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I went to see War of the Worlds this afternoon. I love H.G Wells’ story, and the radioplay is really cool, so I’ve had a high degree of anticipation for this ever since I heard it was going into production, and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Excellent movie.
What I love the most about this movie is that it is serious. “Alien invasion” or “disaster” movies tend to be action flicks, popcorn affair, but this is far from that. Its actually quite scary, in parts uncomfortable to watch and Spielberg doesn’t hold back with the morose imagery. The “Tripods” are incredibly unsettling in the way they move and the way they exterminate humans. Humans. Thats another thing about this movie, its like your watching real people being mass murdered, this isn’t like watching Independence Day where you couldn’t give a toss about seeing all those people die around famous landmarks…..it was popcorn entertainment! Here it is almost like Schindlers List, not entertainment, but morbid drama, and there are a few nods to Spielbergs harrowing classic in here too.
The visual effects are top notch, but in true Spielberg style they are only used to further the horror and suspense and not just because they look spectacular. A special nod should go to the sound designers also because the effects they have created for this film are amazing, and really add to the atmoshpere of doom and horror.I have read people complaining about the ending on various websites. Bullshit. The ending is unique and very apt in my opinion. And its typical Wells.
I hope to see this again in the cinema. A great film, not one for the kids mind.
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i totally agree with you there. i thought it was a really great show. indeed the sound production and music in the film was top notch. i didnt expect anythingless though from speilberg. your hooked to the screen the whole way through the film.
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Excellent! I missed the previews last night but I have my ticket for tonights show already, can’t wait!
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Well thats my next trip to the cinema sorted. Was a bit worried that it’d be too Hollywood action movie to enjoy it
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im surprised it was good, because it got lame reviews state side.
Also i thought it might just be a typicaly cruise cash’in summer (like previous years of minority report, mission impossible, although the former was actually pretty decent).anyway ye’ve converted me, i think ill go see that.
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im surprised it was good, because it got lame reviews state side.[/quote:7322b11b69]
Possibly because it isn’t Independance Day 2 :wink:
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I’m not going to get into spoilers here but to use an Americanism, I have issues with the ending.
Overall a very enjoyable flick and I agree that the style and mood of the film are excellent. It was great to see a portrayal of ‘Joe Schmo’ dealing with disaster rather than another Independence Day as already mentioned.
Alan
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Ah I suppose by all that Cruise doesnt use his skills as an excellent…erm… father to destroy all the aliens in the end? :lol:
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Yeah, I think most of the negative reviews are down to people expecting Famous Landmark Destruction Day 2…… :p
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War of the worlds ending was shit.I am not going to give the ending away but all I’m gonna say is,,,, clean christmas jumpers and eggnog what the f**k?Go and see Kung Fu Hustle instead.
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The second to last scene was the one I didn’t buy into. I completely get the ending except for what seemed to me to be one hollywoodism. In case it matters to people, I won’t say what it is but I am happy to PM anyone interested.
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Saw it last nite, its ‘ok’ not great. Too many crying whining kids in it.
[Mini SPOILER]
The aliens dont have infra red or comparable tech to indentify people in buildings? That part of the film sucked the most for me where they were in the basement with Tim Robbins.
/Bring on land of the Dead.
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War of the worlds ending was shit[/quote:9ef76713c4]
The ending is pure Wells. If you haven’t read them then its understandable that you would be put off by the ending(especially being used to films like Independence Day etc). But what did you expect or want? Maybe they could have somehow hacked into the tripods, inserted a trojan horse, disabled the shields and the good old US of A could have launched an airstrike!! Yeehaa!! Go Team America!!
Point is, it’s Wells’ story, and to feck around by adding an ending differant to his style would have been a travesty.I actually really liked the basement scenes. Tim Robbins was fantastic in them, plus the aliens looked really cool. The scenes added an elemet of horror to the film, and I enjoyed them alot.
