Went to see War of the Worlds yesterday, and I have to say—it was pretty damn cool.
There were definitely some logic gaps in the background story line, but I didn’t really notice them until the movie was over. The main one (and I don’t think I’m really giving anything away here) is that there are number of references made to the giant Martian tripod vehicles having been buried underground for millions of years, which led me to wonder why, if the Martians came to Earth millions of years ago, why they didn’t just take possession then, rather than waiting until they have to waste a lot of time fighting humans. In general, the whole Martian plot/plan struck me as being a rather poorly thought-out element of the story.
As I said, though, none of this occurred to me until after the movie was over, largely because I was pretty much on the edge of my seat the whole time. Seriously. After a bit of initial set-up and introduction to Our Heroes, the first Martian busts out of the ground, and it’s pretty much nonstop from there. The Martians are relentless, the humans are stupid and vicious in their panic, and things just keep getting worse.
Plus, the Martians’ death ray kicks some serious ass.
Yes, that’s all well and good, you say, but Tom Cruise sucks. Generally, I agree, especially when he’s on one of his Scientology-inspired crackpot rants. However, he does his best work when he’s a playing a self-centered dick (in other words, himself), and that’s basically what his role is here. The other performances are equally good, especially the girl who plays his amazingly non-annoying young daughter, and creepy, creepy Tim Robbins.