War of the Worlds

A very good movie. Tom Cruise remains a good actor on the screen, even if he has become a raving lunatic off the screen.

I like that it focuses just on one family. That was part of what I liked about "Signs" as well, but WoW was much more intense. Also, we got to see bits and pieces of the global picture, instead of only seeing the family's plight.

Now, disaster movies like this are one step away from horror movies. This one was a very small step. One woman commented as she was leaving the theater "Wasn't that scary? I don't think I'll sleep tonight!" I sort of blinked at her and smiled vaguely. I was not frightened during the movie. Wary, perhaps even nervous, but never frightened. Why? Probably because I'm an analyzer. I don't react emotionally to situations; I analyze and plan and predict. I would probably be a good person to have around during a crisis. I would be the one calmly gathering food together while everyone else panicked. Parts of the movie did have an emotional effect on me, but it lasted only until the next crisis. Then it was time to think, so emotions served no purpose. And, yes, this was only a movie, but I have done the same thing in real life situations. I drop into alert mode, and there I stay.

Okay, back to the movie itself. I liked that they kept the original opening and ending. Modernized slightly, but by and large identical to the H.G. Wells book. There was one scene where we saw them take out a tripod (I won't spoil how), and I had to wonder whether it would have worked if the creatures weren't already suffering from that which would eventually defeat them. (Probably no point in avoiding spoilers at this point, but I'll try anyway)

One thing I couldn't help was comparing the destruction depicted in the movie to that wrought by Katrina. Now, Katrina didn't have vaporizing lasers; nor did it have vacuum tubes to suck the fluids out of people; but she destroyed a city nonetheless. And we saw firsthand that some people become violent when all hell breaks loose, as some did in the movie. They did a good job (in the movie) of presenting the difficulties of a rescue effort as well. Do you wait until the last minute, putting everyone at risk, or do you take off with what you've got and hope you can save those already in? Similar decisions were likely made with Katrina, and, sadly, it was human beings firing on rescue vehicles. *sighs*