Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 0
Cast: Rafe Spall, Eleanor Tomlinson, Rupert Graves, Nicholas Le Provost, Harry Melling, Jonathan Aris, Robert Carlyle, Charlie De’Ath, Joey Batey, Freya Allan, Daniel Cerqueira, Aisling Jarrett-Gavin, Woody Norman, Reid Anderson, Susan Woolridge, Taliyah Blair, Philip Gascoyne, Sam Benjamin, Christopher Hatherall, Daniel Cerqueira, Bradley Cottrell, Kieron Bimpson, Cokey Falkow, Milo Twomey, Michele Donockley, Joanne James, Craig Thomas Lambert, Keith Lomas, Juliet Roar, Georgie-May Tearle.
Herbert George Wells, should the great Victorian writer have survived the rigors of time and conflict, would have every reason to have to look upon the adaptions of his novel, The War Of The Worlds, and wonder just exactly what he had done to upset so many adaptors that they could not capture the message, the belief, the overall beauty of his idea and instead would turn it into one of the worst excesses of film and television possible.
It would be considered an almost physical impossibility to sink lower than the diatribe of emotions that accompanied Steven Spielberg’s and Tom Cruise’s 2005 apocalyptic vision, and after all nobody expects cinema to capture the intensity or magic that Jeff Wayne supplied in his musical extravaganza in what is arguably one of the finest albums of all time but to produce a three part serial for television which had about as much in common with its source material as Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio broadcast which saw the master dramatist and film maker’s influence soar, even at the cost of personal embarrassment to many listening who were fooled by the ‘breaking story’ and yet somehow fall on its face with little charm, is in itself a triumph of despair and disaster over a sure fire hit.
The problem with modern adaptions is that the audience has also moved on in its outlook and sensibilities, and in some cases what this leads to is the programme being short-changed, left to flounder, and in the worst case scenario, being turgid and lacking any redeeming features that an audience can find to identify with.
It would be wrong to lay all the problems of this particular adaption at the door of the writer but for a story that has been arguably anticipated with such feverish intent, and with such actors of repute as Rafe Spall, Eleanor Tomlinson, Rupert Graves and Robert Carlyle all being the moment in which to cement their acting pedigree for eternity, what transpires is a tale that was truly framed by inadequacy and arguably the feeling of not being cared for; if that is the case then for the first time in quite a while, the B.B.C. must bear responsibility for the lack of viewer response and complete inertia.
Adaption and change is a tricky channel to cross, the boldness of installing a completely different lead character than the novel possessed is one that could have been handled with greater deference, and despite Eleanor Tomlinson being an actor of good faith, should in all honesty have been left in the imagination, and not given life. The inclusion of a character that does not originally exist is just the tip of the iceberg, the series is bereft with the pointless, with the creativity stunted and forced out as though the channel were demanding that the story needed to be told in a fashion that was as dull as the setting, and when you can find better examples of what the Martian invaders would look like in turn of the 20th century drawings, then you know, with heavy heart, that time has not been kind to one of Britain’s finest ever writers.
The War Of The Worlds promised so much and fails to land a decent punch, indeed any blow….something that no one would have believed.
Ian D. Hall