E.T. is pissed

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said.

War of the Worlds

Amazingly this film is still showing at the local cineworld (it having been released eight and a half weeks ago on July 1st). We thought we'd missed our chance to see it on the big screen, but obviously not. Couple of us went along for an early showing last night. Pretty glad I did now because, as you'd expect from such summer blockbuster fare, it's stunning to look at in a way that getting it out on DVD just wouldn't do it justice.

Aside from the fx, it's a pretty good film. Dakota Fanning and Tom Cruise give good performances (Fanning frequently the better, although her screams do sometimes make you wish that you had a martian death-ray handy). Tim Robbins is also good. Whilst it's true that there are plotholes big enough to walk an alien tripod through, there is nothing there that detracts too much from the enjoyment of the story.

You can argue that the ending still sucks (it's one of the things that Spielberg hasn't changed from the original novel), but you have to consider that this isn't really a story about alien invasion. It's a story about Cruise's character learning to grow up and fulfill his responsibilities as a father, set against an alien invasion. In that story the manner in which the aliens are defeated isn't important, just the fact that it happens in time for Cruise's character to grow and for Spielberg to force in his customary schmaltzy ending.