'War of Worlds'
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Andrew CooperHiding during a catastrophic alien attack in "War of the Worlds" are, from left, Tim Robbins, Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning.
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Rating: PG-13 for frightening scenes of sci-fi violence and disturbing images
Starring: Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, Dakota Fanning
Director: Steven Spielberg
Family Film Guide review of "War of the Worlds"
Spielberg: Time is right for 'War of the Worlds'
The Net site as well as the inspirational slogan bracelet for the film sensation du jour should both be "wwwww.ewe." It stands for "War of the Worlds" Was Worth Waiting for -- Even Without an Ending.
That's the closest I can come to a sage, succinct [surmise] verdict on Steven Spielberg's visual retelling of Orson Welles' 1939 audio rendering of H.G. Wells' 1898 sci-fi literary landmark. In the infamous 1939 Wells-Welles radio broadcast, the aliens invading Earth were Martians. Now that we know nobody's home up on Mars, the invaders come from a planet so nasty is doesn't even have (or need) a name. Appropriately enough for 2005, the instant panicky assumption of the victims at hand is "terrorists!" They should be so lucky -- and they're not.
Osama would be a Bush-league problem compared to the mobile monster -- a heavily armored, hugely homicidal tripod -- that suddenly pushes up through the sod of New Jersey, right under the feet of divorced-dad Ray (Tom Cruise), his alienated son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and his wiser-than-her-years daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning), just -- as joint-custody luck would have it -- when it's Ray's unenthusiastic turn to keep them over the weekend.
Did we say "monster" singular? Soon enough they're very plural, popping up and wreaking havoc everywhere, not just locally but regionally. Not just nationally but internationally. Not just nastily but homicidally.
"This isn't an invasion, it's an extermination," one earthling laments.
He's right. No cute and cuddly ETs trying to phone home this time. These things were planted here a million years ago, give or take a few millennia, waiting to be activated until the diabolical alien intelligence behind them was ready for takeover.
First Published June 29, 2005 12:00 am
