A contemporary translation of the novel set in the United States, War of the Worlds tells of an invasion of Earth by technologically-advanced extraterrestrials, from the perspective of an American astronomer trying to reunite with his family.

The film is loosely based on an unproduced screenplay called "Invasion", written by Carlos De Los Rios in 1997.

The DVD was released on June 28, one day before DreamWorks' film, and stars C. Thomas Howell, Peter Greene, and Jake Busey.

Astronomer George Herbert (Howell) and his wife Felicity (Van Wyk Loots) are packing for a trip to Washington, D.C. to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary.

An alien "walker" emerges from the crater and massacres the witnesses with an energy weapon, George barely escaping with his life.

George and Williams meet with Samuelson, a power-mad lieutenant with unrealistic notions of resistance against the invaders, who rejects them as cowards.

Farther along the trail to D.C., a pastor, Victor, finds George and describes to him his belief that the invasion is a form of the Rapture, but remains optimistic.

The two seek refuge in the abandoned house of a veterinarian for food and medicine when the neighborhood is flattened by another meteorite, trapping them in the ruins.

Wells novel since childhood) made it clear that his film changed certain aspects from the source material in addition to the time and location.

[2] Most notable is that the tripods have been changed to six-legged crab-like machines called "walkers" (a result of allowing the effects team creative freedom).

The aliens are indeed Martians (though the film never states this, it is suggested as an opening credit sequence uses shots of the Red Planet's landscape), but they bear little resemblance to their novel's counterparts.

The aliens do have a substance similar to the black smoke, but is more of a dense green toxic gas unable to rise above ground level, allowing survivors to escape by getting to high places.

A major deviation from the text is that the protagonist actually tries to produce a means of stopping the Martians, but whether or not he is directly responsible for their downfall is ambiguous.

However, his faith is deeply shaken when he meets a congregant who screams against God for the loss of her family, causing Victor to question why he himself has yet to be taken.

[5] Scott Weinberg of DVDTalk.com gave it 3 out of 5 and wrote: "As direct-to-video sci-fi goes, this particular War of the Worlds version is a perfectly entertaining little diversion.