (a large scale sequence which impressively shows the aliens destroying buildings, zapping humans into a fine dust, and generally acting pissed off at the human race), Cruise decides to head off to Boston with kids in tow to try and locate his ex-wife. Along the way they end-up getting into a series of unlucky happenings that include their mother's house being destroyed when a plane crashes into it (oddly, the minivan they're driving survives fine), being swarmed by desperate survivors who want their vehicle, and a large scale effects moment where a ferry is flipped over and almost everyone on board drowns.

So far, so rockingly awesome - at least on the effects front. However it's easy to have an effects heavy movie and for things to not quite work and it all simply boils down to the script. Josh Friedman and David Koepp's script is just too rife with lapses in logic and filled with characters we never get a feel for (or really care too much about) for things to work, plus scenes near the end with Cruise taking shelter in the basement of Tim Robbins feel out-of-place (why would he just pick them out of all the people walking by outside?), and the finale feels too rushed.

That's not to say War Of The Worlds isn't worth a viewing. Like I mentioned before, the effects on display are top notch and a few of the attack scenes are incredibly exciting (and call me morbid, but when we learn the alien machines run on human blood I was sporting a huge smile), Cruise is nothing but steady in his role, and Spielberg keeps the movie moving at a quick clip - it's just too bad I had too many issues with the story.

Spielberg's done aliens before with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and E.T., but they've never been quite so vicious, and he peppers the movie with nice little touches such as the flaming train and piping of the song "If I Ruled The World", but he completely pisses me off with that ending... (Chris Hartley, 1/22/06)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg.
Written By: Josh Friedman, David Koepp.

Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin.