War of the Worlds

I was reserving my opinion on this one till I saw it again. Was so sensorily overwhelmed by the first viewing at the cinema, that all I had remembered was the experience of the joyride, not the actual joyride.

So the second viewing on DVD is a massive disappointment. Unlike in cinema, my experience of watching War of the Worlds sans the sensory overload was bad. Out of nowhere, the discrepancies propped up and ruined it all for me.

Firstly, the film looks bad. Either the camera used throughout is the jaded one from the 80s or there is some deliberate manipulation by filters etc. Whatever the reason, the film looks woefully jaded. None of the slickness and sharpness in the picture that one would expect from a present day sci-fi fest. I’d barely noticed it in cinema but on DVD it was so obvious, it made my mom quip “Is this the new War of the Worlds?” The effect, to put it more colloquially, reminds one of playing a long-forgotten video of Star Trek on VCR.

This poor camerawork/deliberate manipulation dampen the special effects to near-nil. The tripods, aliens and the works simply don’t look as sinister as say in Independence Day.

The background score is a joke. Its so over the top and so cliched (the usual loud bangs and crescendos), makes one laugh. Another factor which inhibits any chilling effect of tripod/invasion. Works bigtime in cinema when you lounge away with popcorn for cheap thrills like these, but on DVD it gives one splitting headache.

The dialogues are pathetic. Its like there’s a huge attempt at being un-cheesy, but the resulting blandness simply doesn’t involve the viewer in this short movie.

Oh yea, the movie is way too short to leave any impact whatsoever. At 112 minutes, its way too quick, the buildup way too haphazard and ineffective, the characters all bland, sketchy and uninvolving and to top it all–the climax, which except for die-hard purists, comes across as stupid and hare-brained to almost everyone else (including yours truly). The abruptness kills whatever impact the film had.

And then there are the gaping holes in screenplay–How come an airplane crash that left the whole house and half the neighbourhood smashed manages to miss out the hero’s van in the open driveway? And amidst the huge blast in the valley which sends every army truck and soldier ablaze, how is it that the hero’s son emerges scratch-less in the climax from, hold your breath, his city home?

Acting’s pretty functional. Cruise is one of my favourites and he gives it all to the un-sentimental protagonist. Dakota Fanning’s awesome and so is the guy who plays Robbie. There’s little anyone else has to do and one hates Tim Robbins’ nerve-grating character for taking so much of this already snappy-short film.

Anything that saves the day?

Well, you have to give it to Spielberg for not showing American landmarks being smashed, Manhattan getting grounded, the usual politico balderdash with the American president coming in the climax to congratulate, the fight with the aliens, presence of aliens throughout etc. (The latter two, it must be said, work bigtime against the movie for an average viewer) Problem is there’s little creativity to compliment his bravery. Some dad-daughter personal sequences jacked off from the masterful Signs don’t a different film make.

Still, a few sequences stand out–like when the daughter’s blindfolded and sings a lullaby to herself as her dad hacks away the irritating survivalist (brings back the memory of LOTR-ROTK when that Hobbit whatsitsname is singing and the beautiful song forms a background to the painful demise of Faramir in Minas Tirith). Coupling this innocence with something as disturbing as murder accentuates the latter’s effect by a ten fold. The tripods’ are admittedly well put together too and the handful of scenes where you see them in the full abandon are the sole high points of the movie.

Its also somewhat difficult to erase the memory of the wonderful experience of the cinema but surely if the film was solid in content and technique… some of that would have been evident on 2nd time viewing. Sadly, there’s too little of that. Repeat value for a blockbuster film like this, is surprisingly, near zero.

My rating after first viewing: ****
My rating after second (and final) viewing: ** & 1/2 (Overall, a quirky, bizzarre film that attempts to be “different” but in the end becomes little else than “a one-time watch and forget affair”)

PS: The DVD extras are alright. There’s no extra footage being shot but dutiful homage is given to the 1950s cinematic adaptation (so tacky, you’ll faint laughing) and H.G. Wells. Usual interviews and computer wizardry chronicled in detail, but everything seems a useless exercise when the actual movie loses its sheen in one viewing.