War of the Worlds (2005) (DVD)

Unfortunately I am not here reviewing the special two-disc edition as DreamWorks only sent me the single disc version, but nonetheless this affords me the opportunity to rap and flap about War of the Worlds once again. The film that allowed critics to once again praise Steven Spielberg and also introduced the weird side of Tom Cruise to the world in full force as summer 2005 just may be known as the year of Cruise, Scientology and Holmes.

Considering this isn't a gossip site I will end my commentary on Cruise's personal life out of the rest of this review and stay focused on the movie, a movie I enjoyed in theaters, but did not love like the rest of the critics. I still contend that the reason this film is good at all is because the opening 15-20 minutes are outstanding. When Morgan Freeman comes on as the narrator and begins to read the words of H.G. Wells it is as if he was always meant to say them. Then the alien attack begins and we are reminded of what a blockbuster summer movie is supposed to be, and it translates well to home theaters as this disc comes equipped with not only Dolby Digital sound, but my favorite that ever so important DTS track.

The reason I am upset I am not reviewing the two-disc version for you is that beyond the movie all I have to talk to you about is the one special feature, a feature devoted to the design of the aliens for the film. Now, the feature is cool, but that H.G. Wells feature on the other edition is something I would not have mind checking out... Oh well.

For those of you that loved this movie in the theaters you already probably own a version, those of you that love sci-fi you probably own one too, but for those of you out there on the fence I think this is a film you can buy without seeing it in advance and be happy you bought it. It's currently priced at $17.99 over at Amazon, which is a couple bucks more than when I added it to the site, but if you are a fan of alien features, Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg I don't think you can go wrong with War of the Worlds.