re:mote voices

Title:War Of The Worlds
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins
Director: Steven Spielberg

Spielberg directs and Cruise stars in this new film version of H.G. Wells’ classic War Of The Worlds. Cruise is a divorcee, landed with the kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) for a long weekend, while his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) goes off with her new husband. As he tries to deal with his domestic drama, it becomes clear that there is something strange going on, from background news clips and increasing environmental disturbance. It is not too long before massive alien machines are breaking through the ground and killing everyone in their path. The result is a massacre and mass panic, with Cruise and his kids desperately trying to the kid’s mother.

From the start I found this adaptation unconvincing. The way that Cruise fills the screen for so much of the start of the film is excessive and becomes almost pornographic – distracting from the action going on around them. With that the film feels overly choreographed, such that at all times it seems like people are reacting to Cruise and how they are interacting with him rather than reacting to events. They were times where I was either open mouthed and appalled or covering my face with my hands in an expression of despair – reacting to just how bad this film was.