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

[Funt Solo]

Yeah - I'll agree that my list of nitpicks (or those things that I decided to put to one side in order to maintain my willing suspension of disbelief) included:

[SPOILERS, if it's not too late]

The "turned out nice again" ending, which was unfortunately obvious given that we never actually saw his son killed.  An option would have been to bring the son back in as some kind of "alien-fighting veteran", and doing the grenade thing instead of Tom:  however, that's all a bit "Jurassic Park III", and nobody wants that.

The "buried machines" conceit.  You're right, cloaking tech could explain away the unseen arrival, and given that we see it from the family POV, there's no requirement to explain how they got their unseen.  I did think the EMP was a great idea:  used on it's own it reduces the modern technology of our era to that of the era portrayed in the book (almost).

What you would lose, I think, with capsules landing, is the scene of a bemused public coming to investigate.  The hole in the ground is something to be investigated, but a ruddy great metal bomb-a-like would have todays public moving away from and not to it (don't you think).

On a more positive note, I'm glad Spielberg took more from Welles radio adaptation, and the book, than from the previous movie version.  What I'm getting at is the tripods:  they're pretty much indistinguishable from the "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" versions.

Hang on, though:  what's all this "OHHHMMMMM" all about, eh?  Whatever happened to "OOOOOOOHH-LLAAAAAA"?

[dweezil2]

Well,at least it's upset the Daily Mail's moral guardians-so it must be doing something write.

[Mangamax]

How come there's video footage of the aliens "riding the lightning" if the lightning also produces a EMP pulse that knocks out anything electric?
And how come the first bloke to be zapped by the Heat Ray is using a video camera?

[Tordelbach]

To be honest, I'd assumed the "they're already here" invasion of Spielberg's version was part of the post-9/11 updating process - no clearly visible external military  threat, but a threat hidden in our midst for ages etc.  

The point about a capsule landing excluding the rather pivotal "naive, bemused public" sequences is well made.

[Funt Solo]

Mangamax - Spielberg should hire the members of this board as continuity-spotters.  However, the alien-tech can pretty much do whatever it likes, because it's alien-tech.  As for the video camera, this is a cheesy excuse, but there are various existant technologies that can be incorporated in electrical equipment to protect it from EMP.

Back to things I like:  the essential randomness of the main character's survival.  We can see that it's just as likely he could have died, and his survival is mainly down to luck (apart from the tricky third act scene with the grenade, which would have worked better if a third party had thought of it).

Then again, the story within the story is that the failed, emotionally-crippled father regains the respect of his immediate and extended family.  For that to work at all, there had to be more than just luck on the table.

I did like the disaster movie cliche:  when warnings of impending doom are shown on the television, they are always ignored by channel-surfing soon-to-be victims.

[Matt Timson]

I'm not fussed what anyone else thinks- I really enjoyed it.  I'm not ashamed to admit that it had me on the edge of my seat most of the time and I loved that I felt I'd been proven wrong about the kind of film I was expecting.



Spoliers ahead (not that anyone else seems to care!)









The first shot of Cruise shows him operating a crane and I instantly thought that there was going to be a really shit moment where he was going to be able to nick one of the Tripods because of this 'skill'.  Instead of watching a film about how America (and Tom Cruise in particular) defeats the aliens, I watched a film about an attack that came from nowhere, that nobody understood (which added to the realism for me) and that didn't make a hero of the hero.  He was just some waster who realised that he'd do anything to protect his kids.

The few nitpicks I can be bothered to hunt around for aren't even worth the effort.  I thought it was great.

The original story itself is massively flawed (Aliens with tech centuries in advance of our own don't give a second thought to bugs in the air?  How likely is that?), that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable though.

As for Cruise and Speilberg bashers, I just don't get it.  I think Steven Segal has starred in some of the wankiest films ever.  I made this judgement on a bunch of trailers and one film that I actually managed to sit through.  I don't need to keep watching to think that he's shit...

[Tiplodocus]

"I think Steven Segal has starred in some of the wankiest films ever. I made this judgement on a bunch of trailers and one film that I actually managed to sit through. I don't need to keep watching to think that he's shit..."

Yeah, but if someone prroduced a new Judge Dredd film starring Steven Seagal as our titular anti-hero, you'd end up watching it.  Christ, it happened to me in '95.

I think people groan because someone they actively dislike ends up in a project that they quite like the idea of.

Here's hoping we never get a Judge Dredd spin off movie called Judge Giant directed by Michael Bay and starring Martin Lawrence.  

