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Meet Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), a simple New Yorker who loves the Yankees, works hard for every penny he has, loves his muscle car, and has somehow along the way completely destroyed his children’s lives. This is our hero in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Ray’s happy-go-lucky life is interrupted by the arrival of his daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning), and his son, Robbie, played by relative newcomer Justin Chatwin. It’s evident from the beginning that the relationship between the three is in dire straits, and Ray does little to show any remorse regarding the decaying family bonds.
The weekend is just underway when a strange storm begins to loom over the Manhattan skyline. Soon, the city of New York is swept up in what appears to be a strange lightning storm, which, coincidently, has also struck every other major city across the globe. We soon discover, as does Ray, that these are anything but normal lightning storms. They’re vehicles for aliens to unearth the pods they planted here millions of years before man’s existence.
The plot follows the usual arc of any special effects box office hit. Ray and his children flee the aliens, only to find they’ve taken over the entire country, and there’s no escaping them. Ray is forced to protect the children and in the process discovers how much he truly loves them.
The special effects in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds are undeniably the best I’ve seen in a long time. The screenplay? Not so good. Some issues I had with the story were simple. I didn’t buy for one minute that Ray Ferrier fell in love with his children all over again because he seemed visibly annoyed with them throughout the entire film. I wanted to know more of what happened to this family. Why did Ray lose his wife to another man, and does he still love her? Their brief exchange in the opening moments of the film was wonderful and left me wanting more.
Despite the lack of personal depth to the script, Cruise did well with the character. He does have a knack for playing those cocky egocentric types (Jerry Maguire, anyone?). His character was two-dimensional, however, and reminded me too much of his performance in Minority Report. The fabulous Dakota Fanning carries the film, as we all knew she would. She shines as Ray’s neurotic yet wonderfully intuitive daughter. Tim Robbins also makes a creepy and effective appearance.
I didn’t love War of the Worlds, but I didn’t hate it either. It was what it was—an action movie with big special effects and fear-evoking alien encounters. It did its job, simply put. Those of you who love action flicks will be hard pressed to find a better looking one.
Finally, I’d like to commend Steven Spielberg for one thing: I always say regarding films, “throw in a Morgan Freeman voiceover, and you’re golden.” Glad someone agrees.
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