Another film adaptation of H. W. Wells' classic, this movie was one of *three* films released in 2005 under the same title. Very confusing. The same year that Tom Cruise starred in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster, this one, by Asylum, came out to try to take advantage of the publicity surrounding Spielberg's film. (The third "War of the Worlds" was a passion project of newbie producer/director Timothy Hines which was actually a half-decade in the making -- an interesting story that's actually beyond the scope of this review.) Since the title and the story is in the public domain, Asylum was able to use the exact same title/story as Spielberg's film, which resulted in enough confusion that this movie was very successful financially for Asylum.
Following the original story very closely (perhaps even more closely than Spielberg's film), this adaptation had some great score, good cinematography, and a few great acting performances, Unfortunately, there were some really bad performances by bit players that just sunk it. C. Thomas Howell played the main character, George Herbert, and did a fantastic job, along with his on-screen wife, played by Tinarie van Wyk Loots. It's too bad that Herbert's wife never gets any more screen time after the first few minutes of the film because Loots seemed like a competent actress and would have improved the film. She just disappears and the rest of the film is about her husband George. (Actually her severed head appears a little later in the film.)
Another great performance was turned in by Andrew Lauer, playing an Army sergeant, the best performance in the film, actually. Also, the actor who played George's brother Matt, Peter Greene had a challenging scene that he played very well. A surprise appearance was Juke Busey (credited in this film as William Busey), a character actor who's been in many high-profile science fiction films. He also turned in a good performance as an evil, psycho, renegade solder.
But what sunk the film were the bit parts. There were a few that happened at the alien crash site which, along with some really stupid dialogue, were among the worst performances on film. Then there was one bit actor who had the most phony southern accent -- it was embarrassing.
The score was really pretty good and the cinematography was good, too, although some scenes were too dark to follow the action, which may have been a problem in post, I'm not sure. And of course the story and plot were great simply because they followed the original so closely.
As far as the racial composition of the cast, it was an essentially an all-white film. (And mostly male.) There was one bit part at the very end of the film -- a black man got seven seconds of screen time and three words. There were a few Latino extras here and there, but none had speaking parts. That's it. Very white, but there was no explicit or subtle racial derision that I could detect beyond the composition of the cast.
Overall, this could have been a really great film if they would have cut the poor acting by the bit players and replaced it with scenes of George's wife throughout the story. Less gory violence would have been better, too. And a lot more color in the cast was needed. I would have given this a rating 6/10 if it had more people of color, but because of the all-white cast and the lousy acting by bit players, it gets a 5.
Triggers: gun/laser violence, graphic depiction of burn victims, wanton gun violence, military frigging, graphic depictions of mutilated corpses, gory violence
Rating 5/10; (submitted July 16, 2020, 12:20 a.m. EDT)
Following the original story very closely (perhaps even more closely than Spielberg's film), this adaptation had some great score, good cinematography, and a few great acting performances, Unfortunately, there were some really bad performances by bit players that just sunk it. C. Thomas Howell played the main character, George Herbert, and did a fantastic job, along with his on-screen wife, played by Tinarie van Wyk Loots. It's too bad that Herbert's wife never gets any more screen time after the first few minutes of the film because Loots seemed like a competent actress and would have improved the film. She just disappears and the rest of the film is about her husband George. (Actually her severed head appears a little later in the film.)
Another great performance was turned in by Andrew Lauer, playing an Army sergeant, the best performance in the film, actually. Also, the actor who played George's brother Matt, Peter Greene had a challenging scene that he played very well. A surprise appearance was Juke Busey (credited in this film as William Busey), a character actor who's been in many high-profile science fiction films. He also turned in a good performance as an evil, psycho, renegade solder.
But what sunk the film were the bit parts. There were a few that happened at the alien crash site which, along with some really stupid dialogue, were among the worst performances on film. Then there was one bit actor who had the most phony southern accent -- it was embarrassing.
The score was really pretty good and the cinematography was good, too, although some scenes were too dark to follow the action, which may have been a problem in post, I'm not sure. And of course the story and plot were great simply because they followed the original so closely.
As far as the racial composition of the cast, it was an essentially an all-white film. (And mostly male.) There was one bit part at the very end of the film -- a black man got seven seconds of screen time and three words. There were a few Latino extras here and there, but none had speaking parts. That's it. Very white, but there was no explicit or subtle racial derision that I could detect beyond the composition of the cast.
Overall, this could have been a really great film if they would have cut the poor acting by the bit players and replaced it with scenes of George's wife throughout the story. Less gory violence would have been better, too. And a lot more color in the cast was needed. I would have given this a rating 6/10 if it had more people of color, but because of the all-white cast and the lousy acting by bit players, it gets a 5.
Triggers: gun/laser violence, graphic depiction of burn victims, wanton gun violence, military frigging, graphic depictions of mutilated corpses, gory violence
Rating 5/10; (submitted July 16, 2020, 12:20 a.m. EDT)
