 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |||||
June 28, 2005
The Glib Version: Why do the aliens in War of the Worlds die? They were bored to death.
But let me leave that aside… along with any spoilers for now.
War of The Worlds was a bit of a shocker for me. It didn't suck. But it wasn't very good either.
This War is what you would expect from a big summer movie with a mediocre director who has a special effects background. The magic of Spielberg is that his work makes audiences feel, almost to the point of embarrassment in some cases. He understands the anticipation of a thrill as well as any director in history. And his effects films have never particularly relied on cutting the edge of technology, but rather on taking the technology to an integrated storytelling place where directors who are happy just to be making a cool new image would never get.
This is why it is so shocking that War of The Worlds has little real emotion - almost no tension, in spite of massive threatening events - and that the effects are well done, but uninspired.
The "daddy long leg searchers" in Minority Report were inspired. We've seen the effect with which searches are done in War of The Worlds. There is a breathtaking shot of a church building being torn apart from the inside while backlit… but the image lacks anything deeper than that beauty.
With Tom Cruise fighting for his sanity as much as his life, the emotion of Minority Report was intense and adult. In War of The Worlds, the action is mostly instinctive survival stuff and though there are a few attempts at family drama, screaming and eye bulging is about as deep as it gets.
And as far as letting the audience do the work for themselves, understanding that audiences participate in movie tension, there is very little patience shown here. The classic - and it's no spoiler because it doesn't happen - is the number of lightening strikes in the film when the first contact is made. Firstly, we never see the lightning hit, which, for a giant effects film, is nearly unforgivable. Moreover, the son says there were something like 23 strikes in a row. So when the lightening starts later, what does the audience do? They start the countdown, instinctually. This is a classic "clock" opportunity. But it is thrown away or forgotten. You can call that "just a detail," but the experience of a thriller is made up of those kinds of details. Think of what Spielberg did with a truck, Richard Dreyfuss and a lot of bright light in Close Encounters… we did all the heavy lifting… genius. It's almost as though being able to visualize anything short circuits Spielberg's natural instincts to let the audience do the work that makes them feel a part of his films.
The movie also has a terrible myopia in that you stay with Cruise and his kids almost exclusively once the action begins. How long is Tim Robbins in the movie? About 15 minutes. And what does he do? Well, without spoiling, the central action of his character is repeated three times.
There are a few lame attempts at offering people up as characters so we can care when they die. But as Regular Joe, the fact that Cruise is the only one in the film who can outrun, outdrive or outfight everything devalues those actions by his character. Of course when you go into a Tom Cruise film, you don't expect him to die in the second act. But what is okay in a Bond film - endlessly outrunning machinegun fire and hitting every bad guy with a single shot on the run - is not okay in a film that asks us to believe in the gritty realism of these characters.
There are all kinds of nits to pick, but that is way beyond the point. I can live with nits. What makes me antsy are leaps of illogic and inconsistency. What makes me antsy are dramatic moments that are resolved by absolute coincidence instead of coming up with the tough dramatic decisions. (I am thinking of one moment in particular, but the event of it is a kind of spoiler, so I will show restraint.)
Another disturbing factor - especially from a director of Spielberg's caliber, who has addressed slavery, the Jewish holocaust, and other world atrocities - is the use of 9/11 and holocaust images that really have no thematic place in the film. There are not a lot of politics in George Romero's latest zombie film, but there is a black garage guy who leads the zombies against the self-satisfied wealthy (and white) in the tower on the island. Are zombies an oppressed race? We can discuss. But it wasn't a stunt so the filmmaker could bring race into the story only to forget it.
When Spielberg has walls filled with unmistakably 9/11-esque "Have you seen my family member?" postings, it is, well, unmistakable. And the aliens have left "sleeper cells" in America. And people behave with the same "we couldn't imagine this happening… it has never happened like this before" incredulousness that marked commercial airplanes being flown into office buildings on 9/11.
But then, the metaphor just fades away. There really is no way to extend it. If there was, it would be the invasion of American culture into the rest of the world, not the other way around. And because the movie is so focused on Cruise & Family, there really is no bigger metaphor available. And so, it is, for me, offensive. Don't yell 9/11 in a crowded mosque unless you have something to say.
There are also what seem to be holocaust references as well, from narrow ghetto-esque streets overloaded with people trying to escape with their lives to the taking of human life for what seems to be a completely banal reason. And again, no pay off. Do the aliens have a reason for this murder? (shrug) Beats me.
There are many who will be satisfied. It is a big, loud movie. But you can in no way find a way to call it "summer fun" in any way. It makes Batman look cheerful.
Don't even get me started on how having Morgan Freeman do the "voice of God" voiceover at the opening of close of the film is so obvious that it is nearly comic. (I admit it… I laughed out loud when his voice first cracked my ear at the screening. I love Freeman, but geez… only Hopkins would have been more obvious a choice.)
And the ending, which comes from the book, is so out of place in its American jingoism, it is more than a letdown… it's a bit embarrassing. Do we really think we've earned our leadership of this planet… as humans… as Americans? There is a real discussion to be had about "invaders" and just how self-righteous we should be… but not here. But neither is it fun. So what is it.
It's okay.
Sigh.
