The power of the film's opening segment and title sequence promises the audience much more than it can deliver. Director John Frankenheimer has a great eye, and much of the film is visually captivating, unfortunately, script is horrible. The H.G. Welles story has been filmed numerous times, and this version offers nothing but decent make-up effects to improve upon it. It's hard to fault Brando or Kilmer for their performances because they're no worse than the material they have to work with.

The DVD image is far superior to that of the laserdisc with greater definition of color and contrast. Alternate sides offer 2.35:1 aspect ratio & pan &scan. The 2.35:1 version offers far greater composition than the pan & scan side. The Dolby Digital(5.1) soundtrack is about equal to the laserdisc's sound quality with many surround effects. A couple of minutes have been inserted by the director to presumably improve the film's effectiveness, and unfortunately, it doesn't change anything for the better.