I saw it when it first came out, but too I was ultimately dissapointed. That said, I went there pretty much determined to hate it anyway being a fan of the book since I was old enough to read ;-)
The original story had a wealth of social commentry and many subcontexts that fit the era in which it was written. The exploitation of less advanced nations at the hands of those more advanced, the portents of mechanised warfare, genocide, etc.
I think the attempt to make a contemporary retelling of the work with contemporary meaning struggles. However there were some plus points to the movie.
The movie managed to portray the sense of total helplessness in the original story. Nowhere do we see governments or authorities beyond the military attempting to 'deal' with the situation (common in most invasion movies) - they couldnt resist a degree of holywood heroism as Tom Cruise manages to bring down a fighting machine, but on the whole they kept this in check.
I can't help wondering if Dakita Fanning is a bit of an in joke. Speilberg cant help shoving some wide eyed little girl in movies for the cute appeal, but let's face it, she is anything but. A constant screeching irritation that leaves you wishing she'd stayed in the basket ;-)
Combining the original; curate and artillery man and relabelling the fusion as Ogilvy was... interesting. The resulting character certianly was neurotic enough :lol:
I was dissapointed at the lack of Thunderchild, but then I suppose that's what the army was there for; mans most advanced arsenal falling hoplessly short of making any difference.
On the sfx side...
The fighting machines were a reasonable effort. The book is very coy about their description, seen through the eyes of the lead character who struggles to describe them. You need to read it through several times just to get an idea. However, and this will sound like heresy to Jeff Wayne fans everywhere, the fighting machines in this movie are a good deal closer to the book description. They are not stiff legged, cumbersome machines. Wells ultimately describes them as fast moving and fully articulate, animal like almost, down to the presence of what he describes as 'sham musculature'.
The machines in the movie are surprisingly close to how I imagined the books description. The 'cowelled hoods' are unmistakable and there's even the slight puffs of luminous green smoke visible from them in some scenes ;-) You even get the "ulla" sound - almost.
The aliens themselves, however, look like rejects from independence day. Nothing like the fat, atrophied cephalopod like beasts in the book.
