I really didn’t imagine this would be as good on a second viewing as it was on the first. Steven Spielberg is my god right now. This movie is terrifying and beautiful and the cinematography and visual effects are fantastic. The only real mistake I find, which I mentioned in the older review (below), is the Morgan Freeman narration: it simply doesn’t fit. Dakota Fanning completely makes the movie with some killer glances and asides. I don’t know what else to say right now.

2nd July 2005:

There’s something of the zombie movie about this version of the old sci-fi tale. I sensed aspects of Romero’s “Dead” trilogy (/quadrilogy) and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later… all the way through. It’s far more horror than sci-fi, and the first thing I want to say is, do not bring the kids with you. I know Dakota Fanning’s in it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a kids’ movie. I wouldn’t even take Dakota, lol (edit: okay, you know I would, given the opportunity edit 2: I seriously didn’t mean that to sound like that lol). It is seriously one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen. If you love Dakota as much as I do, it’s almost unbearable in places, and you’ll want to kill Tom Cruise for leaving her alone so many times.

Clichés abound, which is something I was really hoping against and honestly didn’t expect; yet the Spielberg/Williams/Kaminski team are just too damn slick and somehow they never quite come off as clichés. Morgan Freeman’s opening/closing narration is a little jarring (especially since he seems to be attempting an utterly needless accent/inflection), and, I have to say, a little cheeky – fans of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of the story (which is still the best for me) will forever have those words permanently attached to the opening “bah-bah-BAHHHHH” chords and, since a movie version of that is in the works, like I say, a little cheeky.

Speaking of the Wayne version, the sound team here really nailed the “Martian” war machine’s sound without having any similarity to the classic “ooh-lah”. And, speaking of the Wayne version, my biggest praise for Spielberg’s movie is that it really did frequently arouse the terror I remember from the first time I heard the Wayne music, late in the evening over a period of nights at prep school. Like I say, do not bring the kids. It’s nasty. Yet amazing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 7:19 pm in 5 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.