[Locke]

Rewatched War of The Worlds (the 05 one) on Bluray the other day:

War of The Worlds, speaking purely from a spectacle point of view, is best described as "refined". In essence what War of The Worlds is, is a horror film, a bleak tableau of post 9/11 paranoia but what I love is that it is still able to get in so many blockbuster money shots at the same time. Spielberg effortlessly shifts his gears, even in the biggest, most chaotic and CG heavy sequences it feels like Spielberg is in full control, conducting the worlds most haunting opera and when he suddenly strips it all back, lowers the volume and racks up the intensity it still feels right at home sandwiched between the bombast. This is a film about the fear of the unknown, a pessimistic critique of humanity and their approach to survival and it's told through well dressed basement sets and the repetition of visual and audio motifs.

There are two things that let the film down on this front, and firstly is the aliens. For a film that leaves us in the dark, and on the left foot, for pretty much the whole run time it was a shock we'd see the aliens at all but most shocking is how unthreatening the aliens are outside of their machines. Maybe that is the point, but all the drama is lost when you're struggling not to laugh at how goofy they are and ultimately how pathetically they go down by the end.

Then there is the fact that Spielberg never seems to have a clear end game in mind with this movie and that ultimately not a single thing in this film makes a damn lick of sense, even within its own internal rules. It feels mostly slapped together which seems so at odds with the rest of the movie which spends so much time seemingly setting up some kind of long game that doesn't actually exist. With the way some scenes so casually disregard revelations and developments of scenes before them, I'm inclined to wonder if the film literally was just a series of set pieces slapped together in whatever order the footage was delivered in. At best you get a hand wave, if the film even brings up the inconsistencies at all.

Until Edge of Tomorrow happened, this was my favourite Cruise role. Spielberg never lets Cruise sit in his comfort zone for long, and Cruise puts a level care and detail into his performance rarely seen in any other character he's played. Ray is vulnerable, he fails, he's human and you completely forget it even is Cruise. This isn't a performance for glory, and I appreciate that.

Sadly though, War of The Worlds may be the most contrived film made in human history. The few times Ray is allowed to put his best foot forwards, he gets sequences so truly ludicrous it takes you out of the illusion all together. That is if you're even convinced by the illusion in the first place, since every near miss is a test of patience and an insult to your intelligence, how can I appreciate a more human Cruise vehicle if it seems impossible for him to ever lose? He's a character that knows sacrifice, but he never knows loss, and sacrifice is the lesser of the two evils as it presents a choice.

I also don't really get why everyone hates on Robbie, he's a titanic asshole sure, but that also seems sorta the point. He's full of teenage angst and it's literally the end of the world, how else would you expect him to act? Ironically he's also one of the few characters who seems to believe survival doesn't mean you have to be selfish, you could cite this as the naivety of youth, but his selfless actions yield much greater rewards than Ray's narrow minded swings at a survival where everyone is seemingly surplus. Robbie is our Spielbergian ray of hope.

Dakota Fanning's "Rachel" is the only character in this I genuinely can't stand, she's a total and utter brat who I think we're supposed to go easy on because she's only a little girl despite the fact that she makes Ray's life miserable throughout the film for no reason at all while achieving nothing to redeem herself.

War of The Worlds is a frustratingly inconsistent movie with some pretty major flaws - see: plotholes so fucking huge you could ride a Tripod through them - but I wouldn't say it is a bad film overall. It is a spectacle of a very different, rare, side of Cruise which, like Edge of Tomorrow, is half the reason this is so enjoyable. And with so many memorable set pieces, both of the blockbuster and horror variety it is definitely worth a watch, if only once. Sadly with the poor presentation of the bluray I'd say this is a film best rented on DVD, or only purchased on a higher def format if found in a bargain bin.