War of the Worlds

I caught the 1215 matinee today.

Sucked!

*Goes back to watching the ORIGINAL WOTW and ID4*

 

Yeah, just an OK movie in my book, caught the 1:40 matinee with my buddy.

 

In that case I'm going back to see Batman this weekend.


GO BATMAN!!!

 

"Excellent Choice!" ~ I am Sam

 

Yeah Ive heard it sucked. I now have no intention what so ever to see it now.

 

I think it would be more aptly titled:

Bore of the Worlds

 

John, you'll miss out on a good film IMHO. I think there is a lot of negative US stuff in there - maybe that is why a US audience won't warm to it. Like the not-so-likeable dysfunctional family, the gun nut living in the basement who may also have just a little too much interest in children, the looting that happens (including the horrific ferry scene where it's everyone for themselves). Basicially American society falling apart in face of danger. Whereas ID4 was Americans at their most honourable. Is that partly why Joe do you think? But there also scenes of great moments - the military facing the Tripods knowing they will die. Brave men.

The negativity aside, I loved it. It took a real personal up-close view of a Martian invasion (like Saving Private Ryan/Band of Brothers did for the WW2 campaign) than the say Independence Day (which I loved too btw). I think Spielberg made a great version of the story, just enough of a difference from the original to make this stand on its own.

The only issue I have with the film is the idea that the Martians have been jealous of us for a very long time, so they buried the ships - I am sure I heard a million years ago. Well, depending on what religious belief system you follow, that could be true I suppose, but for those that follow evolution as how we came to be, it is kinda a little odd. Humanity has only had "advanced" (emphasis on the quotations) technology for what? 100-200 years? We have only really become something to be jealous of in that time? So were they jealous when we were a planet of the apes? Or was it our T-Rexes (but no, cos they allegedly dies out over 65 million years ago).
*Scratches head in confusion over why Martians got jealous so long ago, in our galaxy very ver close*

Put that aside and I loved the pace, and it kept me on the edge of my seat. Even with the nasty selfish piece of work that was Tom's character. Look at that, a Brit being more emotional than an American for once

But the effects were great, it was a good survival story, and does Tom have the luck of the Irish or what lmao?

 

My dislike of the film has nothing to do with American patriotism.
I disliked it because I thought it was rubbish.

 

Actually, my favorite parts were the rioting scenes, so true that people would react that way when faced with such a unknown threat trying to wipe them out, regardless if they were American or not. The reason I was disappointed was because I felt almost no emotional connection with Ray and his children.

 

I haven't seen this, but I will say my hopes for it were greatly diminished once I heard it was being set in modern times. What is it with Hollywood not wanting to follow books anymore?
I also heard that the ending was completely out of the realm of possibility. At an early screening in Boston, the audience laughed! I don't want to know what it is in case I should ever get around to seeing it.
This film has been getting mixed reviews, so I suppose it depends on your taste. I usually agree with the majority, so in this case I'll probably dislike it.
Spielberg's been on auto-pilot since Schindler's List. He was one of my gods when I was a wee lad. What happened to him?

 

I have no desire to see this movie. I'll only go if someone begs me to see it with them.

 

Thanks for that response Tim And I agree with you - the rioting was spot on. Order breaks down, and it is everyone for themselves.
I was to be honest surprised at the reactions to what I think is a great film. It grabbed me on an emotional level that most films haven't done for a while. Like you, I saw Tom's character is not someone you can really look up to at the start - a very selfish person. But I think for me as the film progresses I forget that this was a selfish git, and just feel the danger he goes through on an hourly basis and how he relearns that there are more important things in the world than himself - his kids for one. And how they hate him. But also how he has to let his son do something that terrifies him - and at that moment he has to let go his son is taken from him. I don't see the hero moment later on as overdone personally as some people have said, it was lucky more than anything else. And wasn't that great that the captured humans risked themselves to pull him out. Great moment, I would have shouted aloud in the cinema when that happened, for me that has more heroic resonance than most moments in ID4 which were overblown "Heroism" IMHO. This is the real invasion, gritty, dirty and when the true survivors stand out. I love ID4 for its extravagance, but I love WOTW for its no-holds-barred "truer" experience. There were no real pure heroes like in ID4, but more the common man struggling to get by in the face of impossible odds. And at the end of the day Man wasn't the one who defeats this onslaught, our world does. Just like in the original.

