War of the Worlds

[Twista]

Just saw a trailer for it. Opens July 1st in the UK, dont know about else where.

Its looks utterly amazing - and the original was excellent too, so the storyline should be superb to begin with.

Anyone else looking forward to it?

[Snowdog]

I will most likely go see it, as the book, radio show, and 1953 movie all are pretty freaky. I don't know about Tom Cruise though... hopefully he won't resort to his 'Cruisisms. Miranda Otto is in it though!

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

I will most likely go see it, as the book, radio show, and 1953 movie all are pretty freaky. I don't know about Tom Cruise though... hopefully he won't resort to his 'Cruisisms. Miranda Otto is in it though!

Tom Cruise is exactly why I'm reluctant to see it...*sighs* the look of the movie on the whole feels like Minority Report. The new Spielberg is alright, but I love the old better.

[Twista]

I assumed this would happen...

Keep the "Hollywoodised" films bashing coming...

[Snowdog]

Because I usually don't care for Tom Cruise, it is not "Hollywoodised film bashing" to say so. All I mean by saying'Cruisisms' is that rolling eyes, smartalecky attitude he projects. He has been getting better.

[Earniel]

Oh darn, they've given him a kid too. Cute girl though, but she's not supposed to be there. I just hope they won't go for the getting-torn-apart-family-back-together-focus.

But I've read that there's another War of the World movie coming out as well. One with a lesser budget, no famous actors, not placed in modern America but where it is meant to happen and supposedly 'true to the book' (Mjeh, we've heard that a lot before, haven't we? It's gotta be true some day...) So I might be going after that one instead of Spielberg's. If it shows in theater, that is.

[Telcontar_Dunedain]

It looks quite good. I don't really mind Cruise, but that is mostly due to the Last Samurai.

[EarthBound]

Saw the trailer, looked good. Should be a fun summer flick.

[Twista]

Im going off to see it tonight. Anyway seen it yet? Whats it like?

[spoliers] remember

[HOBBIT]

Eärniel - the movie that you are refering to is already out. Directed by Timothy Hines I believe.

I heard that it was HORRIBLE. Very low budget, not very good cgi, horrible acting. He promised much more.

Straight to DVD - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...s=dvd&n=507846

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The Spielberg WotW

I saw it last week I believe (opened earlier in USA).


Since many of your have not seen it yet, I will not give all my opinions and thoughts on it and point out the faults, as I usually do :P


I'll say this: Good solid summer action type flick. GREAT effects and visuals, great directing, OK movie not great.

Tom Cruise horribly MISCAST - definitely does not seem like a poor dock worker. Casting one of the biggest stars in hollywood was a mistake.

[Twista]

Well heres my Review [spoilers ahead].

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This was a very good fil but it left me strangely unsatisfied. Here is what I liked and what I didn't:

Likes

1) special effects of course were awesome, the sound was ear-splitting, best I've ever heard
2) tripods were perfect ode to HG Wells vision, awesome machines, great CGI
3) death ray vaporizing humans was unreal
4) brief encounters with US military very gritty and realistic
5) display of humanity as world falls to pieces terrifying and realistic, the suspense in some parts was palpable
6) ashes of crispy humans a nod to the Holocaust (nazi death camps had a constant rain of human ashes from the creatoriums, and Speilberg being a Jew, this was his testament to that as in Schindlers List)
7) Dakota Fanning a great little actress
8) thought storyline of the deadbeat Dad turned reluctant hero was cool (especially when he confronted Tim Robbins)
9) Gene Barry & Anne Robinson appearance was great
10) aliens as 3-legged creatures + red fungus was perfect

What I didn't like:

1) movie was too short, I wanted more, the time flew by!
2) wanted a lot more combat footage between aliens and US military, I thought the over-the-hill action was disappointing
3) needed more gruesome footage of dead & dying (such as the downed airliner) to add even more realism....where was all the walking wounded I saw in production stills?
4) some scenes from different countries battling aliens was missed
5) teen age son was annoying in a way
6) I was disappointed slightly with the ending - I wont give it up, but like I say, it was rushed.

