John Dekker's Day

Thursday, July 7, 2005

10:27AM - Movies XIV: War of the Worlds

In The Curse of the Gold Cross, G. K. Chesterton has Father Brown say, "I can believe the impossible, but not the improbable... it really is more natural to believe a preternatural story, that deals with things we don’t understand, than a natural story that contradicts things we do understand."

I felt that way with The War of the Worlds. I'm happy to accept that alien ships can rise out of the earth and kill millions of people. But I cannot believe that a man can drive his car at full speed along a highway full of stationary cars, and not have an accident. The aliens I'm agnostic about, but the driving contradicts what I do understand.

That - along with Tom Cruise trying to be a father - made the film a bit painful to watch. It was, of course, much darker than the 1953 version - and in this one, nobody went to church. But Dakota Fanning's performance was amazing, and the film had me at times on the edge of my seat.

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