Jump to content

War Of The Worlds


Soul Stream

Recommended Posts

Just saw "War Of The Worlds" tonight.  Run, don't walk, to your local theatre.  GREAT flick.  Blew me away.  The first half hour or so is some of the most spine-tingling scary stuff I've ever seen at a theatre. :tup

Agree completely. This was a great movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just saw "War Of The Worlds" tonight.  Run, don't walk, to your local theatre.  GREAT flick.  Blew me away.  The first half hour or so is some of the most spine-tingling scary stuff I've ever seen at a theatre. :tup

Agree completely. This was a great movie.

Yep!! :tup:tup

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great to hear some other good reviews from people that actually saw the movie. :beee:

Anyway, part of the reason I enjoyed the film is Cruise's charactor's relationship with his children. He's not pictured as a very lovable guy throughout most of the picture. Thought it was nice not to have the super-lovable dad saving his kids as you'd expect from a blockbuster such as this.

Also, the special effects were awesome to my eye. That combined with great acting and a unbelievable story....wow.

And this in the context that I absolutely hate 90% of the movies I see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I can't speak for others, but I can tell you that I'm resistant to the movie because I'm a fan of Wells' original novel. There are a lot of things that I can tell won't work in a 21st century setting. For example, the Tripods. It would be very easy for a 21st century army to take out a Tripod: Just blast away at its third leg! In the 19th century, heavy artillary wasn't as sophisticated, and the Martain's heat-ray was sufficiant to keep the British cannons out of range. Today you could go in with a couple of F-15s and knock the clumsy thing down. This sort of thing would bother me.

How do you think a fan of the novel would react to the film as you saw it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I can't speak for others, but I can tell you that I'm resistant to the movie because I'm a fan of Wells' original novel.  There are a lot of things that I can tell won't work in a 21st century setting.  For example, the Tripods.  It would be very easy for a 21st century army to take out a Tripod:  Just blast away at its third leg!  In the 19th century, heavy artillary wasn't as sophisticated, and the Martain's heat-ray was sufficiant to keep the British cannons out of range.  Today you could go in with a couple of F-15s and knock the clumsy thing down.  This sort of thing would bother me.

Yeah, but the Martians have had a whole century to come up with tripods that can fire anti-aircraft missiles.

Guy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aside from the fine acting, unbelievable visual effects and sound, and the high doses of suspense, what I really liked about this movie is that it didn't give into any chiches. It could have easily had corny one liners. There were characters in the beginning that could have made sporadic appearences throughout to provide comic relief. I could get into more, but I might ruin some of the plotline for those who haven't seen it. But lets just say that it was a very straight-forward film with very little dialogue, lots of great camera work, and almost nothing in the bullshit department. This film could have sunk at any given moment, but it didn't. I really respect that.

Edited by sal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

too many inconsistencies and too much ill-logic - right at the beginning Cruise stands around and watches the city destroyed around him while his kids are alone in the house - no parent would stand and watch - every one would head for the house and the kids - at the end - when the aliens get sick and die - why are the shields non-functional? They are not susceptible to illness, even a sick alien can push a button to activiate - and, how the hell did the son get to Boston, and why is a major city area like the ones his in-laws are in untouched? Also, when they intially get to his ex-wife's house - 1)why is the door open and the lights on? And 2) why do they need to eat the food they brought with them and why, having refused that food, do his kids remain hungry? Woulddn't the house be well stocked?

Spielberg is a great filmmaker but this script, while not as bad as Sgt Ryan, shows that brawn still comes before brains in his movies -

Edited by AllenLowe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, I saw it today, and I must say it totally kicked ass. Your mileage may vary however.

I did notice many of the continuity problems, like "they're in his ex's house, why don't they just eat food that's already there" etc. The older person in me notices lapses in common sense like that, but the kid in me tends to get absorbed in the "Spielberg-ness" of it all. Thank god for that, because that's the same kid that provides the imagination to improvise and write music. The "kid" is not rooted in reality, but that's a good thing IMHO. A sense of "fantasy" and 'whimsy" are not particularly useful in dealing with day-to-day reality, but are essential to the creative process IHMO. And I have no "Cruise aversion", so that wasn't an issue.

