The War of The Worlds (1×01) Episode 1 Early Review

Over the years, there have been plenty of incarnations across big and small screens of H.G. Wells’ The War of The Worlds. How will this new television miniseries from the BBC go?

Synopsis: A mysterious capsule lands on Horsell Common; A terrifying menace inside the capsule is unleashed; Amy and George survive the slaughter, but the Martian invader takes its full form and unleashes further destruction. (TV Guide)

First of all, to anyone who knows little to nothing about the original The War of The Worlds may find themselves slightly confused while watching the first episode of this miniseries. Being the first episode, audiences can expect it to do some heavy lifting in terms of characters and story but in this case, the set up was far too convoluted to follow, or in some cases care, despite some decent performances. The leap it makes at the end may be promising but the episode as a whole digs the series in a hole that it may or may not be able to dig itself out of.

The War of The Worlds takes place in early 1900s England and follows a couple named Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson) and George (Rafe Spall) who are facing hard times while trying to get married and hopefully build a life together. It may have been hard to follow the happenings of their individual lives with Amy seemingly leading to the separation between George and his current wife while George was struggling as a journalist for the newspaper owned by his brother Frederick (Rupert Graves) for whom he had a contentious relationship with all while his family did not approve of his relationship with Amy. Suffice it to say that things would clearly get worse for them and the people around them as a series of supposed meteors from Mars land across the countryside that would in turn, release some sort of alien race who would reap havoc on the unsuspecting people (while featuring some decent TV special effects).

Now why did these aliens show up and what did they want with the humans and/or Earth is a mystery, however, the end of the episode perhaps foreshadowed the answer to these questions. While this leap may have come out of nowhere, the final 2 episodes may shed some light on this. In the end, some may be turned off by the pace of the episode as those who are more familiar with the story were forced to wait for the inevitable moment to come. The story so far may be more on the dull side, setting up a survival story between Amy and George and the invading aliens, but at least Amy and George were somewhat compelling to watch thanks to the chemistry between Tomlinson and Spall. Meanwhile, Robert Carlyle delivers a solid performance as a scientist named Ogilvy.

In the end, this episode was an okay start but the series better ratchet up the excitement level or it may lose some viewers.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.