### Spoiler about ending below ###

Anyone who has been to India knows that water can kill lmao. Seriously, Indians can drink water in their own region because they build up immunity to it from birth and during childhood. But a westerner drinking their water has no chance of not needing the loo for days afterwards. I know this from experience. And it is common sense. So just the aliens coming down and messing themselves up is not actually wrong - they have no immunity (and westerners feel bad stomach ache, and worse, after drinking, but we at least have bodies that can build up resistance over time) - the aliens had no chance. You see them drink muddy water in the basement scene. And this still ties in with the original ending. And the ending for this and the original WOTW is SO much better than the one from ID4. I prefer biological defeat over some nancy computer-created virus lol.

Anyways, thanks for replying, I am grateful. I won't bore you lot anymore
But if you want to read an informative interview by the screenplay writer about the issues of terrorism and the ending - look here -> http://chud.com/interviews/3522

 

Well, suit yourselves--I saw it this past Saturday in a historic old theater in Maine along with most of MEPA and Co. (Will & Kris, Christina, Mario, and their daughter Tori), and we ALL loved it. We're all dying to see it again. Will said he hadn't been on the edge of his seat that much since ROTS. We were proven wrong about Spielberg unable to make anything but cuddly movies again. We love the fact that he is a tell, not show director (and I'm not talking about the aliens--if you see it, just pay attention to a certain scene where the little girl is blindfolded and told to cover her ears while she sings). There's lots of minor details that were brilliant, but I won't go into to avoid spoilers. Yeah, there were the expected continuity gaffes that every movie has, but they're not glaring, and they're only going to bother you if you're a nitpicker; no movie is perfect.

I like the fact that it's set in modern times--a period movie isn't going to connect you to the events. You'll be aware the whole time you're watching a drama. I left the theater actually wondering what I would do in a situation like this. It's obviously playing off the 9/11 aftereffects on us, and I think it does a superb job while keeping enough of the original story intact. Even Ray's occasional heroics aren't entirely unrealistic; anyone smart enough could come up with ideas like that. If it were a Bruckheimer or Bay movie, those stunts would have been a lot more over the top, but Spielberg keeps it from getting out of hand.

For anyone who thought the ending was retarded (again, I'm not talking about the aliens), just sit back and realize...it's a Spielberg thing. That's just what he likes to do with his endings. Besides, you've had enough carnage during the rest of the movie.

It's a basic story, but I felt it worked. Showing Ray's gun being stolen just to be used to kill another man to take the van away was a sign of how low we human beings are and how we're not much better than the aliens, if not worse. Having the main character be a deadbeat loser stuck saving his kids is a simple way of showing how even the worse specimens of our kind can rise up and be something better. It would have been silly to make him a good, selfless person--there would be no need for character development. Besides, in staying true to the book and being a better film than the standard popcorn fare, it doesn't try to take the melodramatic route where mankind trumps ____ threat just because we're mankind. The hopelessness is real. We couldn't stop 9/11, and who's to say we could stop an extraterrestial invasion too?

Oh, and...*looks up*...yeah to what Tim says too.

 

Well, I got around to seeing this yesterday,and I'm afraid I have to agree with Joe and Tim. Visually, it was a masterpiece, but nothing grabbed me.

*SPOILERS*


What I liked: The tripods, I loved the horn just before they began attacking.
The whole sequence in the beginning when we first see the tripods. I thought that was awesome.
The red weed, and the humans in the baskets.
The riots. These have already been elaborated on so I won't go into them again.
The cameos by Anne Robinson and Gene barry. Nice homage to the 53 version.

What I didn't like: No character development. You didn't feel for the family.
The blatant rip-offs of the 53 version, namely the probe in the basement, and the scene at the end when we see the alien's fingers crawling out of the tripod first, folowed by the arm. Come on Steven, what happened to your originality?
The aliens. They looked like something you'd seen before. I also thought their faces were too cute. You'd think they would have looked more gruesome, beings they were here to destroy the human race. The martians in the 53 version were creepier IMO!