Yes, the aliens were kind of alternatively smart/stupid. That didn't ruin it for me though.

The visuals and sounds were total Spielberg and IMHO more than made up for lapses in continuity. I sympathize with those who were disappointed- while this was a very good film (I'd give it a strong "A" but not an "A+") it wasn't a "Spielberg reinvents the genre" movie like some of his others. And yes, the ending was rushed and not wholly satisfying.

I must say, however, that I really enjoyed the film.

BTW, did anyone notice the "grandparents" in the last scene were Gene Barry and (I believe) his female co-star from the original WOTW film? I guess this was announced on some of the "spoiler" sites, but I didn't realize until I read it during the end credits. I thought it was funny they gave the grandparents such a long screen shot (when they had no lines in the film), but when I figured out who they were I understood. Cool.

Edited to correct stupid spelling mistakes.

Edited by Free For All
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gene Barry from Burke's Law? I missed that. I did enjoy the film - it just gets spoiled by the fact that in films like this I feel that the script writers are taking lazy short cuts, as though the audience is too dumb to realize - but than, scripts are usually written by committee, so probabably the writers (and Spielberg) were too dumb to notice - as for Cruise, I think he's become a very good actor -

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spielberg's filmmaking in movies like this (and Sgt Ryan) reminds me of the comments a piano player friend made about a saxophonist years ago - the pianist described the saxophonist by saying"he swings but he has no brains," meaning he had few good musical ideas - well, Spielberg is a genius film maker but he does not have the intellect to match, IMHO -

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Terrific film. (And Alex, surprisingly faithful to at least the spirit of the book; a very fine adaptation.) Spielberg's directorial chops are all over this one; he excells at this kind of stuff.

The "illogic" and "inconsistencies" didn't bother me a bit, though the final scene was a bit too sappy for my tastes. The ending, of course, is weak - a deus ex machina if there ever was one - but one must blame H.G. for that. Overall, I found this a very realistic and quite terrifying depiction of what it could be actually like... :alien::o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember the book that well -- read it in high school, I think. But it stayed pretty faithful to the book. (Though how did the aliens arrive on earth in the book -- was it similar to the movie?)

Anyway, for some reason I didn't find the movie itself engaging. Not sure why (maybe because I knew how it would end?). HOWEVER, they definitely managed to convey the complete and unrelenting terror/horror of the situation. There weren't any bullshit heroics (with the possible example of the cage scene), just people doing what they need to survive. I dug that. The cabin scene was excellent, though it looked like Ripley would have done better than Tom Cruise's character.

I agree about the ending being a little over the top -- that's when they did dip into the Independence Day bag (with the soldiers doing their thing), and it wasn't that necessary. They should have stuck more faithfully to Wells's ending.

The one thing that bugged me in terms of consistency was that some electrical devices worked and others didn't. How the hell did people have functioning digital cameras and camcorders at the crash site?

Guy

Edited by Guy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw the fim the other day and must admit that I enjoyed it. The special effects were pretty good. Have to admit though that some of the details let down the plausibility (like all 3 of them surviving being tipped out of the ferry into the sea then managing to scramble to the island. Highly unlikely).

There again I guess you have to park logic and accuracy to one side right throughout this film.

Was that the Verezanno Narrows bridge that was featured during the early part of the movie near Tom Cruise's townhouse?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thoroughly enjoyed the movie, even with the convenient plot devices. Totally bought into it, way more than I thought I would have. The only big gripe I have was the cage scene. I felt the movie was dipping too much into "action heroics" here and was totally unnecessary. And it would have been cool NOT to have seen the aliens in the basement. Save 'em for the end.

Yeah, when I finally make a movie, I'll know exactly how to do it. :cool:

Edited by Jad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...