Invasion (2005)

One of my favorite books of all time is H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. To date I don't feel that there is a film version of this story that is able to match what Wells created in his book, but I would say that out of all of the film adaptations I would pick the 1953 version as my favorite. The 2005 Steven Spielberg version offered up some fantastic special effects, but lacked an amiable cast of characters to connect with. I only mention that version of War of the Worlds because The Asylum, that notorious studio of shameless rip-offs, had a straight to video release of War of the Worlds (titled Invasion here on RT) that hit shelves around the same time Spielberg's film hit theaters. Where Spielberg's version lacked interesting characters, David Michael Latt's War of the Worlds lacks both interesting characters and a solid story. While the novel is a very deep story with powerful themes, this film adaptation gets lost among its narrative attempts and slips into a sluggish and mindless bore. The film does retain the "husband looking for his wife" story arc of the novel, but the various situations that he finds himself in along the way didn't feel as dire, nor could I find myself able to care whether or not he actually succeeded in his journey. I grew up in the 80's, an era of many memorable actors (whether for good or bad reasons). C. Thomas Howell is one of those 80's actors I'll always remember; especially for films like The Outsiders, Red Dawn, The Hitcher and the infamous Soul Man (which more or less features Howell in black-face through most of the film). Howell is the star of this version of War of the Worlds, and I have to give it up to him. For a lousy film with some lousy characters Howell does give his all in the role of George Herbert, the husband/father trying to reunite with his wife and son during this alien invasion. His performance is a bit sporadic, and he often is more emotional than certain scenes require. But like anyone desperate for work, he does command the film more than anyone else in the cast. The special effects aren't impressive, but you should expect that since this is a straight to video release (and an Asylum one at that). The alien's war machines aren't the tri-pods of the novels but rather these weird crab looking things. I wouldn't have minded them if it weren't for the fact that these machines act in a similar fashion to the machines of Spielberg's film. Thankfully the special effects don't dominate the film, so we aren't subjected to them for too long. Maybe if there weren't all those minor special effects scenes throughout the film more attention could have been spent on the finale of this War of the Worlds, and it could have been a little more thrilling. On the back of the DVD for this film there is a quote that says "The most horrifying version of all." That isn't from a review, nor did it come out of anyone's mouth who saw this film. It's just words that Asylum pasted on the back of the box I suppose in order to trick people into thinking this film is worth buying/renting. But this one just isn't a film worth seeing. And how horrifying can a film be where the last ditch effort to save mankind takes place in a veterinarian's office with vials of rabies?