War of the Worlds

Big thumbs up. For a popcorn sci-fi flick, a masterpiece.

Here's the part that surprised me most. It was really, genuinely scary. This movie had me squirming and wringing my hands and seriously wondering for the first time since I was a small child whether it might be prudent to slink outside the theatre for the next big scary scene. Speilberg -- of whom I am no great fan -- has really learned how to put an audience through the wringer. And he did. Several times.

Good story strategy in focusing in on Tom Cruise and his small family. Even better story strategy in not piling on the "likability" factor, even with the small daughter, who was something of a jerk. I suppose these parts could have been done better. But to be perfectly fair, there are some Tennessee Williams scenes that could've been written better.

It is always a problem in a big action movie of how many yakata-yakata scenes to expend in order to build up some empathy with the characters before the mayhem begins, and though this was not perfectly done in WOTW it still did the job.

But as for the action -- I have no idea how these scenes could have been done better. Tripods great, destruction of cities great, just perfect, perfect, perfect.

I certainly enjoyed myself more than in BATMAN BEGINS.

Recommended!

I'm actually considering going to see War of the Worlds... I'm only concerned that after seeing this newest version, with all of the mind-blowing special effects, my yearly Halloween tradition of listening to Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air's masterful radio drama will be ruined! I already know what the cylinder that crashed into the Wilmuth's Farm in Grover's Mill looks like. I can also see how the Martian machines move across Jersey and New York spreading death and destruction in their path... any of Speilberg's vision will just smear the lovely horrific picture Orson Welles painted so brilliantly in October of 1938! On second thought maybe I won't go see it... :)

"The best Spielberg movie you don't want to go see!"

or

"The worst Sci Fi film staring Tom Cruise that you can't help but to go see."

The story more closely follows the great 1958 film version, minus the love interest. That has been replaced by a 'Father saving his family and isn't that what every father wants nothing more than to do than to save his family from huge machines from another world' thread that lays down some heavy moral values and lots of heart-tugging scenes and 'oh my god are they going to make it?' moments and the like. Bleah!

Get to the monsters! Amazing! The entrance is a bit effect heavy, but man when they fire up that death-ray thing it gets really exciting! The sounds of the machine really make your short hairs stand up. They bring in the red-weed from the book, and it makes for an interesting moment between Tim Robbins and Tom Cruise. Not saying any more on that one other than the red-weed is some really neat CGI!

Now, Tom Cruise: He plays, well, Tom Cruise. His singular vacant stare and disconnect from every other actor in the scene with him seems to be why they keep hiring him. He acted just like he did in the previous 5 movies, just different costuming.

Dakota Fanning: Well, she is going to grow up as some kind of crack-ho messed up child star, a la Drew Barrymore. She seems to have one good talent and that is the ability to freak-out and then go into some kind of zombie like state and stare into the distance. That is, she can stare into the distance and manage to block out everything around here except that tiny spec of the universe in front of her that she seems to be willing herself to transport to. Creepy, but that is about all she has done in her short movie and TV career.

Everyone else: The Machines were amazing, a wonderful mixture of something futuristic and something old-school mechanical. Like industrial-age meets space-age and done very well.

Now, it may seem like I am totally ragging on this film, and your right! I had so much fun with it, a hot Saturday afternoon, a cool theater, some pop-corn and my wahine. What is not to love. But, would I recommend this film, probably not. Well, probably. I highly recommend afternoon matinee, or double feature at the drive-in. I wouldn't shell out the bucks to see this one full price. But, the effects are impressive enough to want the big screen.

So, you decide:

"The best Spielberg film you don't want to see" or "the worst Tom Cruise package you can't help but go see."

Oh, and one more thing for those of you that play these kinds of games at movies:

Count the number of Cafe Bustello coffee cans you see in the film. This is one of the best played and most entertaining (and odd) Conspicuous Product Placements I have seen in some time!

And one more thing:

Apparently, the martians need clothes.... The death ray doesn't effect clothing. It seems to effect everything else; houses, trees, the freeway, but not clothes.

You watch the film and then we can try to figure that one out.....

I really enjoyed this film, lots of edge of the seat moments, very exciting.

Great effects, I actually dropped my jaw several times. Good movie, go see it.

It sucked. One of Spielberg's worst, and I love his pictures. Sometimes he really misses. What a waste of Tim Robbins. The ending was one of the great cop-outs of all time. And so on... It's as bad as Artificial Intelligence: AI & The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

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[ Edited by: Tiki Matt on 2005-07-04 21:20 ]

Oh man, as bad as A.I.? That's one of my all-time most despised movies. Spielbergo seems to get the high-concept part right, then dumbs it down and ruins it with his sentimental BS endings. Gawd how I hated that movie. And he ruined Minority Report, too, with that awful ending where Cruise has to spell out the entire movie we just watched to the bad guy, who apparently didn't know what was going on. Maybe he was in a different movie?

