"War of the Worlds" Review

With "War of the Worlds," Stephen Spielberg has created the first film of 2005 that virtually demands more than one viewing on the big screen. It's a thrill ride that demands a second go-round, to re-experience the sheer magnitude of its sound and fury.

At last, this is the dark side of "E.T." and "Close Encounters," a science fiction fantasy with the brutal and graphic death-dealing of "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" on an apocalyptic scale. The degree to which special effects have been integrated into the live action is truly impressive, as the towering, walking war machines of an unknown extra-terrestrial society methodically destroy and dominate a helpless humanity.

Unlike recent remakes of classic films like "Planet of the Apes" and "The Time Machine," in which their filmmakers seemed shockingly oblivious to what made them originally successful, Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is almost reverently true to its predecessors and to its source. Changes in plot and character are for the most part well thought-out and reasonable.

By casting Tom Cruise as a divorced, working-class everyman, we see the panic and carnage from the perspective of a terrorized refugee trying desperately to stay ahead of a wave of destruction. Gone are references to Martians or cylinders falling from the sky. There is no nuclear option invoked. Perhaps out of sensitivity to memories of the Twin Towers falling, there are no grand tableaus of famous buildings being pulverized. There is only a man and his children where they live and where they flee, with unimaginable horrors increasing moment by moment.

The design of the alien war machines is a brilliant tribute to H.G. Wells' original concept, and many of the set pieces that are fondly remembered from the classic 1953 version are reimagined and satisfyingly updated. As a further nod of reverence, Spielberg has also cast Gene Barry, the heroic scientist from the original film, and Ann Robinson, his then-obligatory love interest, in small cameo parts.