War of the Worlds

[Adam!]

Nifty fact: I went to school with Justin Chatwin, the actor who plays Cruise’s son. He was in my grade 11 Acting class. Neat.

B+. A well done series of explosions, which is really all I was expecting or demanding. A thousand times better than Signs. Also, it has the most realistic dialogue I’ve heard from a movie recently; Not necessarily good, but very authentic. ‘Berg has done a great job of giving the special effects scenes a handicam feel, which makes you feel like aliens really are attacking, something any adaptation of Well’s panic inducing classic ought to do. There are a few scenes where the blue-screening is distractingly obvious, but it never gets as bad as Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow. There was also some humor, but most of it had to do with references to terrorism and may have been unintentional. So all in all, a somewhat humorous, somewhat scary, somewhat cheesy, above-average summer blockbuster.

Big Spoliers

However, it suffers from sticking a little too closely to the source material. Although I applaud keeping H. G.’s ending, relying on Dues Ex Machina to save the world just doesn’t work very well today. Signs had it too (Alien Commander: “Holy shit, this planet has WATER on it! Lets get the fuck out of here”) and it makes you feel a little dirty. Also this movie has some weird editing. In one scene the whole family is on a boat; the next they are in the water with cars flying at them. Unless I blinked and missed the scene where they fell in, this was a little jarring. At another point Cruise is in a basement where he beats the shit out of a big tentacle thing, which retreats out of the house. He runs outside immediately, but the tentacle or whatever it was attached too is suspiciously absent from the landscape. Distracting.

[Bjam]

I just saw it this morning. Pretty fun. (The next stuff probably has spoilers) The red weed/tentacle/growth on the ground annoyed me for various reasons, as did the whole water thing. I dunno. Too many things made me question "Well why didn't they check first?" My brother went on about how it represented British colinization, which makes sense, but, seriously. Why did the aliens not check the water and all that jazz before walking and drinking it? Very stupid.

Either way, the acting was pretty good. Tom Cruise's recent taboid exploits made me come out of the movie at some points, but Dakota Fanning was insanely good. This was the first movie in a while that made me jump in my seat though. And the kid surviving was a little.. eh. But all in all it was a fun movie.

B+

(And if aliens attack during SF Live in Boston I should be cool )

[jute gyte]

the movie would have been better if spielberg hadn't added the family drama/father figure stuff he loves so much. the scenes with martian tripods destroying things on a massive scale were very good. the deus ex machina ending, while pretty silly, at least shows a bit of respect for the source material. i was neither enthralled nor disappointed.

[Hoblit]

<b>spoilers</b>

<b>puce</b>
Yeah, you blinked. There was an alien craft in the water that capsized the boat. Splash, then cars in after them. This all happens as they are running down the side of the boat to help other people or something. Excused.

<b>Bjam</b>
I don't think their demise is because they DRANK water ..but that they were exposed (as explained in the beginning AND the end) to microscopic amebas, viruses, and other items perhaps at the almost molecular level. Also, for a particular amount of time. Which, you have a point. Even the FDA doesn't aprove of a drug until is tested for a few years. I was able to forgive this slight oversight. (deus ex machina) HOWEVER, the movie Signs was stupid in this way because aliens, with thier hi-tech ability to travel across universe and galexies, invade a planet that is 70% acidic to them...without protective armor or even a wet suit. LAME. They can pilot space craft but can't figure out how to get out of kitchen pantries. LAME. Signs=Lame

I really dug this movie. A lot of fun to watch. It even kept a creepy retro look to the space alien invasion craft. I also liked the reasoning behind the alien's demise quite a bit. Even with the flaws pointed out in this thread. (deus ex machina)

One of the things that got me was this: Why the heck didn't he turn on a TV, Radio, Computer when they got to the wife's (and Tim's) place? The very next scene could have been partly eliminated if they just flicked on the TV.

ok, enough from me. Might see it again with a friend.

[Bjam]

One of the things that got me was this: Why the heck didn't he turn on a TV, Radio, Computer when they got to the wife's (and Tim's) place? The very next scene could have been partly eliminated if they just flicked on the TV.

Well the CBS lady was all "Mami's taken out, NYC, Philly blahblahblah" so why check the TV? Even if they have electricity at the wife and Tim's house, the server for the internet is probably screwed, and all the boradcasty places for the TV is gone. That and Tom Cruise was going a little crazy by that time so probably didn't think of it.

