War of the Worlds
Dir: Steven Spielberg
2005
**
The first album I ever bought was Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. The first TV program I remember ever being thrilled and scared witless by was The Tripods (A great little low budget BBC drama series that aired between 84-85 that was heavily inspired by The War of the Worlds). I used to love watching the 1953 version as a child (but always from behind the sofa) and I also loved H.G. Wells's book and I mean love! Apprehensive I may have been but an updated adaptation of the story was okay by me. I honestly thought that Steven Spielberg would have been perfect as director but how wrong I was. They had to update the story, I knew this, but the changes are far too big. The SFX are amazing, they really are, but the story is terrible in comparison. The source material has been completely misunderstood and while this was always going to be a blockbuster, it shouldn't have been treated as one, it should have been an intelligent drama with spectacular SFX rather than all out action. The original book was written as a reaction to Wells's feeling (mainly those of shame) towards Colonialism and imperialism, something the British empire was aggressively pursuing at the time. This of course needed to be updated but because 9/11 had only recently happened, the ideas took a very different road. The references to 9/11 are notable as is the patriotic view-point of the hurt and angry American. This only makes the adaptation even more distorted from the source material, apart from the name it bares little resemblance and that is somewhat of a pet hate for me and a big reason as to why I disliked it. I don't like the religious message of the 50's version and I can't say I feel much better about this 'patriotic' version. Also, the idea that they are in the ground and have been for many centuries is a fairly ridiculous idea and I'm shocked it made it into the final script.