Or George Lucas writing and directing any more Star Wars films.

Tiplodocus who still thinks Cruise is utterly, utterly magnificent in MAGNOLIA and that Speilberg has made lots of good films without Sharks

[Mangamax]

As a small aside to this thread:

Link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5984833947" target="_blank">Oh dear...

[House of Usher]

'interesting' ebay seller there, Mangamax. Why not start another thread with it? ?2.20 for his soul and, er, himself as well (?) doesn't sound like he got a good deal. Can he sell both again to someone else, ad infinitum?

[House of Usher]

I went to see War of the Worlds yesterday, and I think I agree mostly with what Art had to say about it. There are certainly some interesting views being shared here.

I thought it was unremittingly bleak from beginning to end. I didn't really enjoy the first 20 minutes, and I turned to my partner to say "I can't tell if this is good or not". Then when the first fighting machine (called tripods in this version) started zapping people with its dessicating ray I got very upset (at this point I should like to point out that I am only a whisker away from getting prescription medication for my nerves, so I'm maybe a bit over-sensitive).

Not liking to see people suffer, I found it quite traumatic to watch and it reduced me to a gibbering wreck.

Anyway, I decided in the end it was a good film, albeit one with numerous flaws, all of which have been pointed out by other members of this forum.

I liked the girl, and I was utterly convinced by her performance, and I think she deserves an oscar nomination for her screaming. Yes, Tom Cruise and family wandered from one situation of deadly jeopardy to another and miraculously escaped every time, which was rather irksome. Considering how easily the aliens could wipe out their targets, it seemed that as long as you had star billing you could hang around indefinitely arguing with the kids or pondering your next course of action while all around you hundreds are fleeing for their lives.

I didn't happen to think the red weed set was good at all. Before the film, I saw the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer, and I thought I was seeing the same set again. After the film I mentioned to m'partner that when Ray stepped outside the farmhouse I had the song in my head that goes "Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka..." and she said so did she.

I liked the bit where some refugees were discussing the world situation, ("I heard America got it worst, and Europe was unscathed") which seemed like a comment on the uninformed debate going on in America about the so-called war on terror.

However, I thought it was no less a pro-America propaganda movie than Independence Day, and, indeed, the updating was very effective to that end. It seemed to me the 9/11 allegory was hammered home very forcefully, what with the wall of missing persons appeals, the downed airplane, talk of "is it the terrorists?", "no it's from somewhere else", "you mean like Europe?" (Boooo! Europe: that's where the French live, and they hate us too...).

The final straw was at the end where the stricken fighting machine had to be taken down by bazooka fire when it was dying anyway. Why? Propaganda! No way could Americans be so helpless as to let nature do its dirty work for it, nothing less than a direct military intervention will do.

I eagerly await Bartlett's political analysis of what this all means.

Oh, and from the moment I saw the opening titles, I knew we'd see those paramecia again at the end. It was a dead giveaway to anyone who knows the story already. What I mean is, sure you know how it ends, but do you really want to see the end visual of the film in the first minute? They could have simply narrated the stuff about the things that swarm and multiply in a drop of water without actually showing them... but it's maybe asking to much of a multiplex audience to get them to visualise it for themselves? And the voice over was awful. Sub-Disney bleating, with not an ounce of menace.

Okay, I'm going on a bit now.

The thing with the bicycle? In H.G. Wells's original, the wheel was entirely unknown to the Martians. Martians using bombs? But H.G. Wells came up with the heat ray (also the black dust, but obviously Spielberg didn't think they needed that as well).

Loads more to say, but there's no reason anyone should be all that interested. I enjoyed the film, however harrowing I found it, I got my money's worth, and I'd give it a 4-star rating out of a possible 5.

There's no way I would have given it a 12A rating though, nor would I take kids younger than 13 to see it.

[paulvonscott]

Havn't read all the thread, for fear of reading a few too many spoilers, but does it end in the Speilbergian trademarked sickening, vomit inspiring display of emotion?

[Dunk!]

In a word Yes.

[House of Usher]

Paul I can't tell you without spoilerising the movie!





(*cough* Norman Rockwell painting *cough*)

[Quirkafleeg]

Interesting aside in the news that Speilberg was behind the video for the New York Olympic bid - the short clip they showed looked very slick

And his next project is based on the follow up to Berlin Olympic terrorism incident - basically Mossad agents tracking down and assassinating a load of Bader-Mienhoff members

[House of Usher]

Weren't 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team murdered during the 1972 Munich Olympics by Arab terrorists?