Every War Of The Worlds Adaptation: Ranked Worst To Best

9. The Reworked One

Despite making something truly terrible with The Classic War Of The Worlds, Timothy Hines remained both a dedicated fan of Wells's novel and determined to bring it to life. This led to his second crack at the material with 2012's War Of The Worlds: The True Story.

The True Story takes inspiration from the use of newscasts in the classic Orson Welles radio adaptation to retell The War Of The Worlds in a faux-documentary style. Taking footage from his already released long and tedious adaptation, Hines cut it together with documentary-style talking head recollections, stock footage, and archival stills and images to make out like this was a record of real past events.

The True Story improves vastly on Hines's previous effort and the documentary conceit is creative and engaging, while its 105 minute runtime is a blessed relief compared to its predecessor. Unfortunately, the reliance on the earlier film's footage means that The True Story does also inherit its poorly staged action, cheap-looking effects and melodramatic performances.