War Of The Worlds Review

Oh, Mr Spielberg - with these giant alien killing machines, you are really spoiling us. "War of the Worlds" kicks off the 'War of the Summer' blockbuster season as Spielberg reunites with "Minority Report" star Tom Cruise for another action-packed sci-fi extravaganza.

The Cruiser stars as Ray Ferrier, who is both a dock-worker and a rubbish dad. When his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops off their two children, Rachel and Robbie (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) for a rare visit things start badly with a shouting match or two and then get considerably worse when aliens invade the earth and begin to incinerate everything in their path. Ray and his family join thousands of fleeing refugees as the future of mankind starts to look very bleak indeed. Then, just when they thought it couldn't get any worse, they get trapped in a basement with an extremely creepy Tim Robbins…

Despite updating the action to present-day America, the film is remarkably faithful to both the content and the tone of H.G. Wells's classic source novel. It even retains the book's original ending, although it does shoehorn in a typical Speilberg subplot about parental issues, just so Cruise has something to get his teeth into. In addition, the script works in several amusing comments on America's current political paranoia, such as when Robbie worries that they are being attacked by 'Europe'.

Cruise and Fanning both deliver superb performances but it's the effects and the action sequences that are the true stars of the film and Spielberg delivers in spades. The initial attack sequence is genuinely terrifying and even the storm scenes will have you nervously eyeing up lightning strikes for weeks on end.

In short, "War Of The Worlds" is everything you could want from a blockbuster - it's hard to believe that this is the same alien-loving Spielberg who made "E.T." and "Close Encounters".