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Quaxer hit the nail on the head for me…
clean christmas jumpers and eggnog what the f**k?[/quote:8e501ab5c8]
This scene was just way too hollywood for me.
I thought everything else including the basement scenes were excellent.
Alan
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I completely disagree. I thought it wasn’t “Hollywood” at all.
For me, Hollywood would have been if some “hero” had found a way to blow up the machines or otherwise disable them and then in the final scene the President would have given him a medal in the midst of a destroyed Washington DC. That’s Hollywood!! ;)[SPOILER]
Ok. The family thing was a bit mushy, whatever. But so what. The fact that it wasn’t a human hero, or human technology that won the day was very satisfying to me, and also quite original too. And just proves that humans alone aren’t the dominant force on earth. Nature is.But lets agree to disagree on this. Even though I’m right. :p
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Right so, saw it last night and I must say I thought it was fantastic. The whole thing was just executed perfectly. The ending was, as Nooptical said, pure Wells, anything else would have been “too Hollywood” and that would include any kind of Terminator 2 type scenario or I-Day 2 type ending. The special effects were used extremely well and the sounds were perfect aswell. The foghorn of the Tripods was especially chilling after a few extermination scenes.
Oh and I must say though. Dakota Fanning? First 20mins? PLEASE DIE A HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE DEATH! Her screaming was unbearable at times… :shock:
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[caution: this rant contains spoilers]
I saw the old war of the worlds movie when I was a kid, probably around 10 years old, and I thought it was pretty good.
Now, thats the last time I saw it, so bear in mind anything I say about it is coloured by the passing of time.
I thought it was a quite enjoyable movie, a good disaster film, very appropriate to the style of it’s times.
It felt almost like watching a WW2-style BBC News broadcast. At the time, and in black and white, it was pretty cool.However, what I want from cinema has evolved since then.
As an adult, the content of the new WOTW movie feels too shallow.There’s some nice special fx, some nice direction, but the plot feels very lacklustre.
Essentially: The aliens come. They came to exterminate us, they almost exterminate us. Then God kills them.
I’m not sure that cuts it as a movie plot anymore. It probably did when sci-fi was young and immature as a genre – but the genre has evolved since then. Plots should be expected to have a moderate complexity and purpose.
Also I didn’t think there was much character development, or indeed characterisation. Tom Cruise’s character was the only actual characterisation in the movie, and not even very interesting.
Also, there are other more plot related issues… The aliens’ plan is rubbish. Their execution of the plan is terrible. These are supposedly to be much more advanced intellects we are talking about here (from the intro), and yet they make some pretty stupid mistakes.
I think this is because their technology and means were pretty impressive, and far fetched, when the novel was written, but nowadays, with our increased technological sophistication, it’s hard to believe aliens would go about extermination like that (vs using a virus, or some other weaponry)… or not research whether the air was breathable.
Half life 2, and it’s striders (obviously heavily WOTW influenced) made sense, because they were trying to do population control, and supression, rather than extermination.
Sci-fi has advanced a lot as a genre since the first WOTW, movie, and the book. It’s more sophisticated.
For the same reason a lot of sci-fi novels and movies released early on would look very shallow and unsophisticated now, and be hard to take seriously,WOTW falls down.
I’m not sure the plot of the movie can resonate with a modern audience. The days of the world wars, and the cold war have passed. We are now longer as scared of being wiped out by a more technologically sophisticated enemy. Further, many people no longer have the same belief in ‘providence’ to just see them through that they would have.
Its no longer relevant. On top of that, the plot felt very xenophobic. (but in a different way than is relevant today).
I wouldn’t recommend war of the worlds, I find it strange that so many people liked it so much.