Basically, I loved the homages to the book. The ending didn't bother me. I didn't know they were going to keep the ending from the book.
The bottom line is this could have been so much better! Maybe, if David Koepp hadn't written the screenplay, need I mention how much I hate him, and if the production wouldn't have been rushed, it would have been a masterpiece. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. *sigh* Why, Steven, why?

Apparently, some of the people here loved it. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

 

Jedi180, that's cool. You watched it, you like some of it, you didn't fully enjoy it. But you watched it. That is what I am trying to get across - because 5 members of MEPA saw it in Maine and loved it, and I am just trying to let John know that, because those same members are the ones he usually sees films with. A while back someone told me that "the Village" was rubbish, that don't go and watch it. Btw, they hadn't seen it themselves, only what they had heard. They even told me the ending, supposedly. Well I saw it a week ago and I can tell you I loved it, and yes the "style" of the ending was spoiled, but the person's facts about the ending were also quite way of the mark. I think you have to make your own mind up on films, just like everything else. But also having a dialogue about these films with people who like discussing other sci-fi can help understanding, hence the purpose of message boards full of the typed word

I have just been reading Dark Horse Comics online adaption of the WOTW book, this one is set in 1800s, in Britain. Now for a modern Brit like myself who ain't keen on the poshness in Englishness and its language and the whole snobiness of the Royal Family, the comic version is a little grating - it's a culture I am happy has vanished (though I am not necessarily proud of the culture in England which has replaced it). I am sure non-Brits will see it as quaint, but I so prefer this new film version with modern language and a more open society.

The alien look - yes, I am not a 100% sure about their look. But, maybe spielberg is trying to say this - evil, pure evil, does not necessarily have to be ugly/nasty (unlike a Hieronymus Bosch painting where Jesus looks baby-faced and his tormentors have hideous visages- so making a symbolic connection between the look of good/evil). These aliens look so angelic, you stop for a moment and wonder why you should hate them, then you realise just what they have done. We have it ingrained into us that "beautiful = good", I think Spielberg just knocked that concept on its bum. That evil sometimes wears a beautiful and innocent face.

Ok, I promised not to post, I am sure people are fuming lol Laters

 

Hey I didn't see this yet and may end up waiting for the DVD release in December. I ended up going back to see Batman Begins for a second time over the holiday weekend and that movie only gets better everytime I see it!!


And now I wait for Wonka....

 

There were some very good points made. After thinking about it, I have to say...

I still think it sucked!

 

I loved this movie and will go see it again if anyone wants Batman however, I will NOT see. I don't need another friggen batman movie shoved down my throat. Plus, I'd be too busy thinking "Why is Qui Gon training Bruce to be Batman?" LOL Wonka I want to go see, though its starting to look lame in the preveiws lately. It looks too kid friendly; where as the original boat ride was creepy as hell, the new one looks like a friggen roller coaster ride. Maybe I'll see it, I don't know.

 

As far as Wonka goes, I have never been unhappy with any movie that Buton/Depp have made together, so I actually have high hopes that this movie is going to be alot of fun and that's all I'm looking for from a movie about a candy maker anyway.

 

I thought Batman Begins was probably the best movie I've seen so far this summer, even better than RotS. Of course, this is just MHO. What do I know? LOL

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is still up in the air with me. It doesn't look like something I'd want to see in the movies but on video, maybe.

 

I like the look of the new Batman movie from the trailers and pics I have seen but I'll catch it when it comes on video in the UK I think. Not sure what to make of a Willy movie, maybe free him?

I am looking forward to to pt 1 of the Chronicles of Narnia, I am seriously considering getting the books out of the loft and re-reading. Then again I have a SW EU mountain screaming my name to be read again lol. Plus I have to keep re-reading the SW comic where I am a dead Jedi Just to make sure T-Bolton really did die in the Siege of Saleucami, I want a second opinion and a full medical report lmao.

 

FF was better than WOTW 2005 and the only good character in THAT movie was Johnny Storm!

 

FF?

 

Fantastic Four, Joe!