Sad to hear about WotW. I will see it soon, but I can smell the stench of another high concept failure from here.

On 2005-07-05 10:30, Tiki-bot wrote:
Oh man, as bad as A.I.? That's one of my all-time most despised movies. Spielbergo seems to get the high-concept part right, then dumbs it down and ruins it with his sentimental BS endings. Gawd how I hated that movie. And he ruined Minority Report, too, with that awful ending where Cruise has to spell out the entire movie we just watched to the bad guy, who apparently didn't know what was going on. Maybe he was in a different movie?

Sad to hear about WotW. I will see it soon, but I can smell the stench of another high concept failure from here.

Yes, as bad as A.I. The entire picture is really dumbed down, focusing more on the effects than story. You hit the nail on the head about the sappy ending, and he used narration to sum up the ending! The more I think about it, the more I hate it.

Went to a matinee yesterday and was impressed with the flick until Tim Robbins "no occupation ever succeeds" character showed up (after that, it was a downhill trip to Snoozeville).

The tension alone in the first 30-45 minutes was stifling - brought back the butterflies i always got right after the military threw me and a pallet of equipment into the back of a plane.

At least it was slow enough in the 2nd half to start wondering how the Tripods can vaporize 18-wheelers, but not a cotton t-shirt. ...and why didn't E.T. pass on to the invaders to get some immunizations before dropping by for a visit? Newark gets annihilated, but Boston doesn't? ...and where were all the gun nuts, or at least the people who could have used their Ewok learned skills and attack the Tripods with rolling logs and/or lines around the legs?

i was impressed (if that's the correct word) how, other than Tom's kid helping the folks onto the ferry, NO ONE we saw in the movie was presented as doing anything remotely heroic (protecting your children is an innate ability of the majority of mammels) - scavaging, killing each other, rioting, etc. - with the military getting treated as it unfortunately does in real life "they signed up to die, so let them."

During the first 30-45 minutes i was surprised how it echoed Wells' concept for the book in 1898 "Let's see how the British Empire feels when a technologically superior enemy attacks them" with the Brits in the role that the Indians and Africans took in real life at that time.

All in all, the movie was a stinker. Spielburg does his usual thing and starts holding back the punches to make a happy shiny ending - everything that happened from the dad and son playing catch until the dad and son hugged in the street were dismissed as pointless. It could have been a whitewater rafting trip gone wrong, not the liquidation of an unknown percentage of the world's population.

I was amazed with Morgan 'Easy Reader' Freeman's intro/outro - Orson would have been proud.

That said and done, i am looking forward to eventually seeing http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWKEY.html

...and wholeheartedly recommend reading Inc. Sourcebooks' "War of the Worlds" compliation - http://sourcebooks.com/content/catalog/catalog.asp?isbn=1570719853

...and also "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book 2" - http://dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=2432

Spielberg rant:

Jeez, what is it with him and endings? It's odd because he almost seems to repect the audience's intelligence when building the story, then turns around at the end and spoon feeds them a bowl full of saccharine with a side of ham-fisted explantion.

E.T. Well, the alien ship made a stupid rainbow, but I guess it's more of a kids' movie, so no harm no foul.

Schindler's List: Weirdest ending ever. People asleep on the freezing ground? Russians ride in on horses - 'We're saved!" And that awful "I could have done more" speech? Ugh!

Saving Private Ryan: Very good movie with the worst, most unwatchable bookends ever. Thank god for chapters on DVDs.

Minority Report: The aforementioned Cruise explaining the whole story to the villian on a cellphone! Why not just put them in a room and call it "Clue"?

Don't even get me started on A.I. again! Though the dumbest scene in that was in the middle, the awful, Dukes of Hazzard-level motorcycle bandits. Some poor 3rd unit director phoned that in!

He really hasn't had a good ending since Jaws, and that was from a book. He couldn't leave well-enough alone on Close Encounters and later added the interior spaceship shots, which completely destroyed the mystery of the original ending. By not showing the interior, he created a sense of wonder and awe. What would it be like in that ship? Could human eyes even comprehend it? When we see that it's just a neon hotel lobby, it really takes away some of the magic.

Saw it yesterday and enjoyed the whole thing. I am a Scifi fan, and this was a real good one. I actually liked the ending. I wasn't too crazy about Tim Robbins character, but what the hell it is a Scifi, and anything goes....

Me likw big tripod machines. Very 50's sci-fi looking.