Half life 2 was better… :-)
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I’m not sure the plot of the movie can resonate with a modern audience. [/quote:365e9b238d]
I find it strange that so many people liked it so much[/quote:365e9b238d]
:?:
Other than the above, you make some good points in your post Feral, but this is an old sci-fi story, and thus might seem naive in terms of the plot to a modern audience, but it couldn’t have been made any differantly. That would have been a mistake. I didn’t go into the movie expecting deep characterisations and watertight plotlines. I went into this movie expecting pure Welles horror, suspense and spectacle.
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While I wouldn’t try to convince people that they should like a film they clearly didn’t, there are a few points I want to make…
Essentially: The aliens come. They came to exterminate us, they almost exterminate us. Then God kills them.
I’m not sure that cuts it as a movie plot anymore. It probably did when sci-fi was young and immature as a genre – but the genre has evolved since then. Plots should be expected to have a moderate complexity and purpose.[/quote:5035e635ca]
Well what else could have happened? Remember movies can only be a certain length and having more complex stories means certain areas will end up being glossed over and not getting the amount of time they deserve or require. The focus of this movie was not really on how to stop the aliens rather the effects the attack had on an indivdual family and how they were going to survive. In that respect I think the movie portrayed it quite successfully…Also the thing to remember with WOTW was that the whole situation was simple. The aliens were there to exterminate us…there was no come back. As was mentioned during the film, they didnt have any respect for us, it was an extermination, they didnt have a plan as they didnt think they needed one. They had their shields and knew that our aramaments would have no effect. And now that leads me to the last point…
The days of the world wars, and the cold war have passed. We are now longer as scared of being wiped out by a more technologically sophisticated enemy.[/quote:5035e635ca]
Really? While the idea of a World Wars is indeed scary, one must remember that any enemy on this planet can have damage inflicted to them, no army is invincible. Here the greatest fear was that with all of our technological advancments there wasnt a damn thing that we could do to even stall the attack, never mind repel it. Its not something we as a race have had to deal with yet but I’m pretty sure if it ever happens theres going to be plenty of scared people around… -
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That film was truly awful, with enough plot holes to sink a battleship.
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That film was truly awful, with enough plot holes to sink a battleship.[/quote:bae5e58bc0]another balanced and considered thought-piece from Dr Dave!!
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I wanted to like the show but i hated it!
Plot is all over the shop.
how come a plane crashes out of the sky, destroys the whole neighbourhood; cars,houses etc. yet, cruises car is fine still parked in the drive way and there seems to be a path through the wreckage?
FX were decent enough in places, but some of the actors reacting to the effects were terrible.
Steer clear in my opinion.
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My approach to most films is to enjoy the spectacle and turn the brain off so I can ignore most of the usual screwed up details that can ruin it for others. For that reason I enjoyed the film and reckon that as long as you go to be entertained, it’s a good flick and I am happy to recommend it.
Only one ‘detail’ was too in my face to ignore and it wasn’t the one suggested by Monument although ‘on mature recollection’ that one was also pretty obvious but I suppose that I was distracted enough at that stage by the “What the f**k is screwing up the Aliens?” question to ignore it. The one that bothered me most wasn’t even the “nice christmas jumpers and eggnog” as was so brilliantly described by Quaxer but the “feckin son turning up again – that bum was dead – leave him dead, it would be much more believable”.
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My approach to most films is to enjoy the spectacle and turn the brain off so I can ignore most of the usual screwed up details that can ruin it for others. For that reason I enjoyed the film and reckon that as long as you go to be entertained, it’s a good flick and I am happy to recommend it.
Only one ‘detail’ was too in my face to ignore and it wasn’t the one suggested by Monument although ‘on mature recollection’ that one was also pretty obvious but I suppose that I was distracted enough at that stage by the “What the f**k is screwing up the Aliens?” question to ignore it. The one that bothered me most wasn’t even the “nice christmas jumpers and eggnog” as was so brilliantly described by Quaxer but the “feckin son turning up again – that bum was dead – leave him dead, it would be much more believable”.[/quote:355c9f94dc]
yeah i agree, some flaws as for :
What the f**k is screwing up the Aliens?” I think the answer is bacteria and micro-organisms, something which man has built up immunity too over the centuries.
