War of the Worlds (1953 / 2005 / 2025)

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (PG)

D: Byron Haskin

Paramount (George Pal)

US 1953

85 mins

Science Fiction

W: Barre Lyndon [based on the novel by H. G. Wells]

DP: George Barnes

Ed: Everett Douglas

Mus: Leith Stevens

Gene Barry (Dr. Clayton Forrester), Ann Robinson (Sylvia van Buren), Les Tremayne (Gen. Mann), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Pryor), Sandro Giglio (Dr. Bilderbeck), Cedric Hardwicke (narrator)

Fifteen years after Orson Welles terrorised the airwaves with his narration of H. G. Wells' prose, the classic science fiction novel earned its first big screen appearance.

It's quite a low-key approach to the material, focusing solely on a Martian invasion of the American mid-west. Alas, it's all a budget could afford at the time of release. Technically dated now, the film has the feel of an old-style 1950's B-movie, with a build up of tension better than most.

7/10

WAR OF THE WORLDS (12)

D: Steven Spielberg

Paramount/Dreamworks (Kathleen Kennedy & Colin Wilson)

US 2005

116 mins

Science Fiction

W: Josh Friedman & David Koepp [based on the novel by H. G. Wells]

DP: Janusz Kaminski

Ed: Michael Kahn

Mus: John Williams

PD: Rick Carter

Tom Cruise (Ray Ferrier), Dakota Fanning (Rachel Ferrier), Miranda Otto (Mary Ann Ferrier), Justin Chatwin (Robbie Ferrier), Tim Robbins (Harlan Ogilvy), Morgan Freeman (narrator)

Technically advanced, but narratively inferior remake of H. G. Wells' classic, particularly in the final third where the plotholes are simply too big to ignore.

Tom Cruise, miscast as an everyday man, stops at nothing to protect his children when a Martian attack sees huge tripods rise from beneath the surface of the Earth, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake and causing a wave of public panic just as hazardous.

The first half of the film actually does an excellent job in building up tension, helped with state of the art visual effects and an excellent use of sound editing. Unfortunately this all falls apart shortly after the hour mark, when our main protagonist and his young daughter seek refuge in an abandoned house where another survivor (Tim Robbins) has gone stir crazy. Mankind's "victory" over the invaders also seems like a copout, but nothing is more insulting than some characters seeming to rise from the dead.

Considering this is a Steven Spielberg film, it really ought to have been better and many of the problems lie in the second half of the script.

6/10

WAR OF THE WORLDS (12)

D: Rich Lee

Universal / Bazelevs (Patrick Aiello & Timur Bekmambetov)

US 🇺🇸 2025

89 mins

Science Fiction

W: Kenneth A. Golde & Marc Hyman [based on the novel by H.G. Wells]

DP; Christopher Probst

Ed: Charles Ancelle & Jake York

Mus: Jon Natchez

Ice Cube (Bill Radford), Eva Longoria (Dr. Sandra Salas), Clark Gregg (Donald Briggs), Iman Benson (Faith Radford), Henry Hunter Hall (Dave Radford)

It’s quite obvious that this adaptation of H.G. Wells’ ‘War of the Worlds’ was produced & filmed during the Covid-19 lockdown, where social distancing prevented people from being in close proximity, what isn’t so obvious is why somebody decided it would be a good idea to release this rubbish, even if it was only onto Amazon’s streaming platform, although with the amount of product placement for Amazon, perhaps it was a suitable union.

The film stars Ice Cube & his computer screen, with Cube playing a national security surveillance expert who seems more interested in what his daughter has in her fridge than carrying out actual work, however, he has to carry out at least some of his duties when extra-terrestrial machines wreak havoc & try to steal the world’s data, though Ice Cube mainly reacts to this chaos as though he’s watching a football match that is going against his bet.

This barely qualifies as a movie, and had it been some sort of student project that was never intended for release, it could be something you could laugh along with amongst a group of people.

This is probably the worst attempt at making a legitimate film since 2003’s The Room, but I don’t anticipate this to gain a cult following, in fact, this really should be a perfect example of data that needs to be targeted and deleted, permanently, by an extra terrestrial life form.

0/10