Eyes pop, skin explodes, everybody dead! WAR OF THE WORLDS movie

[Tordelbach]

I'm mostly with the Prof on this one.  I actually thought the opening half hour was immensely impressive, the heat rays in particular were absolutely horrifying, then the next hour or so was relentless if repetitive (loved the 'Mars Attacks' train!), but the film basically collapses once the eldest kid goes 'over the top'.  

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Suddenly you have a poor turn from Robbins (typecast as tunnel digging guy!), some utterly ho-hum aliens (the Slitheen were acutally more alien than these guys, hell Dakota Fanning was scarier - what's wrong with hiideous three-legged-squid-brains, oozing slime and pulsing proboscises and whatnot - giving them a face was a rotten idea), then you have Cruise (up to now pretty damn good) blowing up a tripod with a grenade for fucks sake (yet another Jaws rehash)...

Now all this I could just about live with, but on reaching journey's end, not only are ex-Wife, new Hubby, and the In-Laws miraculously unbscathed, but up pops Eldest Son, last seen walking into a fireball, and despite Cruise spending days in Robbins cellar, the son only just arrived himself....  the only significant loss is reversed.  Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks.  

Any sense of genuine pathos is gone - they were never in any real danger, a few suicide bombers could have taken the Tripods out even if the germs didn't, and their heatrays couldn't even char Cruise Junior.  What a complete wimp-out.


The post-9-11 updating was well done ("Is it the Terrorists?"), Cruise was understated and believable, the set dressing was terrfic, the cinematography was accomplished and invetive, the Tripods were fabulous juggernauts of destruction, the sense of inescapable doom was well created, but that last half hour fucked things up so badly I still feel cheated.  

The best and the worst of Spielberg in the same movie.  >SIGH<

[Bico]

SPOILERS!!






































Why, at the start of the film, are the aliens capable of shooting individual people inside buildings, yet can't see Tom and Tim hiding inside one at the end of the film?
Why, if the death-rays destroy vehicles, buildings and human flesh, do they leave clothes unscathed?
coughcoughSchindler'sListreferencecoughcough
If the aliens are millions of years ahead of us in terms of technology, how come they don't know what a bicycle is?
Don't they have thermal imaging or sonar or something?  A long pipe with a camera on the end seems a somewhat inefficient way to look for humans - surely it would take forever?
Why did they need to 'harvest' each human individually?  Surely some sort of mincing machine would be a better idea?
That bit with Tom entering the tripod's 'arse' - I can't have been the only one thinking what I was thinking, right?
Why wait millions of years to colonise Earth?  Surely it stands to reason that it'll have changed a bit, necessitating terraforming?  And how come no-one ever noticed hundred-ton killing machines under the earth?  And how come the lighhtening had to strike the same place so many times?  What was the ice around the impact point all about?  Wasn't the lightening supposed to be a teleportation device of some sort?  And why use individual death rays to seek out every human individually and exterminate them?  Surely a bomb of some description..?

Why, yes, I am just back from the pub, and we DID discuss this film at length!  How did you guess?

[Byron Virgo]

All that time in the pub, and you couldn't just come to the conclusion that it was shite?

[Funt Solo]

I wonder how many people here decided that they would dislike this movie before going to see it.

I really enjoyed this movie:  the first act was absolutely stunning, the attempt to escape the onslaught was unrelenting and the tension of the third act cellar masterfully handled.  

My only criticism would be the final part of the third act, with Cruise's heroics with the grenade seeming slightly off, and the happy reunion rushed and neat.  

What was interesting was his single-minded protection of his daughter, which stretched to murder, and of course provided the motivation (finally) to fight the martians.

Mind you, it's obvious that most posters here consider Spielberg and Cruise to be the lowest of the low, devoid of redeeming features.  

To suggest that Spielberg hasn't made a good movie since Jaws belies my belief.  Is it just me that holds Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan in incredibly high regard?

