Movie Night at the Virtual Cinema: The War of the Worlds (1953)

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using SKYBOX VR on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism.

Warning: Spoilers ahead. 

Released way before my time, this film is very loosely-based on the novel of the same name. In actuality, only the basic premise is the same, with the location and characters being different, and some of the more disturbing elements of the book not being present in the film. Martians invade Earth, tear the place up, then die from bacteria after all hope is lost.

Gene Barry plays Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist who takes point on the whole invasion due to the lucky fact that he was camping near the location where the aliens first landed. He's joined by Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson), who is one of the townsfolk of the town the aliens landed at the outskirts of. Forrester has an air of superiority about him, and Sylvia spends most of her time screaming and freaking out, which may be understandable and realistic given the circumstances, but it makes for a long movie. 

Though we do get to see the Martian war machines in action, much of what happens, much of the invasion itself, occurs offscreen. Yet, we do get to see the near entirety of Clayton searching multiple churches for Sylvia at the end.

Okay, enough criticism. It's a classic film with some flaws, but it does a lot right, and was probably groundbreaking for its time. I love the appearance of the Martian war machines, which float in the movie as opposed to be walking tripods as in the novel. The colors of the film are vivid, and I've always loved the greens of the war machines and their weapons. The special effects are a little dated by today's standards, but I still thought they looked good, even on the big screen in SKYBOX VR.

My criticisms of the lead characters aside, I guess they were likeable enough. In the late 1980s, the television series War of the Worlds (no leading "The") would serve as a sequel with a main character (played by the late Jared Martin) who had been orphaned during the invasion portrayed in the film, and adopted by Clayton and Sylvia, which is something I could imagine those two characters doing, even after just the short amount of time we get to know them during the film. Ann Robinson even reprised the role of Sylvia Van Buren for at least one episode.

Watching this film in the virtual theater was fun, but I got less of a benefit from it because the film was not shot in a widescreen format. Still, watching a big movie like this in a movie theater, albeit a virtual one, is a different experience, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to do so.

I wonder if the developers of SKYBOX VR would ever consider adding virtual movie goers to their app, for even more of a realistic virtual movie going experience.