War of the Worlds Beats Gossip on Tom & Katie

Blood sucking aliens! Tom Cruise! Steven Speilberg! H.G. Wells! Need we say more?

Yes, it's officially summer and judging from the plethora of blockbuster flicks out in 2005, it's gonna be a long one.

Just about everyone I know was all psyched to see Tom Cruise save civilization in War of the Worlds for months, ever since the first teaser flickered across their tubes. In fact, I was told by many of my "wiser" friends (if I say older, I can almost guarantee Christmas will suck) not to watch the original before seeing the latest version, if, for no other reason, that it was more grueling than entertaining.

But this is 2005 and Tom Cruise is a heck of a versatile actor and besides, the previews couldn't last forever, now could they?

So, I sped to the theater for the very first local screening, I was expecting...oh, I don't know....magic. While I wouldn't say what I experienced was magic, it was far from grueling.

The story revolves around a surprise alien attack. If you didn't know that, maybe you should see another movie. I would tell you how they get here and how they make their presence known, but that would be cheating. Okay, one hint: flying scraps of clothing - and that's all I'm saying. Mostly, though, the initial scenes of the movie exhibit how lazy divorced dad Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is and how horribly depressing his life has become. His ex is remarried to a great looking rich guy and pregnant with his child and everytime Ray thinks about it, he wants to bend glass.

His two kids, smart alleck teen Robbie (Justin Chatwin ) and little prima diva Rachel (Dakota Flanning) have mixed feelings about spending the weekend with pop, but go anyway because their mom makes them. Robbie in particular doesn't dig having to crash at papa's place and manages to turn even an old classic activity like father-son catch in the backyard into a fight. Little Rachel (Flanning does a great job of screaming - a LOT) doesn't mind seeing her dad so much, it's just that his place doesn't have what she considers the necessities of life - food, X-Box and TIVo. Poor little thing.

Within a day, Robbie steals his estranged daddy's baby (his car, silly!), a lightning storm scares the living daylights out of everyone and aliens strike. At first, everyone's saying "Wow, that's pretty cool." A few moments later, they're running for their lives. You can't help at that point but look at Tom Cruise and think one thing:

"Someone needs a hug."

Instead, he gets to drive around the countryside dodging those pesky invaders and people who, in their most desperate of hours, become not-so-nice. It wouldn't be so bad if the unfriendly visitors would just settle in already and stop hunting the humans down like unwilling deer on Ted Nugent's ranch.

I'm not going to give you a lot of details and spoil the film for you, but I will say that it is worth the price of admission. The real star of the show, despite pretty darn good acting from Cruise and the kiddos, is of course the special effects. There are so many cool lightening bolts, zippy lasers and generally splashy sequences that you'd swear you were smack dab in the middle of a Pink Floyd light show. Don't pretend you haven't seen one.

There are of course instances of stand-out wizardry, such as a water sequence that gets the pulse racing and the aliens' crafts and bodies, but the coolest is perhaps the utter destruction that is wrought. With or without a green screen, some of those shots must have been rather complicated. Although I understand that the booming, forboding noise the unwelcome guests make and their design are pretty close to the original, just more modern.

The real drama is wondering how the heck the people are going to escape such a malignant force. That's one of the many reasons I'm glad I didn't see the original first, I didn't want any hint whatsoever of how it would end until right before those credits rolled. Just when you're thinking that someone is going to get lost or killed, the formerly grouchy threesome comes to some sort of epiphany, exchanges knowing glances, tear up and everything is fine again - for about five seconds.

Watch for Tim Robbins (Mr. Susan Sarandon) as a loopy refugee, which is a sequence that the movie could have lost and easily gotten along without it, but it does show what we are capable of in the throes of war.

If you can peel yourself away from the Tom and Katie lovefest long enough, make sure you catch this one. If nothing else, you'll have to know what's going on to discuss it with your friends or co-workers this summer.

It ain't brain surgery, but it ain't half bad, either. Personally, I would much rather see Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes actually acting than being the PDA postercouple that they've become. God Bless America.

Photo: NewsCom.com