Tom Cruise is Ray, a New Jersey dock working estranged father who seems to view his two children, 11-year-old Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and teenager Robbie (Justin Chatwin) as a bit of a nuisance. 

When his ex-wife drops them off for the weekend whilst she goes to visit her parents in Boston, Ray does his best to avoid them. But then a vicious lightning storm comes and suddenly alien tripods arise from the ground and start to demolish everything in their path. Ray gathers up his family and decides that he must drive to Boston to reunite the children with their mother and hopefully escape the invasion.

Instead of copying the dire flag-waving Independence Day, Spielberg opts for focusing on individuals struggling amidst the chaos of a disaster. Ray doesn’t stand and fight with the soldiers, but prefers to flee from the trouble, seeing his role as protector to his daughter as more important that stopping the alien onslaught. Spielberg also makes the wise choice to only show the tripods and the invaders when he has to rather than constantly focusing on exploding buildings, although the creatures unfortunately have that computerised feel that can inhibit as well as amaze.

This is not a film for children; there are enough scenes and characters in the movie to unnerve audiences for that. Cruise doesn’t generate much sympathy at times and Tim Robbins as a paranoid survivor comes across as convincingly creepy. The star of the film, though, is Dakota Fanning as Rachel, a definite star in the making who at times seems to be wiser than her age portrays. Not vintage Spielberg and the ending seems very rushed and unsatisfying, but it is still a worthy effort.

(4/5)

Release Date: 14 November 2005

War Of The Worlds