War of the Worlds (2005)

War of the Worlds is yet another film to do with aliens that is directed by Steven Spielberg. Even though it is based on the book of the same name by H.G Wells, it has been contemporized and therefore many things are now different about the story. The first thing that differs about the two stories is that in the book, the aliens simply land and start to invade earth: Understandably, Spielberg wanted to do something different, seeing as how the book has had more adaptations than so many other stories. He wanted to have the alien ships already buried under the Earth's surface. The aliens then came in what looked like lightning storms so that they could pilot the Tripods.

Tom Cruise plays a divorced parent with an immature approach to life, Ray. Rachel, his daughter, played by Dakota Fanning (who i swear is a 40 year old woman in a childs body) is a very mature and intelligent child. Obviously this creates an interesting dynamic between the characters. The son, Robbie, is your average rebelious teenager and he simply doesn't understand the situation fully, often desperate to fight the invasion with military force.

The main thing I love about this adaptation is the constant battle of different personalities and beliefs: On their exodus away from the city Ray and his family get their car stolen and their lives put at risk by many desperate people. This all felt very real to me having been in London at new years eve amongst many millions of people. Later into the film, Ray is forced to kill a man who has lost his mind out of fear. This man wanted to attack the tripods with his own strength and a shotgun and Ray has to stop him in order that he and his daughter are not discovered. This creates a very tense atmosphere, especially during a classic scene in which the tripod sends a probe down to try and find survivors.



The art direction is what really excited me about this film. The concept artist for the Tripods was Ryan Church, the same Ryan Chuch that worked on the latest Star Wars films amongst many other things. I really liked his adaptation of the Tripods, they kept enough elements of the ones from the book but were suitably changed to make them more interesting or exciting. He took the approach that the actual machine would have to be terrifying as it was representing the creature within. He also kept hints of the green smoke that hissed from the limbs of the war machines in the book. The head of the machine had something "human-like" about it aswell and the many "glistening tentacles" really statyed loyal to the book whilst giving it a unique twist.




The aliens themselves were changed quite alot. In the book they are simply octopus like blobs that are not capable of much more than glooping around on the floor. The film had them as 3 legged creatures much like a stereotypical alien.

Overall I think it is a very exciting film that brings many new ideas to a tired old story that has been repeated so many times. The unique art style has a consistant feel and the whole presentation maintains a constant feeling of terror and parranoia.