Overall not Spielberg's best movie, but a solid effort overall and some parts were just amazing. Tom Cruise was solid (I like him personally and don't know why so many people don't)

I give WOTW 7.5 out of a possible 10. Well worth seeing!

[HOBBIT]

Spoilers:






Twista - more scenes with the US military were not needed imo, because it was established that our weopons are USELSSS against them.

The reporters and others tell us this. We see them a couple times in those jeeps moving around (the military that is) and the scene on the hill is all you need - all those military jeeps and tanks destroyed, on fire going without a driver down the hill.

This was a movie about Tom Cruise and family suriving this - all we saw was the military AROUND THEM.

On the same note -

some scenes from different countries battling aliens was missed

Um why? I know that you are from the UK, but this takes place in the USA. It is not about the world or even the USA fighting them - it is about Tom Cruise and family survivng this, etc. We only see the military fighting that is going on around them.

It would make ZERO SENSE to go to shots of other countries figthing them .

Human weopons are mostly ineffective, but we do hear a rumor that the Japanese downed a few.
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My dislikes:
1. Tom Cruise miscast - bad idea casting one of the biggest names in hollywood. Never got the feeling that he was in ANY danger at all - because he is frakin Tom Cruise. Virtually everyoen around him gets vaporized except him.

When he steps out infront of the tripods - they switch from vaporize to capture :P Lucky Tom Cruise. And he happens to find those grenades to save the day.

2. Tripods on earth for "millions of years" or at least since before man. We wouldn't have found at least ONE of them? Because there must have been 100s of millions of tripods. With natural occurances like earthquakes, other plate and continent shifting, construction, building subways - no one ever found 1?

3. They had been here before to leave the tripods - but they didn't know about germs and bacteria!??!??? You would think that they would do more research before starting the attack?


I have some more, but not as important.

[Twista]

Yes well they my opinions, no doubt yours will differ!

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

They had been here before to leave the tripods - but they didn't know about germs and bacteria!??!??? You would think that they would do more research before starting the attack?

The body doesn't have to be immune or susceptible, the bacteria has to be able adapt to the newly introduced physiology of an alien life form (or if we came in contact with a bacteria that infected rodents in the amazon, it could be deadly to them, but to us it woudln't know what to do in our bodies unless it had previous experience in a human body). It would adapt eventually, but not in a matter of days, weeks or even years. Bacteria can mutate how they're delivered quickly, but not mutate so much so that it could infect a new physiological structure that quickly.

Think about Mad Cow Disease. It's not a new thing to cow's, but it's new to humans - didnt start affecting humans until the late 20th century (documented anyway). There aren't many inter-species bacteria that helps or harms other species...instead every creature on this planet carries a lot of bacteria that just lies dormant. Like bacteria on roaches or mosquitos. West Nile Virus, only affects humans. The bacteria has to know the physiology of what its attacking or helping in order to attack it or help it. So the aliens would drink our water and breathe our air and the bacteria would more than likely just sit in theri bodies waiting to come into contact with something it could destroy. Now yeah it could mutate, but how long would that take?

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

Tripods on earth for "millions of years" or at least since before man. We wouldn't have found at least ONE of them? Because there must have been 100s of millions of tripods. With natural occurances like earthquakes, other plate and continent shifting, construction, building subways - no one ever found 1?

Firstly, I think "millions of years" is somewhat of an exagerations in the films part - maybe a few 1000. A number of reasons why they have not been found. Burried so deep? They may have been buried miles down, away from human interferance and tunneled up to the surface. Or infact maybe they did find some? - the age old "government cover-up" pops up here.

[HOBBIT]

Your answer to why they wouldn't know about the bacteria makes no sense. In english? Just say the aliens are stupid.

But smart enough to know to have the tripods burried there for millions of years? Then come back not do ANY research??? And where are the ships in orbit???? They "beam in" to the ships through the ligthening stuff - but no ships or anything in orbit observing them or whatever? How did the beams of ligthening get there?

