Steven Spielberg's huge-budget update of H.G. Wells' seminal 1898 alien-invasion novel is a problematic blockbuster with one essential saving grace: it's profoundly frightening in the way it captures the fear of uncertainty as humanity faces a grand-scale devastation it is powerless to stop. It's a fear that fills the air like a storm and creeps up your spine in a way that's hard to shake, and it comes more from the terrified performances of Tom Cruise and the remarkable 11-year-old Dakota Fanning—as a dock-worker deadbeat dad and his daughter on the run from 100-foot alien killing machines—than from the film's hyper-realistic special effects and monsters (which aren't that different from the ones in the shamelessly corny War of the Worlds rip-off Independence Day). Unfortunately, if you look beyond this seat-gripping scare factor and the spectacular imagery of towering, tentacled, three-legged alien tanks firing building-leveling, human-crisping heat-rays, the plot is full of holes and weighed down by Spielberg's ongoing fixation with fatherhood issues. But the picture still has the power to twist your gut in enough knots to provide a goosepimply good time—and probably inspire a few nightmares. Recommended, overall. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, or a 2-Disc Limited Edition widescreen version, DVD extras on the two-disc “Limited Edition” include four production diaries—“East Coast: Beginning” (23 min.), “East Coast: Exile” (20 min.), “West Coast: Destruction” (28 min.), and “West Coast: War” (23 min.)—the “Characters: The Family Unit” featurette on star Tom Cruise's role (14 min.), “Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens” (14 min.), “Scoring War of the Worlds” (12 min.), “Revisiting the Invasion” on foundation ideas for the film (8 min.), “Steven Spielberg and the Original War of the Worlds “ (8 min.), “Pre-Visualization” on the artistry of the film's action sequences (8 min.), “The H.G. Wells Legacy” (7 min.), the four-minute featurette “We Are Not Alone,” production notes, and art, sketch, and stills galleries. Bottom line: a meaty extras package for a flawed but scary adaptation of Wells' sci-fi classic.] (R. Blackwelder)[Blu-ray Review—June 8, 2010—Paramount, 117 min., PG-13, $29.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2005's War of the Worlds sports a good transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras are almost identical to those on the standard DVD release, including four production diaries—“East Coast: Beginning” (23 min.), “East Coast: Exile” (20 min.), “West Coast: Destruction” (28 min.), and “West Coast: War” (23 min.)—as well as a “Characters: The Family Unit” featurette on star Tom Cruise's role (14 min.), “Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens” (14 min.), “Scoring War of the Worlds” (12 min.), “Revisiting the Invasion” on foundation ideas for the film (8 min.), “Steven Spielberg and the Original War of the Worlds “ (8 min.), “Pre-Visualization” on the artistry of the film's action sequences (8 min.), “The H.G. Wells Legacy” (7 min.), a “We Are Not Alone” featurette on aliens (4 min.) and art, sketch, and stills galleries. Missing from this release are the original production notes. Bottom line: Spielberg's remake makes a fine debut on Blu-ray.]
War of the Worlds
DreamWorks, 117 min., PG-13, VHS or DVD: $29.99, Nov. 22 Volume 20, Issue 6
War of the Worlds
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