As Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines, one family fights for survival: Not exactly the kind of plotline you’d expect Hollywood’s most wanted to tackle, but this time it’s got a science fiction legend as the source.
Steven Spielberg takes on the next screen incarnation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel, “War of Worlds.” After the success of “Minority Report,” Spielberg has again tapped Tom Cruise as his leading man in a big-budget sci-fi flick. In “War of the Worlds,” Cruise plays a dock worker who struggles to get his family to safety as Earth is invaded by aliens unstoppable with human technology.
Fans of the book or the previous adaptations of “War of the Worlds” may be disappointed by the changes in Spielberg’s version. The aliens are no longer Martians — now they’re just random aliens from somewhere in space. Apparently, Spielberg found this more realistic. The film also sets the movie in modern New Jersey instead of Victorian England, which will likely lead to even more comparisons with “Independence Day.”
Despite all this, it’s hard to imagine that Spielberg doesn’t know what he’s doing. We may not need another alien film, but Spielberg might just give us a close encounter with the third kind that we will remember.