How deep? You go so deep and then they would be destroyed by magma.

It could be millions of years or thousands - it makes no difference what-so-ever. The character in the movie says millions - how would he know? Definitely before man which is what I said.
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Another big problem I have is with the son surviving - ruins the movie. We don't need a perfect happy ending. No way he could have survived - makes no sense and ruins the movie. No sense that Tom Cruise's character has lost anything.

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Having the tripods burried there made no sense - when they burried them they would have no idea where the big cities would be thousands or millions of years later. How convenient that they put them in all the right places.

[Twista]

What I'm saying is that it wasn't really important where they came from, why, how, or why they succumbed to the disease, or any of that. They're aliens. The film didn't try to establish anything about them other than...

1. They are aliens
2. They are here to kill us
3. They are scary.

There is no doubt that there is various plot holes - eg. having an advanced race of aliens dying from diseases. Where did medicine go!? Well this is only a plot hole like I mentioned because it's not looked at in the film. I mean I can come up with an excuse in seconds... see, these aliens have cleansed their planet of any and all harmful microbes, and have been living in spaceships for millions of years orbiting their own planet for food... thus, their bodies over millions of years have evolved with no defenses for any diseases at all. When their planet ran out of food because of a comet collision, they came here! They planned this millions of years ago because they wanted to seed other planets just in case.... add in or take away from this cover story as much as you want.

Seriously, they could easily of dropped in that disease thing which is I think a fairly plausable excuse for a science fiction movie about aliens taking over Earth. But it wasn't put in because it wasn't needed. The aliens don't even have a motive for attacking us, why do we need to know why they died from disease? They did, just accept it! You don't find out how they broke the light barrier but you accept that... what's the difference?

I do agree with you about the annoying son though. That was stupid - and did as you say "make the happy ending complete".

[HOBBIT]

well i agree there. I have not read the book - but I hear that the whole dying of bacteria thing was in the book. So it was one of the few things that Spielberg kept.

But the book is from 1898, the ending doesn't satify us in this day and age.

But then look at other alien weaknesses in recent years:

Indepenence Day - computer virus
Mars Attacks - yodoling music

So I guess something like that is to be expected.

[The Gaffer]

I'm looking forward to seeing this on the telly in about 5 years.

The whole point about the original, IMO, is to portray humans as lesser beings. Written in the 1890s, the idea of humans as the pinnacle of life was pretty much a given. Wells challenged that idea, putting us in the same role as pests that we might wipe out with a pesticide or hunt down with hounds with nary a glance at our consciences.

The happy ending, of course, has to be put in to make it palatable, but the main purpose is to undermine that self-centred view.

Those who have seen it, how well did you think this was achieved in the film?

[Aragorn]

HOBBIT - they had switched from vaporize to capture with everyone. It was past the point of simply disintegrating them, now they were using them to grow their weird little blood-powered wildlife.

About the diseases - I don't think that the common cold was really around before humans came along. Of course, I have no idea how viruses work and what I just said could be completely stupid and incorrect, but I don't believe that there was anything to carry the bacteria before humans came along.

And yeah, I'll admit the idea that we never found one tripod is a little farfetched.

I also didn't like the son. For some reason he 'needed' to see the humans try to fight the aliens. Thats retarded. I would have been running very fast by then. And the entire human frontline was wiped out, but he manages to survive and make it to Boston? Bullshit.

[trolls' bane]

Oh, my stepdad and a whole lot of people I know personally are in this movie! He told me he was in a scene where there were tanks, and it must have been later on because he had to grow a full beard for the shot.

[Rosie Gamgee]

Shoot, lost the whole darn post! (I tried to post, and this.... dang. computer.....)

Well, I'll just post the last sentence:

Dumb movie. I wouldn't reccomend it to anybody, come to think of it.

p.s. Why do all aliens look alike? I mean, every alien movie features the same aliens (except, maybe for Signs and E.T.). I'm tired of looking at the big-eyed, hood-headed, four-fingered.... argh! Can't anybody be original?!