Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The War of the Worlds’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Perhaps my favorite memory growing up, at least when it comes to watching movies, was the sheer wonder that came about when I settled in to watch a science fiction movie I had never seen before. Because as a young boy growing up in the 1980’s, everything was fresh and new to me and the advent of VHS allowed for me to explore every incredible story from every single era that this genre has to offer and really, while I would like to sit here and say I fully understood the stories that were playing out in front me, I didn’t. I was sucked into these movies and everything they have to offer by way of their special effects.
 
Granted, the further back I went on this journey, the cheesier these effects turned out to be, but seven-year-old me could have cared less. I was simply in awe of visuals that would normally only play out in my imagination and sometimes, when you’re in a nostalgic mood, you go back and revisit those classics in both your mind and through the wonder of a DVD player and recently, after spotting a couple of H.G. Wells themed remakes on cable, I felt it was high time to pop an older adaptation of his fine work into my Blu Ray player and take a stroll down memory lane by way of the 1953 classic, The War of the Worlds.
 
Now, there’s really no need to discuss the plot in the slightest here, because this is a movie that you’ve likely seen if you’re reading this and if not, well, you need to get on that as soon as possible because this motion picture really was a revolutionary film back when it was released. After all, in 1953, the special effects featured in this movie were simply top notch and quite frankly, they hold up incredibly well today, at least the Martian attack ships certainly do, which speaks volumes to the quality of those tiny models and the work that went into filming them.  

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​But let’s be honest, the wonder of this film extends far beyond the miniature work, even though, the first appearance of those ships still sends chills down my spine, but I digress. Because the story was revolutionary in its own right as well. After all, 1950’s science fiction rarely had an apocalyptic and desolate feel to it, but this film offers that up in spades. I mean come on, the Martians are virtually unstoppable in this story, and we watch cities burn at their might and that’s some fairly heavy material to be found in a film from the Americana era of cinema. 
 
However, what I’ve always appreciated the most about this particular tale, is the sheer fact that this iteration of the story stays true to a big lesson that H.G. Wells put forth in his original story, in that…while we are masters of our domain, the planet, and partly the universe in this case, will always find a way to remind us of our fragility and how small we are as was evidenced by the invasion to begin with and the virus that eventually brings down the Martian army in stunning fashion and it’s just wonderful to see how well that message has also withstood the test of time in this motion picture.
 
As an added bonus when it comes to this movie, the performances from Gene Berry and Ann Robinson as Dr. Clayton Forrester and Sylvia Van Buren respectively, hold up well after all these years and that’s a big deal because if that wasn’t the case, the power and gravity of everything we just discussed would fade away and really, their performances and everything we’ve highlighted today, make this film a timeless classic. One that leaves the audience thinking and still takes our breath away and honestly, I’m sorry I don’t revisit this film more often because man, it really is amazing through and through and it inspired generations of filmmakers to think bigger and without it, who knows where science fiction films would be today. 

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