And as for the water thing, I know that it was all the other stuff aswell, but seriously, if you're gonna take over a planet, check that you ain't gonna die when you step outside your little spaceships. It's just... silly. Maybe I'm thinking too logically.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

And as for the water thing, I know that it was all the other stuff aswell, but seriously, if you're gonna take over a planet, check that you ain't gonna die when you step outside your little spaceships. It's just... silly. Maybe I'm thinking too logically.

This reminds me of that scene from Galaxy Quest when they go to get a Berillium Sphere and they open the door and Guy says "Hey! Don't open the door. Can we breathe? You don't know!" Only these aliens didn't have a "Guy", so they died.

The end.

SPOILERS

Could Tom argue with that mechanic about the van any fucking longer? Ask him to get in once and drive away.

Could Tom drive any slower through the angry mob that obviously was going to take their van away at some point? And then when he finally realizes the mortal danger they're in, he hit the only visble phone pole for miles. And then after his son gets the shit kicked out him and his little girl is about to be kidnapped, he finally pulls the weapon only to drop it, leave it behind so someone else can do what he should have done.

So your son steals your $75,000 Shelby Cobra, apparently a daily driver by the way, and the best you can come up with is "Next time, I'm calling the cops". I get that he's a bad parent, irresponsible and unfit for the responsibility. But he's also supposed to be selfish and someone just stole the one thing in his life that he does care about. I think they're getting a little bit more than that.

Why did it take so long for him to figure out Tim Robbins character needed to die? I would have killed him after the shot of peach schnapps.

Those people were riding in those cages for God only knows how long while the aliens gobbled up people, but take our dear scientologist away from us and it's "All for one and one for all". Bullshit. And what made the arm reach all the way to the back of the cage to grab him?

I was kind of hoping it was the microbes in the birdshit that killed them. I'd never look at pigeon shit on a statue in the same way again.

[Jim of Seattle]

<font color=red>Chock full o' SPOILERS</font>

The deus ex machina ending was them staying to the original source. I've always kind of liked that ending, and who cares if the aliens didn't check it out first. So, they didn't check it out. Move on.

But what I didn't realize when I read the book in high school was that that ending eliminated any sense of a conflict being overcome on the part of the protagonists. The aliens attack for a while, then they die. The end. Lousy theatre right there.

Then what the writers of this movie decided was "Hey, we don't really have an alien to defeat here, so there has to be some other conflict that is overcome over the course of the film. So let's have this lousy parent have to earn the trust and respect of his kids?" To which I say, terrific idea. Now the movie is about a bad father earning the respect of his kids set against the backdrop of an alien attack rather than the movie being ABOUT the alien attack. Great idea, and great way to rescue the otherwise horribly flawed original story.

HOWEVER, that's not what they did. Well, OK they did that for the first 2 acts, during which I was thinking that this was a truly brilliant movie. But in the third act they pretty much let the bad-parent-becoming-good story drop, and instead we got long derivative sequences with the big snakes in the basement. In the bewginning there was a lot of screen time (wisely) devoted to setting up the family story, but when push came to shove and it was time to see Tom Cruise's victory at hand, we were left high and dry.

Once I saw this happening, I thought to myself "OK, they've let the real story drop here, but they'll pick it up at the end and we'll get that satisfactory ending we are hoping for", but instead it's this extremely lame scene on an inexplicably undamaged Boston street, with a big hug and long looks and swelling music. Ugh. Where was the "Hey mom, it turns out that Dad isn't such a bad guy after all?" or "I thought you were such a fuckup when I divorced you, but now I see you in a different light since you saved my kids from aliens"? I know, I know, it was implied. But dammit I didn't want it to be implied. I wanted to SEE IT. Especially since they had done such an effective job of setting the conflict up at the beginning. Big disappointment.

The first act of this movie is wonderful. The pre-alien attack photography, the gritty colors in his backyard, the diffuse lighting in his house, kept the movie very real. Check out the editing in the baseball throwing scene. These guys are such pros. Flawless craft. My favorite scene was the very realistic-feeling family squabble in the van as they start driving down the freeway. That was some exciting theatre there. Had they stuck with the movie they started out to make, it could have been masterful.

B+

[sausage boy]

As has been said, the ending was taken from the original. I think what has not been properly taken into account was that the aliens are supposd to be attacking Earth out of jealously. So, although they can construct spacecraft and monsterous war machines, they were still fueld by lust and greed, which (i guess) over rode any sensibilities they had, epecially in regard to safety.

