Steven Spielberg has excelled at nearly every genre, with the lauded director recently teasing his first foray into Westerns. Sci-fi is one he has returned to over the years, delivering fondly remembered classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., and Jurassic Park. His next blockbuster release is another intense thriller centered around government conspiracies and UFOs, with Disclosure Day hitting theaters in June.
Yet there is a unique caveat to Spielberg’s work. The director is so skilled and recognizable that when he adapts or remakes something, he can often outshine the source material. When Jurassic Park is mentioned, most think of the beloved 1993 film before Michael Crichton’s novel. This overshadowing is also true of Jaws and, for some, Ready Player One. In 2005, Spielberg accomplished something similar when he directed a sci-fi remake of a classic novel, delivering one of the best versions to date. While some audiences may find elements divisive, it has continued to gain fans, and other filmmakers have since tried to replicate its success, allowing the remake to earn its place in history.
Steven Spielberg Wasn’t the First Director To Adapt ‘The War of the Worlds’
The War of the Worlds is a classic 1898 novel by H.G. Wells, whose other notable works include The Time Machine and The Invisible Man. The novel details an alien invasion by an army of Martians, as witnessed by an anonymous narrator in England. The advanced invaders set about using superior technology to capture Earth for themselves, with humanity left in shambles. The sci-fi novel gained extra notoriety in 1938 thanks to the infamous radio broadcast on The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which had listeners in a panic when they believed it was real news about an unfolding alien invasion.
The first film adaptation wasn’t until 1953, with the release of The War of the Worlds starring Gene Berry and Ann Robinson. The Byron Haskin-directed film became a genre classic. It even won Best Special Effects at the Academy Awards. The 1953 iteration changed a few details, swapping England in 1898 for California in the 1950s. However, it inspired many filmmakers who followed, including Spielberg, who put his spin on The War of the Worlds in 2005. While the Minority Report director made his own changes to the story, his remake captured audience attention and is often remembered as fondly as Haskin’s first adaptation, or maligned for even trying.
The downside is that H.G. Wells’ novel entered the public domain, allowing numerous filmmakers to capitalize on the name with a wide range of unfortunate results. The 2025 version starring Ice Cube became notorious for its poor quality. There have been animated iterations, and even the B-movie studio The Asylum has produced multiple projects based on the name. Thankfully, the 1953 original holds up as a classic, and Spielberg’s serves as a more modern take that can still enrapture audiences with its tense invasion story.
Spielberg’s 2005 Remake of ‘War of the Worlds’ Still Hasn’t Been Topped
Spielberg went big with his 2005 adaptation, setting the story in modern-day America and fueling it with big-budget visuals. It didn’t hurt that the director hired Tom Cruise to run from massive alien tripods, as audiences have proven time and again that they love seeing the Mission: Impossible star getting his cardio in. The cast also features Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins, rounding out the apocalyptic road movie that keeps the family one step ahead of the invading forces.
The director made one tweak to the novel’s title. As if taking Justin Timberlake’s advice from The Social Network, he dropped “The” from his release of War of the Worlds. The movie was penned by an impressive duo: Josh Friedman, who co-wrote the story for Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash, and Spielberg’s regular collaborator, David Koepp, wrote the first two Jurassic Park movies and the last two Indiana Jones releases.
One of the most striking aspects of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is the visuals. The size and scope of destruction on display is jaw-dropping, putting viewers into a tense panic right along with the characters as they attempt to outrun certain death in a minivan or avoid drowning when a tripod sinks their ferry. There’s a clear reason the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. However, it lost to Peter Jackson’s King Kong, which, ironically, features some VFX that don’t hold up as well as those in War of the Worlds.
Where Spielberg’s skill truly shines is the masterful way the film can switch from massive, bombastic action to tense, sci-fi horror, weaving a cinematic rollercoaster of emotions. The 2005 remake offers plenty of time for family drama, which is often thrown into chaos with tense set pieces and unique visuals that no other filmmaker is quite capable of delivering. As Cruise’s character is compelled to investigate what is happening, viewers are equally intrigued, wanting to know while their hearts are pounding, knowing he needs to get as far away as possible. It’s the mark of a true talent when a director isn’t just telling a story, but taking audiences on a journey of personal experiences they will remember.
Alan Jones of Radio Times captured what War of the Worlds does best in their review, stating that it “is a masterclass in escalating tension, with grandiose and brilliantly executed sequences following in rapid succession.” The 1953 version of War of the Worlds outranks Spielberg’s on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critics’ score of 89% versus 76%. Some viewers also took issue with the 2005 ending, finding it convenient rather than clever. Still, in the 21 years since it hit theaters, no other adaptation of the famous sci-fi story has managed to outshine Spielberg’s vision. Haskin’s original will always be a classic among cinephiles, but the 2005 adaptation is good enough to keep a grip on pop culture, continuing to draw viewers in to this day.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