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Yes, it was the microscopic bacteria/viruses that killed them and I am so unbelievably grateful for them keeping it true to the original, as opposed to the US president hopping into a handy f16 and leading the way.
One plot hole I’d like to discuss, as I believe it has a relevance to games. IF YOU HAVE A MODERN DAY SETTING, DONT IGNORE WHAT WE ALL TAKE FOR GRANTED IN MODERN DAY.
I refer most specifically to the initial landing of the aliens. I find it impossible to believe that you can hide thousands of 300 foot tall ships, some presumably in highly built up areas, and never have us find one.
I also refuse to believe that the aliens deposited their ships a million years ago, and only bothered to go do something about them now.
What is wrong, pray tell, with simply having the ships land, as opposed to having large aliens hop into tiny little capsules to get burrowed into even smaller holes in the ground just so they could get into their ships which they left there to exterminate a population of the earth which had yet to even evolve when they left them there?
*breath*
It is a really important part of any current day setting that the world is one that people can understand and relate to immediately. If you dont do so, you create an immediate (sometimes subliminal) dischord with your audience (game or film), from which it is very hard to recover. If you want people to get truly involved with your story, you need to create a world where what occurs ‘could theoretically happen’ as opposed to ‘is just plain out impossible’.
Another aspect of this is that you have to create (in this situation) aliens whose motives can be understood by the people playing the game. “Annihilate all life” was great, until they started capturing them instead. “Watering the plants with liquidised humans” was great, until you realise the machinery they used to do it had been sitting on the planet longer than the human race. There were a few more, like discovering the wheel, or checking their ships hadnt been damaged by a million years of tectonic shifting, but all in all, they just came accross as a bad way to make a movie featuring indecisive alien intellects which we are told are vastly superior to our own.
In short, make your game world believable.
Dave
(rant shortened due to time and posting constraints. for further details, please attend your next shindig…) -
Indeed there is a danger that you can turn your brain off to enjoy a film and then end up missing some main points…then again some people are abit dim, case in point there was a girl walking out of the cinema after WOTW who turns around to her boyfriend and goes “How did those birds manage to kill the aliens?”
…and no, she wasnt blonde… :lol:
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It was always going to be a bit difficult to get the exact nature of the alien demise across, its a long way from the expected hollywood ending.
Dave
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Actually, I thought that was perfectly clear in the end. At the point where the US Troops save face, it was less so. It was the happy ‘family’ ending that annoyed me.
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yeah i agree they should have just wipe the whole planet out
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That would be fantastic :) Not very hollywood though!
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could have a close up shot of dreamworks being reduced to rubble. with a single baseball cap sitting on top of the rubble :)
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:)
That’s not what I meant. The joys of trying to say something without actually saying it.
Spoiler Starts
The guy’s son should have been blown to bits! End of story. That’s what they wanted you to believe and that’s what should have happened. Real life, lose the head and run in unprepared and you will get killed. Tough shit, life is not sympathetic. Having him turn up safe and sound at the end at Grannies house was way too happy happy families for me.
Spoiler EndsEverything else I was cool with even the holes about the things being here for way too long etc etc etc.
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This is true, if that movie had anymore sugar in it, the audience would all have got diabetes…
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Sure, the kid should have died. Probably heroically saving a flaming jeep from being driven the wrong way. Really took from the quality of the movie :(
Just gone back to listen to the original soundtrack which I’ve always loved, especially the Phil Lynnott track “but they’re not devils – they’re martians”.
Dave
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Sure, the kid should have died. Probably heroically saving a flaming jeep from being driven the wrong way. Really took from the quality of the movie :(
[/quote:dce5f603f3]Ever thought to yourself, why the f%^k did I stick my head up over the bloody fence! :)
yes Dead! Not heroically though, just Dead coz shit happens
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Cant have the long haired iPod toting rockers extinguished without a fight you know!
