Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (Live on Stage!)

Longest title I've ever reviewed. By some margin. If I were to list all the elements in this film, like the huge orchestra, the laser show, a huge tripod descending from the rafters and Richard Burton's giant head, you might be forgiven for thinking this was some sort of bad acid trip. What it is, is a fantastic recording of the live show version of Jeff Wayne's.... well, you get the point. As soon as the main theme started up, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I immediately turned the volume all the way up to just below rattling the wall level. Part orchestral ballad, part CGI movie, part live action stage musical and part Richard Burton's giant head, this is a strange mix of elements but it really seems to work. THIS is how you should make a movie of HG Wells' book: exactly as it's written (yeah, OK the musical changes a few things too, but it's mostly faithful to the source). Set at the turn of the century and from one man's perspective of the martian invaders and their unstoppable conquest across south east England, it's the original sci-fi horror story. Extras include how to make a giant tripod martian fighting machine (MFM for short), interviews with Jeff Wayne and how they brought Richard Burton back from the dead (figuratively speaking). It was quite clever actually. Score: A OQ: "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us."