My Review of "War of the Worlds"

War of the Worlds came out back in 2005. I had to remind myself that it's an older movie. The style of movie making and character designs were very different back then. Things have changed so much over the past 20 years and I'm sure they're going to change even more. I hated the characters in this movie and they made me want to stop the movie mid-run.

The movie starts off with a bit of unnecessary narration and then jumps into the introduction of our lead character Ray. He is very much an unlikable character. There's actually not a lot of redeeming qualities about Ray. The guy is a self absorbed man-child that doesn't really care about his kids. I don't blame his wife for separating from him and taking the kids.

It so happens that he is supposed to take care of his two kids. He doesn't suspect it so he has nothing planned and didn't even expect them to show up. How could he plan anything anyways? It's not like he knows much about them. His character is terrible and I was really cheesed to see such a rotten character but I'm thinking this will change as the movie progresses. He's going to grow and become a better person right?

Pretty soon we have some weird stuff happen around the world and it's finally started happening to the city that Ray lives in. It's basically aliens and they're not here to make friends.

I love how everyone wants to walk towards disaster areas in this movie. It's so utterly ridiculous. Yes, there will be some idiots just like in real life that act like flies to a light. This movie makes it seem like everyone will want to. Then again like I said before this movie is pretty old. Back then, cell phones weren't a thing. People aren't as pessimistic as they are today and would back then. Today it just seems really wild that people are behaving this way.

The aliens basically decimate the whole area and everyone in the area except for Ray. He has some sort of horseshoe up his but because he always gets away from the most ridiculous scenarios imaginable. There were a number of times where I was hoping that the aliens would get him but he's invincible! In some ways this could kind of be seen as a comedy but I know it's meant to lean towards the horror aspect.

Again back in the day you'd have people do stupid things in horror movies to make horror scenes work. This movie is no different. Some of the characters will walk aimlessly just to get into trouble. It is extremely frustrating! There isn't any real plan either. Ray is wandering aimlessly with his kids to nowhere. There's really no escape from these aliens where did they really think they could possibly go?

Atop that, there are crazy weird inconsistencies to their unwritten movie world. How long does the electricity not work when the aliens use that lightning thing? They conveniently have people using their camcorders when there's supposed to be no electricity all around and then suddenly cars work? Then they don't? I don't get it.

Don't even get me started with Ray's kids because they're a problem and a half as well! I get it though. This dysfunctional family is to cause increased chaos and anxiety for the audience as we follow along on their journey. They're constantly talking over one another and bickering non-stop. I really wanted to shut this off a few times. Each time, I kept saying it's going to get better, but it never did.

Overall, this was one of the most frustrating movie going experiences I've had in a while. The characters are so unlikeable, the movie's environment rules never make sense and the main character miraculously gets away from things he shouldn't be getting away with. I do not recommend this movie to anyone. It was so bad I have to give it a 3.5 out of 10.