War of the Worlds: What Went Wrong?

Steven Spielberg's reputation for directing spell-binding films such as E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind set all his viewers up to watch what they thought would be another masterful catastrophe. Instead of seeing friendly aliens who want nothing more than to make friends with humans, the viewer gets a race of extraterrestrials that aim to destroy all humanity. Although, I do not think it would be fare to put all the blame for the failure of Worlds on Spielberg alone. The script writers Josh Friedman and David Koepp seriously lacked the skill to transform H.G. Wells' timeless novel into a present-day horror film about the apocalypse. To say that the script is "flawed" would be a charitable statement. Even though the changes Friedman and Koepp made were to modernize the story for audiences, it had extensive errors. Even with Spielberg's directive brilliance behind each and every turn of the film, he was not able to stop the film from driving full-speed to its own destruction.

Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a typical amateur construction worker who lives in a typical bachelor's house; no food in the refrigerator, evidence of his job strewn haphazardly throughout his house, a blatant disregard for his kid's needs (considering they are 10 and 16 years old, yet share a room with barely fit for toddlers). He hurries home from work to meet up with his Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin) who get dropped off by his ex-wife Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) for a couple of days. Ray's lack of a relationship with his kids becomes obvious as Robbie completely avoids any contact with Ray and Rachel gives him a hug filled with utter disappointment at having to be placed in his care. However terrible Ray's relationship with his offspring is, the day only gets worse. Bizarre lightening storms have wiped out the oddest source of power (i.e. automobiles) and produce massive tripods from beneath the earth's surface. While entire towns are being leveled and people are being zapped right out of their clothes, Ray grabs his kids and makes a run to the countryside with, miraculously, the only working vehicle. However, every corner they turn sends them head-first into even more danger. This begs the viewer to ask, where can safety be found when the world no longer belongs to humans?

For the majority of the 117 minutes, Spielberg has the ability to thrust us from one horrifying scene to the next with barely a chance to catch our breaths. The film is as unyielding as its bad guys with constant raids on massive groups of people and grotesque images of what the aliens actually use humans for. Along with scenes of true horror from our uninvited guests, the viewer gets a taste of how dire the circumstances have become; base and elevated aspects of human nature are shown in full force. Mobs of desperate people and selfless acts of bravery devour the scenes as the aliens try to take hold of every aspect of human life. When the aliens aren't dominating the scene, natural human survival instincts are. Ray is forced to do some things that no one should ever have to do in life for the sake of his kids, which brings out the fatherly side we needed from him in the beginning.

Worlds is kept as clean and simple as any horror film can be. Spielberg earned his PG-13 rating by keeping the scenes free of vulgar language and gruesome images. While the viewer knows exactly what is going on and the true validity of the situation better than any children who might watch it, parents need not fear that their child is being subjected to a film such as Nightmare on Elm Street. While it is true that they might have nightmares, the kids will not pick up any new words that would earn them a one-way-ticket to a good beating. Spielberg keeps it so that we never really know anything more than what he and his kids know.

Along with scenes of mass chaos, we see simpler scenes that invoke a different kind of fear rather the than instant destruction of mankind. Spielberg gives us usual destructive scenes, such as building being obliterated and entire cities being destroyed, along with simpler scenes, such as a hoard of dead bodies floating down a river with creepy music rising higher and higher as the scene progresses. To have a scene start out so innocent and turn into such a nightmare is what made this scene forever stand out/ They all become permanently lodged in the viewer's memory throughout the film, but it's those unexpected simple scenes that make this film horrifyingly unique.

An emblematic scene that will forever stand out in Worlds is the scene when Ray, Robbie and Rachel finally reach the ex-wife's house, only to find it empty. Ray is desperately trying to keep his sanity in tact with fixing them all peanut butter sandwiches. However, instead of looking through his ex-wife's shelves to find suitable food, he sticks with what Robbie happened to snag from Ray's fridge (which was practically enough bread for one sandwich each and varying sauces). When Ray finds out how little he truly knows about his kids, what little reasoning he had flew out the window. Ray turns from his kids and throws a half of his PB sandwich against the window where he proceeds to mutter things about staying calm. While the camera closes in on Ray's distraught face, the viewer cannot help but eye the wary sandwich as it hopelessly slides down the glass. Perhaps Spielberg wanted us to view the sandwich as Ray's hope slowly fading away, or perhaps it represents his connection with his kids falling even further from where it first was. Yet, where Spielberg obviously wanted to grab some sympathy from the audience for Ray, the viewer cannot help but laugh as the sandwich slowly inches further out of view. We are fully able to convey the depth of Ray's despair as reality finally sets in about his lack of fatherhood without the metaphor of the sliding sandwich. Yet, no matter how comical scene this scene was, the audience is able to feel Ray's fear as clear as glass.

The most eye-catching scene in the movie, however, does not include one with an alien destroying mankind. One can hardly forget the images that people will go to their graves with of the world post-9/11, and the scene where Ray enters his house after the first tripod appears is extremely disturbing. Covered in the dust of the people who were zapped by the aliens, he presents the audience with a view no one will ever forget; a terrified man either unsure or unwilling to believe what has happened, covered in the ash of an attack on mankind. The horrific scenes of 9/11 flash across every one's minds as they watch Ray numbly walk into his house, trying to understand what has just happened. Spielberg uses this scene to set his audiences up for several lines that refer to terrorism, showing the mindset of of the world post-9/11. Tying the tragic attack on the World Trade Centers in with this movie allowed audiences to see how people think about attacks and who might be behind them. Our immediate reaction is terrorists instead of thinking of all the possible beings that would want to harm humanity.

Worlds deserves the all-too-happy it received, but it could have been much less clichéd. There was no true conclusion other than leaving the viewer with the knowledge that the aliens could not survive our world due to bacteria. The world has virtually been wiped out, and Spielberg ends the movie with a sappy reunion of the family? It was definitely not the desirable ending many people had hoped for, such that the aliens were not destroyed by man, but by tiny living organisms that can't even be seen without special microscopes. It was a shame to think that mankind probably would not have been able to defeat the invaders if not for bio-organisms that have lived on this planet for millions of years before men. Nonetheless, Spielberg's reputation for action and thrill preceded him through most of the movie. It would have been more entertaining to see the aliens and humans in more combat against each other rather than scenes of humans wildly running away from the aliens and hiding like cowards.