The War of the Worlds Alive on Stage (sort of)

The other night I attended an exclusive screening of War of The Worlds live at Ashford Cineworld. Well sort of live, it was actually a recording of a performance filmed at the 02 arena last year. Having missed out on actually being there, I was hoping the film would recreate the live experience. I'm glad to say it does.

 Liam Neeson narrates the story of martians coming to Earth with a great sense of drama, cranking up the tension as the martians obliterate everything in their path. This was shown through retro looking animations with lasers and fire scorching the countryside. All this was backed throughout with HG Wells terrifying score, a new experience to me hearing the full songs for the first time.

Two songs particularly stuck out for me though as highlights; The Spirit of Man hauntingly sung by Jason Donovan as the priest doubting his faith and Kerry Ellis as Beth trying to reassure him, and Brave New World sung by Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs fame playing the artillery man determined to start a new civilization underground.

HG Wells was enthralling to watch and almost comical as he energetically moved about like he was on a dance mat. The only negatives were the slightly underwhelming performance of Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet, as his voice in my view just could not match the highs of the previous I mentioned.

But all in all it was great fun, the songs although sometimes lasting about 10 minutes in length, were never boring and only helped create a hypnotic trance and sense of foreboding. This is one I would definitely recommend in buying when its released on DVD and Bluray later this year.