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H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds

H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005) Movie Poster
  •  USA  •    •  93m  •    •  Directed by: David Michael Latt.  •  Starring: C. Thomas Howell, Rhett Giles, Andrew Lauer, Tinarie van Wyk Loots, Jake Busey, Dashiell Howell, Peter Greene, Kim Little, Edward DeRuiter, Meredith Laine, Matthew Jaeger, Cayman Mitchell, Luis de Amechazurra.  •  Music by: Ralph Rieckermann.
        A low budget effort based loosely on the famous novel by H.G.Wells. In this version of the story an astronomer attempts to reunite with his wife and young son when aliens invade the earth.

Review:

Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
Image from: H.G. Wells
In 2005, Steven Spielburg decided to make an attempt to make "War of the Worlds", the second adaption of the classic 1898 book of the same name written by H.G. Wells. However, this meant that rip-offs were coming. But it all started in 1997...

In 1997, C. Thomas Howell AND Tom Cruise BOTH signed on to an alien invasion movie. However, as time passed, the script was sold and sold to many different companies. Eventually, in 2003, Steven Spielburg got a hold of the script, and took just Tom Cruise for unknown reasons. C. Thomas Howell still wanted to do an alien invasion movie, so with Tom Cruise in an alien invasion movie, C. Thomas Howell went to a company that would do an alien invasion movie too. But can a $985 Thousand direct to DVD B-Movie compare to a $123 Million Steven Spielburg Tom Cruise summer blockbuster? Surprisingly, it can.

Lets begin with the acting. C. Thomas Howell is actually a nice actor, and he himself pretty much holds up the movie. But some people like Andrew Lauer also do a nice job. But some people like Jake Busey are awkward. Its almost like the director said to him "Here, Jake. Because you play a military Sergeant, just be mean, say the F-word a lot, and come up with a bunch of funny cuss word combinations, like 'assdick', or 'Shtweiners'." Seriously, it is very stereotypical. Also, the actors, even C. Thomas Howell at times, interact very poorly with the CGI. They just run around on screen without direction. Its like the director said "Just run! Run anywhere! Aim your guns and fire bullets anywhere! We'll just add the CGI later!".

The special effects are acceptable for a low budget picture like this. While the shadowing and lighting isn't very good (lights don't reflect off the alien space ships and there are no shadows when they go under neath a bridge or any objects), the movement is quite fluent, and it's kind of like CGI you would see in a summer blockbuster. Any other company would spend a good 10 million bucks on CGI like this. There is a scene when a meteorite explodes on a mountain side. The explosion almost looks real, but it is CGI. Overall, the CGI isn't as nearly as bad as people say it is.

The characters aren't bad. C. Thomas Howell plays a workaholic Astro-Physician named George Herbert, and he puts his work before his family. When the aliens invade, he travels the country to get to his family. On the way, he meets other people. Andrew Lauer plays a laid-back soldier named Lt. Kerry Williams. He is a likable character and Lauer does a good job with the performance. George also runs into an Australian pastor played by Rhett Giles. While not as good performance as Andrew Lauer, Giles is still okay. The pastor is a little bland. All he does is make biblical references ("It is the time of Judgement. God will destroy the sinners and take the believers with him." or "The Lord is always with us during this invasion. Don't ever stop believing in the Lord, George." etc.) and whine about being hungry. But I guess he did that in the book, right? Other characters include Commander T.W. Samuelson played by Jake Busey, who is just a stereotypical army leader. We also meet George's brother, Matt, who is a U.S. Ranger. He is only seen for about 2 minutes before he {SPOILER!!!} dies. He makes a good performance though. George's next store neighbor, Michael, is only on screen for 67 seconds. But in those few seconds he is in the movie, he says the F-Word 4 times. Wow.

In the classic novel, the aliens drive 3-legged tripods. But in this movie, they have 6 legs. The body of the ships look like crabs. So basically, the alien machines are 50-feet-tall 6-legged crab monsters that shoot lasers that turn people to skeleton. When people are 'zapped' by the alien heat rays, they turn into bloody skeletons. In the other versions, people just disingrate completely.

I was surprised that this was rated R. Just about every alien invasion movie is PG-13 (Independence Day, Mars Attacks!, the Spielburg WotW, etc.) for scenes of people getting killed. But in those movies, there isn't very much on screen gore. But here, there is a lot of gore! George finds a corpse that is split open completely. Also, a man is ripped in half, and the aliens shoot acid, that melts peoples faces off. Not to mention, a kid is eaten by an alien on screen. Its a sad scene. The language is also strong. This is the only alien invasion movie I can think of that says the F-word. The f-word is used 9 times, most are said by the stereotypical commander, and the next-door neighbor. Actually, the N-word is used once! Yes, the racial slur against black people is used in this movie in racial fashion. But this is only on the original VHS, which are very rare. In the DVD, it is replaced by the f-word.

But finally, I must get to....the cinematography. It is outstanding. The scenes of the aftermath and destruction are absolutely great to look at. Like a giant cruise ship being 5 miles away from any water, a semi truck crashed through the roof of a house, and all of the destruction aftermath of Washington D.C., Greensburo, along with many other scenes. These scenes could have been in a 10 million dollar movie, but this movie cost less than 1 million. How the makers of this movie did it, I'm not sure. Its truly something you must see to believe.

Overall, this is a good movie. There are some other things, like the music, which is really good, but the film company uses the same music in every movie they make. In my opinion, it's better than the Spielburg version.


Review by Scott Sonoma from the Internet Movie Database.