As for Tom Cruise, it's easy to slag him off for the likes of Top Gun and The Last Samurai, whilst conveniantly forgetting his frankly superb acting in such movies as Risky Business, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia and Vanilla Sky.  His religious beliefs are neither here nor there.

Would a period version of this film, set in England, really be any better?  I can't imagine why.

Now, to get in on Professor Bear's pub debate:

:: "Why, at the start of the film, are the aliens capable of shooting individual people inside buildings, yet can't see Tom and Tim hiding inside one at the end of the film?"

It could have been looking through windows.

:: "Why, if the death-rays destroy vehicles, buildings and human flesh, do they leave clothes unscathed?"

I assumed that the clothes were from collected humans.  However, this is a good nit pick, as when Cruise is collected he remains clothed.  Even the "sucked dry" gentleman outside Tim's cellar is clothed.

:: "If the aliens are millions of years ahead of us in terms of technology, how come they don't know what a bicycle is?"

They have 3 legs, and as you say, they're millions of years ahead of us:  maybe they've forgotten basic tech.

:: "Don't they have thermal imaging or sonar or something? "

The machines are millions of years old, so maybe they don't.

:: "Why did they need to 'harvest' each human individually? Surely some sort of mincing machine would be a better idea?"

That's very efficient thinking.  I'm glad you're not an alien invader.

:: "And how come no-one ever noticed hundred-ton killing machines under the earth?"

Good point.

:: "And how come the lighhtening had to strike the same place so many times?"

To open a hole big enough for the martian to port through.

:: "And why use individual death rays to seek out every human individually and exterminate them?"

Scare the shit out of them, thus causing panic and confusion, whilst still leaving enough alive to feed the weed, man.

[Keef Monkey]

I honestly loved it, particularly the way it doesn't really explain much. There are a lot of things that don't make sense but it seems like the whole aim has been to put you right there in Cruise's shoes, so you're only fed the information that he would have in the situation. I really haven't felt the same kind of excitement at a blockbuster type movie since I saw Jurassic Park as a kid. The only thing I wasn't keen on was actually that they didn't change the ending, as I did think they might have come up with something new and I think when it ended in the same way as the original it robbed the movie of a proper climax. Although I suppose people who aren't familiar with the original won't have that problem. Speilberg's a great director and Cruise, whatever his religion, is a great actor in my eyes.

--- a few suicide bombers could have taken the Tripods out even if the germs didn't---
Nah, if the germs hadn't fucked them up they never would have gotten through the shields.

[Tordelbach]

Hey, with all this cathartic ranting, I'm surprised to note that I had completely forgotten my original pre-viewing complaint, the altered setting - this aspect actually didn't really matter, and at least it leaves the possibility open for an actual Victorian-set film version sometime in my lifetime.  

Have to say that the "scientific" illogicalities/inconsistencies didn't bother me too much - the buried tripods, the lightning teleportation, the harvesting methods (and where did all the bodies in the river come from - apart from the "cool image" sourcebook) - the invasion clearly isn't supposed to make sense in this version (although it did in the book) or we'd have been treated to a higher-level perspective - it just isn't "that" type of SF film.  The intention seemed to be to create an "end-user" version of an alien invasion, focussing on the incomprehensibility and chaos - a bit like the mildly under-rated "Signs" in that respect.  

My problem with the film is the failure to deliver on even this ambition - the "soft" ending retrospectively erased all sense of real threat.  Even 'Independence Day' (*spits*) had some genuine sacrifice (First Lady, Drunk Crop Duster Guy), hell even the Star Wars films managed  to convey some sense of genuine danger, all through the irreversible loss of supporting characters (Biggs, Dack,Qui-Gon) .

