Saw The War of the Worlds last night. Mostly disappointing, Tom Cruise wandering around looking stunned, some cool special effects...
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I didn't mind the wandering around so much since this mirrors the journey Wells' protagonist made through the blasted wreckage of a once mighty Imperial Britain.
But I agree the film was disappointing. Not so much for the plot holes (though those are very large...for example, why stage war machines on Earth eons ago and only deploy them when your adversaries -- humans -- are sufficiently advanced to make their use necessary? -- why didn't you, Mr. world grabbing alien, just take the planet when we were scattered nomads without atomics?) but for the loss of the focus Wells provided by making Mars the source of all this woe.
As Wells' (and the 1953 Technicolor extravaganza...which was quite hardcore for its time) compellingly staged it, the Martians, driven to desperation by the red planet's slow death and using subtle technics to keep their doomed civilization alive, pour unimaginable energy and skill into a last ditch effort to seize control of the solar system's water-rich jewel.
This makes them, despite their assassin cool malevolence and terrifyingly effective technics, ultimately quite sad antagonists. Perhaps, if Mars had retained her water and atmosphere, we might have met as friends once humanity matured.
Senor Spielbergo, concerned, according to interviews, that our extensive, real-life explorations of Mars rendered it an unconvincing site for an advanced civilization (but it's fantasy Steve, those of us up on the Mars missions could have suspended disbelief if you handled your stuff with verve and as for everyone else, they just wouldn't care) decided to make the invaders some unnamed, vaguely motivated aliens from who knows where.
This robbed the story of its heart.
Also as usual, Spielberg gave us an ending that made zero sense in light of nearly everything that went before...an attempt to make us feel good and 'save the appearances', so to speak.
Wells sort of did this too by having his indefagitable Martians slip up and forget (oops) to make sure the nasty Earth microbes were invader safe -- or properly shield themselves from the tiny murderers.
But having made the Martians vastly our superiors in immense killing power, Wells had to wash it all away somehow so that's forgivable. Spielberg, in contrast, just kind of threw his hands up and said 'OK, enough bad news children, here's the good news!'
.d.
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