And Signs... the point of the story wasn't the aliens, it could have been giant, gingerbread monkeys, and the message would have still been the same. Besides, they are aliens... who knows how they think and what they want?

[Jim of Seattle]

I thought Signs was really entertaining. The stuff people brought up about it, while completely valid in hindsight, didn't even occur to me during the course of the movie, which to me meant that the filmmakers was entirely successful at getting us to focus on what we were supposed to be focusing on. In that case, the story of the minister who'd lost faith since terrible things had happened to him. It was a good movie.

[sausage boy]

And with that, Jim has reached Satans posting number.

[Jim of Seattle]

Avatar adjusted in honor of post 666

[mico saudad]

I'm not going to apologize. I'm going to be 'that guy' - you know, the one who sits there and points out all of the technical/scientific flaws in the movie. I'm not usually like this, but with this one it was different. Most movies are either so removed from reality or do such a good job or are not well done enough for me to expect any better.

But I really loved the first half an hour of this movie. The articifical electrical storm was friggin spectacular and really well done, and the interaction between the actors was really good. Dakota Fanning is a great little actress, and Tom Cruise is great. Crazy. But great.

It all started when some guy had a working video camera just after the EMP. That's when I got woken up and started thinking about the movie I was watching:

- Why did the starter (solenoids) in the cars get shot but the replacement parts not get shot?
- How did other sensitive electric systems of the car remain in tact but the solenoid get destroyed?
- If the only problem with cars is the starter, then anyone with any failry decent knowledge of cars would know to push start it. There would be many more cars working, and the knowledge would spread quickly.
- It was kind of everyone to push their cars out of the road (you'd think some of them would've tried starting them while doing so). Okay non-scientific but seriously what percentage of people would move their cars out of the road if everyone stalls? Conveniently allowed TC and Co. to get past them however, almost as if it were scripted.
- Manual searches of every house by snake-eyes? Aliens don't possess any better visual scanning equipment than a remote controlled video camera? News helicopters have infrared imaging that can detect people inside a building for god's sake!

- Aliens killed by an Earth disease? Wrong answer. Sorry. The reason humans get any disease at all is because pathogens are able to trick our bodies to enter in places they shouldn't and because they trick our immune systems. Our bodies have clever ways of recognizing large foreign objects (like worms, splinters, and tumors), recognizing small foreign things swimming around our body, and even recognizing when its own cells aren't acting right (such as after they've been taken over by viruses, bacteria, or cancer). It doesn't matter what it is - unless it has specifically evolved a way to trick our bodies into letting it in, and unless it has evolved a way of specifically dodging our immune system it cannot survive. The ancestors of the aliens would not have survived without similar protections to alien diseases, and those natural protections would make the aliens' struggles against Earth pathogens look like miniature molecular versions of the battles the aliens had against the humans.

Also I never got why the aliens buried the machines under the ground and waited to take over the planet. Why didn't they just take it over when they came the first time? And if they needed humans specifically as fertilizer, then what I would do as an alien is take over the planet early and 'farm' humans a la Matrix. It was a completely non-scientific proposition in Matrix (you can't get more energy out of a human that you put in), and here is no different. Why do you specifically need human fertilizer? The only logic behind this is that it allows there to be a film about humans struggling to survive an alien invasion.

My version of this movie: after the EMP only older cars without computer based electronics still work and the crew is able to escape along with a few other groups. Throughout the movie they sometimes run into these other groups who have often lost members or learn that other groups have been killed completely. But through endless scene after scene of death and destruction somehow people survive and this family survives and become close like only brethren at war can be. It's not about the petty father-son squabbles, it's about survival. At the end of the movie there's never any victory over the aliens - only the faint sense of faith that life is strong and if there is a way to survive, we will.

[raisedbywolves]

My version of this movie:
- that fucking kid dies
- the special effects are not completely terrible
- little Dakota does something other than scream constantly
- we actually see stuff happen, rather than it happening over a hill or somewhere else out of our eyesight
- Tom Cruise's role is played by Miranda July
- it's directed by 1980's Spielberg, not Lost World Spielberg
- since I apparently have a time machine, I go to the future and buy a sports almanac that tells me who will win every sporting event, go back in time and give it to my younger self who makes bets, opens a big casino and marries Lea Thompson, who really wanted to marry a duck.

C-