Reviews By DJ Tyrer

WAR OF THE WORLDS A Steven Spielberg Film Spielberg has taken on the challenge of adapting The War Of The Worlds for the twenty-first century - something of a major task as films of books often face heavy criticism anyway, but he is also updating it (always bound to offend purists) and competing with a previous film (luckily, not only was that attempt of very poor quality but took so many liberties with the original material that anything would be an improvement!). And I, for once, agree with the majority of the critics that he has done an amazing job. Everything about it is a success from the story itself to the acting to the SFX. There are some good, almost comedic but just the right side of serious moments in the film, such as when we get a look at the way rumours swarm through a crowd lacking any certain facts (one claiming that Europe is untouched, another that it is worst hit by the invasion), and an early line where the son displays typical American parochialism in response to his father explaining that the attack has "come from elsewhere" by asking "What, Europe?". it also plays well on the post-September 11th fears of terrorism.

Visually it is a feast of gorgeous imagery such as the blazing train and the tripods themselves which are well realised on screen. At the same time, it was no case of SFX over story and acting ability, as so often occurs. The story worked really well and was impressive in the way that it followed the original whilst also updating events from early twentieth century England to the USA of a hundred years later - I especially enjoyed the way key characters and scenes were echoed but not slavishly reproduced. it also managed to be genuinely exciting with a good pace and no dull moments - I really jumped a couple of times! The acting was extremely good - even the majority of the extras looked suitably traumatised, weary or terrified as the scene demanded. tom Cruise surprised me with how good his performance was (I have not been much of a fan of his until this and The Last Samurai), but the real stand-out was Dakota Fanning - her portrayal of a rather wussy, traumatised product of dysfunctional American family life living through real terror was perfect. Their ability managed that rarity of actually making me care about the characters and want them to survive - too often a film itself is good but annoying characters just make you wish they would get killed off! In fact, they worked so well that the background story of Cruise's transformation as a father was actually worthwhile. Surprisingly, there were very few flaws, which is another reason that this film is destined to be a classic. The way that the mechanic didn't seem to notice the chaos all around him was irritating and reminiscent of the sort of oblivious characters that turn up in disaster films (such as in The Day After Tomorrow when people seem not to notice the tidal surge headed towards them). There was a little too much reliance on good luck (such as narrow misses by heat rays and the way the plane managed to miss their vehicle), although that did make for an interesting take on heroism - far more luck than judgement or skill! And there was a continuity error of a video camera working after the EMP - alright, it could have come from outside the area, but then how did the person get in so quickly with roads clogged by dead cars? The ending was a little bit of a let down, being abrupt (albeit partly the fault of the original) and making the family reunion too easy - if I had been making the film, I would have added another scene or two as Cruise searched for his ex-wife; and I would have killed the son to give it a bitter-sweet feel. Oh, well, I guess Hollywood just loves a happy ending - even when the world is devastated and thousands, even millions, are dead! But none of those flaws is truly major (and most viewers will know nothing about EMP and so not care about a lone camera) and so do not detract from what is a modern classic. An excellent film!

Constantine Graphic Novel Published By Vertigo It had to happen - the comic adaption of a film adaption of a comic. Well, I haven't seen the film of Constantine yet, but if this was anything to go by, I'm not too keen... the story has all the cliches of bad horror fiction, such as a holy shotgun, and a poor sense of pace and plotting, jumping awkwardly between scenes and relying on the worst storytelling cliches to prevent the plot from grinding to a halt. Still, if you liked the film then you will like this. but, the volume is not just Constantine, it also contains three old Hellblazer instalments (including issue one of the comic) but not their conclusions, in an attempt to get new readers to buy other Hellblazer anthologies. Of course, that is a bit of a con for Hellblazer fans, although, as indicated in many fans' comments, few will likely buy it. This was nowhere near as good as I hoped for...

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II By Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill Here is the tale hinted at in volume one - the Martians (well, tripod-riding invaders via Mars) are here! Everything that was good about the first volume are here, the wit, the literary references, the injokes - but... there is a but... Volume one had a love-it-or-hate-it quality - not everyone got the joke, not everyone liked what they did to the characters, but it did have enough thrills to interest many who had doubts. The sequel has an even greater love-it-or-hate-it quality than the first which often overwhelms the story - if you didn't like the first, if you had any doubts, then, well, you will never like this, you will find nothing to redeem it. This is no great adventure but a big joke. The problem is that even those that get the joke may not appreciate it... Moreau's creatures could be funny in another context, but just felt out of place here. Volume one was rather risque in a couple of places but volume two goes too far into vulgarity - not funny, not entertaining, extremely irritating and definitely not at all suitable for kiddies and those of a sensitive disposition. Just as volume one contained a superior prose story, so volume two's stand-out contribution is also in prose :  a gazeteer of sttrange and exciting locales - unfortunately, whilst it gets the 'joke' right, unlike the comic strip, that joke is essentially a one-shot... Still, anything that links Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas to HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos has to be good! All sorts of references tease the memory, some are pretty obscure, others fairly obvious if you are familiar with the SF and horror genres (and, if you're not sure, annotated online commentaries give the answers). So, conclusions... The NEw Travellers' Almanac is excellent, it's just a shame that it lacks the depth to hold up to repeated reading. the actual story has a wonderful plot trying to clamber out from under the weight of sex and silliness, but not quite succeeding - many who enjoyed volume one will be disappointed, and those who didn't enjoy it or who had their doubts will loathe it. A real disappointment...