FanUnity B(uzz)log

“War Of The Worlds” marks the second big-budget sci-fi collaboration between Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. The first, “Minority Report”, offered a look into a gritty high tech future where civil liberties have been surrendered in the name of safety. The current trajectory of our society makes “Minority Report” all the more plausible. With “War Of The Worlds”, Cruise and Spielberg abandon plausibility and the complex moral choices of “Minority Report” for an action thrill ride high on energy but low on brains. “Minority Report” makes the better movie.Steven Spielberg can make a film like “War Of The Worlds” in his sleep. It is at best a disposable action movie. Positioned well into the summer vacation for teens, just before the 4th of July and far enough away from “Star Wars”, “War Of The Worlds” will haul in its cash. But the film itself is hollow and devoid of any deep emotion.

Tom Cruise’s character, whose name I may as well not bring up because he’s so generic, is a first rate a-hole who has never grown up. His kids, who live with their mom and her responsible new husband, don’t care to know him because he’s never cared to know them. Mom (Miranda Otto) drops the kids off at Tom Cruise’s place for the weekend while she and responsible husband drive up to Boston. In a show of how the New York Yankees - Boston Red Sox rivalry permiates pop culture more than any other sports rivalry, tension between Cruise and Rebelious Teen Son is displayed by Cruise wearing a Yankee hat and Rebel Son donning a Red Sox cap (the Yanks - Sox cap thing was used in “Ocean’s 12″ too btw). Dakota Fanning plays Cruise’s daughter in another one of her performances that is way better than what you expect from a kid actor.

Soon after the kids are at Cruise’s place, the aliens attack. They launch EMPs, then come up from under the Earth and start disintegrating people in the streets. The visual effects are done extremely well, but the sound effects are pretty bad since the alien death machine’s wail sounded exactly like a tugboat’s horn and its revving on sounded exactly like a jet engine. Where’s Ben Burrt when you need him? Anyway, the aliens tear up wherever in Northern Jersey this is set, and Cruise runs back and gets the kids into the one working car in civilization, and they make way for Boston to track down Mom. Lots of blood, guts, gunfire and disintegrating ensue. Cruise and his kids bond in the face of adversity. They even start calling him “Dad.” Some central characters seem like they might die, but it all ends with anyone the camera cares about living happily ever after.

The action directing is superb Spielberg stuff, and the tension is done very well. The problem is that other than basic parent-child relationships, there isn’t much to feel passionately about in this movie. “War Of The Worlds” is an extremely well-crafted soulless summer popcorn flick. It’s something you would expect from a Michael Bay, not Steven Spielberg.

2/5 Stars.