Steven Spielberg’s “War of The Worlds” is a fast-paced roller coaster ride, with breathtaking special effects and cruel aliens. This film is probably one of the scariest alien films to date.

Opening the film, we get some narration from Morgan Freeman as he informs us how man has learned to conquer his own planet and is confident in what he has accomplished. But the invaders in this film have been watching for at least a million years, planning their extermination. Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is your typical working class, American living in New Jersey. He’s been divorced from his wife (Miranda Otto) and this particular weekend is watching his kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) for his ex-wife, who is taking a trip to her parent’s house in Boston. When Ray notices a strange cyclone-like cloud above his neighborhood, he and his daughter go outside to look at the dazzling site. Soon a series of lightning bolts strike close to his house, and he walks down the road, to examine the hole in the ground created by the lightning. In the next five minutes, the film takes off as the aliens begin their attack.

This film must have taken months and months of planning. The look of the alien tripods in this film, are like nothing we have seen in previous films. The scenes of human vaporization are definitely better than a quick flash and a falling skeleton. Instead, we watch human shaped dust flutter into the air and clothing thrown high into the sky.

Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, despite the things have been going on in your personal life, I am very glad that they are happening now instead of during the production of this film. Cruise’s character was, plain and simple, sort of a jerk. However, we see the character evolve into more of a responsible father figure who bonds with his children in a time of crisis. Overal, Cruise was very believable, and I really think he was perfect for the part. I didn’t think Dakota Fanning was as good, but considering the fact that she’s only a kid, she did a good job. Her character, however, was somewhat whiney. I did enjoy one particular scene in which she looks over a stream and sees first one and then numerous dead bodies floating down a river. The character’s terror is very believable.

Later, Tim Robbins’ character, Ogilvy, welcomes Ray and his daughter into his basement, but as time goes on, his sanity is pushed to the limit after he learns a horrible truth.

Steven Spielberg is an outstanding director and I usually enjoy his films. The wonderful thing he does with his movies, is that, no matter how action packed they are, they always have heart. In this film, Cruise drives a mini-van through a crowd of people and causes a near riot as people are desperate to escape from the invaders. Unfortunately, in times of panic, instead of working together to find a solution it often becomes an “every man for himself” battle, as greed and selfishness take over. But ultimately, people come to see that this is not the solution and through teamwork they manage to get themselves out a life-threatening situation.

I thought the film was left very open ended, of course mankind managed to pull through in the end, but was still asking myself, “Ok, then what?” I did think some things were best unknown, and of course some expected shots of perhaps New York and other well known cities around the world being leveled, were best not done, because I can clearly see Spielberg was trying to limit the audiences perspective for a more dramatic and tight feel.

Overall the film was excellently put together and it will probably join “E.T.” and
“Close Encounters of The Third Kind” on collectors’ shelves (as well as mine). So far, this is the best film of the summer, and if you see just one film, make it this one. It’s a great ride, entertaining, eerie, and left me leaving the movie theater hoping that, if we do someday make contact, I hope they’ll be a bit more friendly…

By the way, I recently saw another remake of “War of The Worlds,” that skipped theatres completely and was released this year straight to DVD. This film was poorly made, the special effects were corny (and definitely not special), and the characters unbelievable. If you see this version at your local video store, do yourself a favor and skip it.

Rated PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and some disturbing images