War of the Worlds

by John

For Steven Spielberg to tackle a hostile alien invasion story anytime between the 1970s and the early 1990s, the resulting film would've almost certainly been cut from the same cloth as the straightforward but thrilling popcorn fare on which he built his career. But movies like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jurassic Park have been pushed well behind the director after he directed Schindler's List in 1993, and it seems that the post-9/11 world has removed Spielberg even farther away from that breezier brand of visceral filmmaking. War of the Worlds, his 2005 update of the 1953 film based on the classic H.G. Wells novel, bears the gritty realism characteristic of his recent historical dramas, namely Saving Private Ryan and Munich.

However, the combination of sci-fi escapism and gritty realism is not enough to cover up the deep plot holes and other narrative weaknesses in the film. Style can't make up for flaws in substance, and lately, Spielberg's trademark technical prowess has not been able to override the storytelling flaws that often pop up in his films. On the bright side, on interesting point about the Spielberg of the late 90s and this decade is how the director, having pushed himself into darker, edgier and more socially conscious territory, attempts to achieve the ambitious task of merging escapist thrills with sobering shivers of realism. In his retelling of Wells' story, he takes the approach of cloaking the film in 9/11 and Iraqi wartime allegory. The result is a collection of some decidedly unsettling sights that gives the film a darkness that would not have appeared in his pre-Schindler's List popcorn fare. Images of floating debris, dust-covered faces and American soldiers – or, from the alien perspective, insurgents – fighting by roadsides are certainly forcefully reminiscent of real-life conflicts.

The film is perhaps most successful as a faithful tribute to the spirit of Wells' original concerns. The prologue and epilogue, for example, in which Morgan Freeman's commanding voice quotes modified passages from Wells' novel, frame the story in appropriately broader thematic context. And in War of the Worlds' most thought-provoking Wellsian pursuit, human nature poses just as much of a threat to the protagonists as the alien invasion itself. In his effort to bring his children to their mother in Boston, New Jersey dock worker Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) must not only grapple with the requisite alien invaders, but also a vicious mob, the dangerously insane survivalist Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), and even the rebellious independence of his own son. With these situations, War of the Worlds explores the selfish, more subversive side of human nature, placing it beside the alien invasion as an equal menace. This is by far the most interesting aspect of the film's plotline.

Unfortunately, all that situational conflict leaves little room for the human dimension. Like many of Spielberg's action film protagonists, Ray is a two-dimensional character who sometimes flirts with a three-dimensional self, but never truly reaches that potential, since he's too busy reacting against the unrelenting barrage of obstacles thrown at him and his children. The biggest of these obstacles, as mentioned earlier, is David Koepp's script. Despite its lean and efficient pacing, the narrative treads over itself repeatedly and runs out of creative steam by the last third. A scene in which an alien probe threatens the basement-bound protagonists, for example, is much too strongly reminiscent of Spielberg's own Jurassic Park raptor kitchen scene, both in terms of concept and execution.

Such unoriginal digressions juxtaposed with more compelling portrayals – such as the first horrifying alien attack, the film's most engrossing and memorable sequence – cause the film to lose ground it never manages to regain. War of the Worlds' inability to sustain the creative urgency and human charisma that make Spielberg's earlier, better-known entertainments so enduring is definitely problematic. The film successfully delivers its brutal thrills and chills at a relentless pace, but the constant peril takes a toll on a story that eventually loses its freshness and grasp on character. The result is a distancing effect that makes the film's contrived resolution feel perfunctory as opposed to emotionally satisfying.

And "contrived" is a word that appropriately describes much of the film's storyline. For all his talents, Spielberg does have a reputation of sacrificing key narrative logic for the sake of astounding visuals or visceral sequences, and he definitely earns it here. Huge plot holes and inconsistencies involving the particulars of the aliens' landing, technology and strategy, as well as an apparently magical car that mysteriously works when all others don't and somehow survives the destruction of an entire suburban neighborhood, undermine the story's credibility. Some might say that a summer action movie like War of the Worlds isn't meant to be scrutinized for logic, but the fact remains that no matter what a film's genre, it can only be as strong as how well it is written. Movies are stories, and if they make unbelievable leaps in logic in order to more easily get from point A to point B while distracting us with some nice visual set-pieces along the way, the end result is doomed to suffer.

Spielberg's decision to tolerate such assorted storytelling flaws is what makes War of the Worlds one of his lesser achievements, more so than the portions of recycled narrative or weak characterizations. It's undoubtedly a dark, intense, and technically impressive spectacle that capably provides genuine entertainment and an interesting perspective on the dark side of human nature, but considering the film's troubled script, these great parts aren't able to add up to a satisfying enough whole. Time and time again, Hollywood shows how great visuals just can't save problematic writing.