War of the Worlds – 2005
This film rightly receives a lot of praise from both critics and fans, and the special effects were incredible. But by now, I expect nothing less from Stephen Spielberg. It was visually stunning, and the movie itself seemed to have very few flaws. The design of the aliens and their vehicles was really scary, firmly, I think, putting this movie into the sci-fi/horror category.
Much as you would expect, there were giant alien death machines that, in this version of the story, came up out of the ground and began vaporizing screaming people. There was a lot of destruction as buildings and automobiles were blown up and tossed around. The sheer violence of the mayhem was like a high-energy thrill ride. The chaotic flying debris was amazing and really cool to watch.
The designers really did a great job of making the aliens seem really other-worldly, using the idea of tri-pedal creatures and ships, masterfully emphasizing the differences between them and us bipedal humans. Their giant tripod ships looked almost graceful in the way they moved, almost like walking squid moving through water. Their death rays were pretty awesome, too. The victims didn’t just vanish. Instead, they instantly turned to ash and shreds of clothing. Very cool effect!
The movie has several great scenes in which these tripod death machines slaughter great masses of screaming people. There was the opening scene, in which one emerges from the ground in the middle of a crowded city, another in which one overturns a ferry boat, dumping the people into the Hudson River, and a third scene in which the military attempts to fight back, but fails miserably. My research tells me that though there was plenty of CGI in the movie, Spielberg tried to keep it to a minimum, and use as many practical effects as he could.
The film also spends a pretty good amount of time in a basement, where the main character and his daughter are hiding with a crazed red-neck. The basement is first invaded by a mechanical tentacle that looks like a giant snake with a deep-sea underwater camera for a head. Then the three-legged aliens search the basement in person. Their heads have large wide crowns, and giant black eyes that vaguely reminded me of aquatic creatures. Near the end of the movie, we begin to see how the aliens are harvesting people for their blood, and spraying it everywhere, causing creepy blood vines to rapidly grow over everything.
Spielberg has once again created a visually spectacular film that has plenty of action, and yet a certain amount of well-placed emotion as well. My only problem with the movie was that in the midst of all the chaos and destruction, there always seemed to be an open path for our hero to drive his car through. How convenient. But that was a very minor problem with the script, not the visual effects.