If you're going to do hard-assed heat-ray-to-ash sequences, grislily familiar crashed aeroplanes and impotent militaries, you CAN'T undermine this by making the central character and his loved ones utterly impervious to harm - particulalry if you give us the impression that such harm has already occurred.  I mean I liked Robbie's (?) death scene, I sympathised with his desire to "see" these momentous events even tho' it meant his, I felt for Cruise as he had to make a decision between his two kids in that beautifully lit ridge-top scene, and then I had that empathy thrown back in my face.  Poppycock, I say!

[Tordelbach]

"--- a few suicide bombers could have taken the Tripods out even if the germs didn't---
Nah, if the germs hadn't fucked them up they never would have gotten through the shields."

Ahem, I'm suggesting 'human bombs' that allow themselves to be harvested before blowing themselves up, as Cruise was prepared to do - can't say I fancy the aliens' chances in Saudi or Palestine.  Of course this would only work briefly as a tactic.  I'm sure a good shaking before harvesting would sort things out.

On a similar note, I quite liked Robbins' crypto-liberal rantings (although I didn't care for the character) about the impossibility of sucessful occupation...

I've been pondering the buried Tripods, and I'm guessing the time delay may derive from some kind of Von Neumann programme - seed likely worlds with nanotech travelling at relativistic velocities to build the terraforming machines in secret, report suitability back across the void, and then wait for the slower organics to catch up.  

The "reason" for not terraforming the planet prior to the organics showing up seems to be tied up with sadistic curiosity.  The aliens are clearly interested in observing humanity as they wipe them out, and in inflicting individual misery - again, not unlike 'Mars Attacks'.  Not that any of this matters - a good film let down by an embarassingly  wimpy ending.

[Funt Solo]

Okay, the ending was too nice, in that retrospectively nobody died, but to say that means the movie had to element of threat to the central characters is frankly ridiculous, given that the core essence of the movie is the danger posed to them.

If you have a three course meal, and the first two courses are gorgeous but the pudding turns out to be a bit off, does that mean the first two courses weren't gorgeous?

[Funt Solo]

"...had no element of threat..."

[This post sponsored by the Typo Police.]

[The Amstor Computer]

No, but it does tend to spoil the rest of the meal - you're so busy thinking about how terribly ill that pudding made you that you can no longer appreciate the wonderful starter...

[The Amstor Computer]

...and having now thought about it, I'm still only able to come up with one reason for the Buried Tripods/Lightning Teleportation replacing the original interplanetary capsules:

Having shifted the action to modern Earth, the writer simply wanted to avoid explaining how capsules could pass through the solar system and the atmosphere undetected.

I also don't remember Mars being mentioned as the home of the alien invaders - was this omitted as well?

[Lord Running Clam]

The aliens no longer come from Mars as Spielberg decided we know to much about Mars to believe in the concept of invaders from Mars.

Not seen the film yet,but the debate on this thread is really wetting my appetite for it.

[Funt Solo]

Yeah - moving it to a modern setting makes various things impossible:  Mars has been (sort of) explored, so that's out.  Large capsules could not only be tracked approaching earth, but if one landed in the middle of the common, the army would be there in seconds:  there'd be none of the books "ooh, I wonder what it could be" naivety.

[The Amstor Computer]

"Mars has been (sort of) explored, so that's out"

Hm. I think they could have got away with saying that the Martian civilisation did exist, but under the surface and hidden from our sight. Perhaps our exploration of Mars could even have been a "trigger" for their invasion?

"Large capsules could not only be tracked approaching earth"

Well, you could get around this with a bit of thought - anything from cloaking technology to hiding them within a shower of asteroids would be reasonably plausible, and at least as plausible as the lightning beaming the creatures into their buried machines.

IMO, the alien "sleeper cells" (*cough*) just aren't as effective as the full-on bombardment from outside in previous adaptations.

[Quirkafleeg]

>Hm. I think they could have got away with saying that the Martian civilisation did exist, but under the surface and hidden from our sight. Perhaps our exploration of Mars could even have been a "trigger" for their invasion?

That's sort of what happens in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles... the Martians are essentially invisible.