On Thursday I saw War of the Worlds. It has received pretty good reviews, including four stars from the Lincoln Journal Star's L. Kent Wolgamott. On average, the critics seem to be giving WotW a B to B+.
I have to give it a C+ or B-. It's a good movie and it was certainly worth the 6 bucks I paid to get in, but in the end my first reaction was: Eh. In part that's because the film ends fairly abruptly and not very convincingly. [Implied spoiler!] The ending is about as convincing as if Apollo Creed had had a heart attack to end the fight at the end of Rocky.[/end spoiler]
Most of the film's biggest problems are pretty small. But that's what makes them so annoying; they would have been very easy to fix. In a post-9/11 world, why in the heck would everybody in Tom Cruise's neighborhood run toward obvious danger? Why would a bunch of people run up a very steep hill to watch the goings-on on the other side when they know that doing so will substantially increase the likelihood that harm will come to them? Why does the aliens' "fertilization" process require so many steps and inefficiencies? I could go on, but I'd need too many spoiler warnings.
One thing I loved about the movie was Spielberg's minimal guilt of CGI abuse. Too many directors these days think that every effect has to be computer generated. Spielberg did a good job of using CGI only where necessary, and then to good effect.
The story itself is very good, and it has been updated to modern times very effectively. Folks will try to read various political messages into the movie, but it's not a very explicit political film in and of itself. The biggest weakness in the story, in my opinion, is the par
t involving Tom Cruise's son. The character isn't terrible (although his zeal is unnecessarily exaggerated), but as the movie progresses that story line becomes less satisfying. You'll probably figure out what I mean after you've seen the movie.
In short, WotW is worth a visit to your local cinema. It may even deserve a place in your DVD collection. But I have to disagree with Mr. Wolgamott -- it's no four star film. There are far too many fixable flaws to deserve that rating.
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