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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
War of the Worlds
=9C19.99, Region 2 DVD,
full-frame, Dolby Pro Logic
(Paramount)
Tagline: “Mars Attacks!”
The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, but still they come.
Almost fifty years since the film was first released and long after Jeff Wayne and Justin Heyward’s bouffant hairdo could get involved in the monster madness, H.G. Wells’ story of death and destruction at the hands of the swan-shaped flying machines arrives on the digital home format.
You can’t blame the Martians. Their planet’s been on death row for the last few centuries with its natural sources fast approaching exhaustion, so wherever they lay their hat, that’s their home. Pluto and Saturn are frozen over, Neptune and Uranus are in permanent darkness and surrounded by lethal gases, Jupiter’s covered in lava and ice, Mercury’s too hot, so Earth is ripe for the picking with its lush vegetation and sustainable life systems.
Without so much as a by-your-leave or a Klaatu Barada Nikto’, the aliens feel that ours is a nice planet and they’ll take it. Sadly missing out Manchester’s Arndale Centre, they first direct their weaponry towards small-town America. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) investigate the meteor’ that hits the ground at the start and leaks more radiation than Chernobyl. However, the bright fire that rains down on innocent folk is a far cry from ID4’s death rays that wipe out whole buildings in an instant.
For such an old film the full-frame picture looks rather good with plenty of strong, contrasting colours where it counts and I can forgive the print of its blemishes and scratches. The average bitrate is a high 6.93Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s. Originally recorded in mono, we’re blessed with a remixed Dolby Pro Logic and a restored mono soundtrack, the former being my choice as it makes the alien attack stand out much more clearly, although in either case the opening narrator sounds like that from Ivor the Engine.
The chances of a feature-packed DVD coming from Mars are definitely a million to one – the only bonus is a trailer, but one of the olde-worlde types with big capital letters dominating the screen and a terrifying-sounding voice announcing the end of the world with dramatic background music.
The Picture: ***
The Sound: **1/2
Extras: 1/2
The Movie: ***
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.