Just watched Spielbergs WAR OF THE WORLDS on cable for the first time since seeing it in the theater 9 years ago. Im glad I revisited it--a worthwhile revisit, in my opinion...The film was a financial success, earning nearly 600 million dollars, with foreign, domestic etc, mostly got decent reviews, but my memory is that science fiction fans and hipsters mostly sneered at it. This is because its been not cool, in those circles, for some time now, to like Spielbergs stuff. Partly its because we associate him with blockbusters, which hipsters and the more elitist fans jeer at, and partly because of his association with sentimentality in his science fiction, like E.T.. Hes also thought to be unsubtle. My recollection is that a number of the more elitist science fiction critics and the sniffier fans dismissed the film. But when Spielbergs on, hes a very good film maker. Think of Schindlers List and Empire of the Sun and, yes, Jurassic Park. Close Encounters still stands up well... And I think he was ON when he made WAR OF THE WORLDS. David Koepp was the primary writer on WAR...--he also wrote Jurassic Park, and a Stir of Echoes (a better film, really, than the Sixth Sense, with some similar ideas--because the Sixth Sense likely swiped those ideas from the novel A STIR OF ECHOES, written by Richard Matheson). The early scenes with the first manifestations of the invaders, are quite powerful. Its hard to imagine anyone making it more visually believable. The film contains several deliberate homages to the revered (I love it myself) George Pal film of War of the Worlds, as well as feeling quite Wellsian in important respects, despite its modern setting. Tom Cruise is good in it; Tim Robbins is good. The directing is very strong. Maybe it ends a leeetle hurriedly. Just a little. But its a good ending and its resolution follows Wells. Spielbergs Minority Report had some wonderful scenes but on the whole it didnt work for me. He lost control of it and it had some holes in its interior logic. But to me, he had a superb control of the Wells story and accomplished real state of the art cinematic science fiction. Nine years later, still good.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 04:32:32 +0000
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