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Cant have the long haired iPod toting rockers extinguished without a fight you know![/quote:6b65fa78a6]
Ah, Classic.
Maybe more along the lines of: feckin annoying adolescent with over-inflated sense of self deserves all he gets. But that would be very non-PC so we can’t think that.
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Anyone remember the following dialog in the movie?
Went something like:“Are they terrorists?”
“No, they come from somewhere else!”
“Are they European?”I watched this in a theatre in san jose.
This particular trio of lines caused not unconsiderable confusion in certain nearby audience members.What you think about that a while, you do find yourself increasingly respecting the decision to keep the original ending. (Irrespective of how relevant or good it is).
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all electronic equipment destroyed, yet a guy is still able to use his camcorder to film to aliens….hmmm……
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First of all I hate Tom Cruise. So I guess from the word GO I’m biased against the film.
But…seeing as his character is such a loooooser from the word GO, I found the film that bit more bearable.
Good effects. Fairly Ok Dialogue. Good atmosphere.
Thought the basement scene with Tim Robbins was a waste time.
Thought the son, that hated Cruise, (who was compelled to join UNCLE SAM’S Brave Army at every given opportunity) was a loser. The fact that he somehow managed to survive the SH*T-STORM that the Aliens unleashed on the U.S. Troops on the battlefield was just a cop-out.
But hey, I haven’t like a Cruise film since Interview With A Vampire, so I guess I’m just ranting…
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But hey, I haven’t like a Cruise film since Interview With A Vampire, so I guess I’m just ranting…[/quote:fedff3ca4d]
What about Minority Report? -
Minority Report (the film) was nice to look at, but I’m no “Pre-Cog” and I still managed to see that the old guy was the bad-guy from the word go…
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Well he was someone I suspected but that doesnt mean I KNEW it was him. Colin Farrell was quite dodgy in it aswell, as were his two partners…
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Now, I suppose there’s an argument to be made that “Collateral” wasn’t THAT bad.
For a start, Cruise played the bad-guy, so you were expected to hate him from the word go (which everyone does), but then he goes and ruins it all
STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT:
By dying like a loser at the end! “I do this stuff for a living!” he proclaims, right before some amateur gives him two slugs in the gut, and leaves him to die like bum on the train.
What say ye?
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And another thing! H.G. Wells get your arse into this thread….
“War of the Worlds” – What does that title mean?
What “Worlds” – You mean Earth?
What “War” – I only saw a massacre…..
It should have been “The Massacre of Earth” or some thing like that….
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The aliens are meant to be from mars. they are invading earth. They are the two worlds.
And a war happens when two forces fight, regardless of how well they do against each other.
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Since I have been outwitted again I will fall back on what I know best and just say “bollix to that”.
“War between the Worlds”
War…..an encounter or two armies? Hmm “incident” might have been a better choice…as in the “Incident between the worlds”….or distraction…..”Persian Gulf distraction”
(I’ll be quiet now)
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WMD’s found on Mars!
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coming in at the end here but i thought the movie was excellent. It kept to the original story very closely, just adapting it to modern situation. Though i will admit the under ground and the son were just stupid. The whole basement scene was like the parson and the artilleryman scenes brought together and i thought it was done nicely.
What really got me in the original was how when we fought back we actually caused damage and killed some martians creating a tiny bit of hope just to have it dashed when the martians fought back and crushed all oposition. i would have liked to see this some way in the movie. though it didn’t really need it, i’m being picky
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Yup. There seems to be a thing about aliens having super force fields that stop anything unless the film’s hero makes them crash into a wall or something. Probably something to do with making the US army look unbeatable unless they actually *cant* damage the enemy. I would have really liked to see a bit more of a ‘fair’ fight, with some aliens going down, but in general mopping up the armed forces.
Dave
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How one should deal with indestructible aliens…
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