Wow of the Worlds

All the signs were that Steven Spielberg's version of HG Wells's classic would be a turkey. The reluctance to show this film to critics, the feeble trailer, the lacklustre nature of Spielberg's last effort (The Terminal) and Tom Cruise's transparently desperate attempt to drum up publicity all pointed in the same direction - but, as it turns out, the wrong one.

War of the Worlds is a massive return to form for Spielberg, the best blockbuster of the summer (superior even to Batman Begins) and, I would be happy to argue, the greatest action epic of all time.

There has been no director better than Spielberg at manufacturing huge, actionand-special-effects blockbusters that don't neglect the human, the humorous, the seemingly inconsequential detail that sets the hairs on the back of our neck on end.

That is the reason why he is the most commercially successful director ever, and the central explanation of why War of the Worlds is likely to become this year's biggest hit.

When in full- out commercial mode, as here, Spielberg doesn't make pictures that win actors Oscar nominations. But once again he makes excellent use of the world's most popular actor, Tom Cruise.

For all his drive and good looks, Cruise has a cocky, egocentric side, and his boyishness is starting to look spooky in a man over 40. Spielberg skilfully sets up the expectation that he will be a conventionally pushy, Bruce Willisstyle, blue-collar action-hero (the first shot shows him lifting huge containers in the docks, from within a gigantic crane), but then this master- director turns our assumptions on their head. This is virtually the first action picture since Hitchcock's North by Northwest in which the hero spends all his time running away.

His heroism lies in his determination to protect not his own life, but his children's. And Spielberg makes his emotional progress to maturity beautifully clear.

When we first meet Cruise, his work at the docks has made him late for an appointment to take charge of his two children by his former wife (Miranda Otto).

Heavy machinery, cars and even guns, Tom can handle. Where he's all at sea is in his relations with his ex-wife, his 17-year-old son (Justin Chatwin), all gangly walk and headphones, like a nontennisplaying Andrew Murray, and Tom's little daughter (Dakota Fanning).

There's a lovely moment when Dakota (an uncannily fine child actress) needs her father to comfort her with a lullaby. He doesn't know any, so he sings her a verse of Little Deuce Coupe, showing her, us and - in a moment of revelation - himself, that he can sing about his affection for a car, but not for his own daughter.

As for epic special effects and searing imagery, Spielberg does not disappoint. Bridges collapse, boats sink, aircraft crash, people explode, a train rushes past with its carriages on fire. The crowd scenes are especially brilliantly directed. Just as important as the awe-inspiring spectacle, however, are the pace of the storytelling and the masterful use of suspense.