War of the Worlds

Good grief, that was entirely the last thing I was expecting: a Steven Spielberg film that’s unflinchingly tough and unsentimental from start to finish. It’s a story about the impact of extraordinary events on real, ordinary people, in a way I haven’t seen from Spielberg since Close Encounters (or, I suppose, Schindler’s List). It’s certainly a million miles away from pre-digested kid-friendly fare like Jurassic Park. So much psychological damage happens to so many people in War of the Worlds that I think I may be experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This, by the way is a recommendation. 🙂

More later, when I have a bit more time. One other aside – I’d heard that the movie was only loosely inspired by the book, but that’s not quite true. The characters, relationships and dialogue are 100% new, but the actual story is surprisingly faithful to the major beats of the novel. It conflates characters and events, but doesn’t stray far from the source material.

EDIT: Before the movie there was a rather cool C4 trailer for Lost. Nice.