Take a novel so far ahead of its time, that its time has not yet come even in our time, from an author who can only be described as a pop-prophet; You then add 125 billion dollars, the magic of ILM and the one and the only Speilberg (I am not worthy!!) into the mixture... and what do you get?
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
First things first, this is by no means an exact rendition of H.G.Wells' immortal classic. The movie takes place in our time. The eerie reminders of 9/11 are sprinkled throughout- The white dust that settles on the fleeing people, the crashed airoplanes, the stampedes and the panic...utter desparation in the faces.
No female leads, unless you count Dakota Fanning, who screams like a Banshee or glides by wraith-like and just looks on for all of the movie. The protagonist is NO HERO. In fact, he is more of an anti-hero. Ray (played by Tom Cruise) is an ordinary frightened-out-of-his-wits father, who just wants to take his children to Boston in safetly. He doesn't want to let his son, Robbie's need to pro-actively help to face the alien attack to affect that. Robbie, however, comes out the braver and the more put-together of the men. He asks his father to let go.
The cameo played by Tim Robbins is chilling. Short but leaves a deep impact of both his character as well as that of Ray's. A proof of what reasonable people will do to ensure the basic safety of their child even if for a short while. Killing becomes immaterial.
The world is finally not saved by a country, or by weapons or by the cleverness of men. Very credibly its saved by the inability of the Aliens to live in our world populated by the creatures that "God so thoughtfully put among us".
I would not credit this movie as the master's best-but this far exceeds the best presented by most.
Personal Note: The very next day of my watching the movie, there have been 4 serial blasts in London admist the G8 conference extravaganza taking place in the nearby Scotland. Al-Queda is believed to be behind this, will the war within our world ever end?
7 comments:
Good Post !
Heard from my friend that this movie captures the emotional side of a science fiction that the technicalities of it so lost my enthu to watch it...thought it has a "Spielberg" tag to it
- Morpheus
hmm... being a big fan of HG Wells, i liked the novel.. and so far, ALL novel-turned-movies have always disappointed.. NO exceptions. i'm just gonna see this one for spielberg, cruise, and the special effects.
no strings attached.
I havent seen it yet.. but Speilberg is best in doin it right anyway...
BTW.. Chick, who said novel-turned-films arent nice??
Jurassic Park
The lost World
The Bourne Identity for examples...
And the best LOTR!!!
Am currently reading "Patriot Games" which was quite a good movie too. ANd while in my blog please don't forget "Gone with the wind". But strictly speaking, we are often over-critical of movies that are made from our favorite books. Or comics for that matter; but I hear "batman begins" is quite awesome and "Sin City" is the graphic novel come alive.
I am most worried about the movie version of H2G2 because the book itself was so outrageous that its quite difficult to render it faithfully onscreen. But I will not shorten my expectations anyway :p
'Don't Panic'
125 billion dollars? what?
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