War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Finally saw this today. It was better than I thought it was going to be. I remember starting to read the book years ago but then I moved and never got to finish it. It was actually my roommate's book and he had since lost it. I've just been too lazy to get a copy and finish it.

Were the aliens from the movie true to the way they were described in the book? Like Recoil, I kept thinking they looked like the ones from Independence Day.

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Not if they had three arms etc they weren't...

The book Martians are essentially big 'heads' with large eyes, a small lipless mouth and a timpanic membrane on the back. They are "larger than a bear" with a dark leathery hide. They have two bunches of tentacles with which they struggle around and manipulate things.

They don't like the gravity and are described as being created - the Martians having reached the point where they build bodies for various purposes. They have no digestive system for they inject the blood of humans , and when they can't get human they use the blood of another biped of which they brought some from Mars...

Wells describes it better!

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

As odd as this may sound to some of you regulars, I find myself agreeing with CE on this one. I also think it was one of Tom Cruise's best performances. I thought he was very solid in this movie and that the role couldn't have been done better. It really was a well executed movie with lots to offer on many areas. One of the few movies I have seen lately that were well worth the $9 spent to see it in the theater (the only other one worth it recently was Batman Begins).

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

After reading this thread I have thought about the ending and now agree with many of you that even though abrupt, the ending is very sad. Once the clean up begins, Tom Cruise's character will still be alone. Sure his kids will probably respect him and love him more but ultimately he took them where they needed to go; to their mother.

And $9? I paid $5.50 for a matinee..I havent went to a movie after 6pm in a long time..

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Tom uses FORCE LIGHTNING on OPRAH! Darn his Scientology ways!

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Yea, The really disturbing thing about that is: Oprah looks like she's enjoying it!

I do love working for a place where there is usually a lot of time off on Fridays. Weekday matinees at the theater I go to are $4.00 for adults. Even the Saturday ones I think are just $4.50

Soon it'll cost me more to drive up there than it will to see the actual movie. If it isn't already.

I think I'll still pass on WotW, though.

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Well, I've seen it...

1. Great film - top fun and nicely put together

2. Apart from a few elements (tripods, bacteria vs Martians) and the bare skeleton of the plot (ie Earh invaded by Martians), it is completely different to the original story - especially characterwise.

I would have gone to see it and thought it even better had it not been marketed as War of the Worlds - is not Spielberg's name enough?

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

I'm not buying the whole "tragic ending" thing. The kid earlier said he just wanted to dump them on mom so he could just worry about saving himself, but by the time they were to Boston the war was over so he didn't have to worry about "saving" anyone at that point.

And the whole isolation thing might have worked if that were the end of the scene/movie, but doesn't Robbie run out and give him a hug right after that?

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

The Thunderchild thing could have been factored into the whole ferry sequence, but that itself was phenomenal.

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I too missed the Thunderchild sequence but on consideration I think the film deliberately avoided the very story aspect that Thunderchild told, loss of military forces. While we do see the armed services take a big defeat it's overshadowed by the 'loss' of Robbie. Even when he's allowed to go off to war he doesn't say the classic phrase "I have to do this", he says he has to see it. He doesn't die as a soldier, he is killed as a citizen. Also the clothes we see floating down after the battle are all civilian clothes, not combat fatigues.

The Thunderchild scene can't be portrayed as anything except the military defending people at the cost of their own lives. Perhaps it could be said that the way they showed the 'Artillery' defeat (when Robbie went off) made the Thunderchild scene repetitive but I don't think the film made much of the heroic sacrifice angle which is what Thunderchild is all about. Perhaps the current world situation made the studio uncomfortable with military losses.

I havent went to a movie after 6pm in a long time..

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I'm not used to US audiences and the film was nearly ruined for me by kids (at a 10pm showing!) asking "what's that?" and adults laughing at tender moments. From now on I'll watch midnight showings since they've been no problem so far.

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

I knew that Robbie had survived when the Miranda Otto character character said 'thank-you' when Ray handed their daughter to her. If I had been the mum, my question would have been 'where's Robbie?'

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

After reading this thread I have thought about the ending and now agree with many of you that even though abrupt, the ending is very sad. Once the clean up begins, Tom Cruise's character will still be alone.

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And without a house. And his insurance probably doesn't cover acts of war. I hadn't really thought about the ending in that respect, but it's all true. He starts as a loveable yet unreliable loser, goes through this ordeal, and comes out a stronger man. But in the end, he doesn't get the girl, doesn't get his kids back (except for that one weekend a month), and doesn't really leave with anything other than his life and the clothes on his back.

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Acts of war, god, terrorism and quite a lot of other things are not specifically not covered in my home insurance. Aliens are not specifically excluded though.

Maybe the forthcoming sequel, 'Short-arse Scientologist vs the Insurance Men' will cover this in detail!

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Acts of war, god, terrorism and quite a lot of other things are not specifically not covered in my home insurance. Aliens are not specifically excluded though.

Maybe the forthcoming sequel, 'Short-arse Scientologist vs the Insurance Men' will cover this in detail!

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That was pretty good!

Actually, while I still feel this film is layered with meaning...I will freely admitt it still has a few flaws. The main flaw is that Robbie survives. He shouldn't have...it minimized the impact of the film and made the scene where Robbie left meaningless. It was a Spielberg, " I can't kill a kid " cop-out ending and his biggest mistake in the film.

I am not above criticizing my idol.

CE

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

Oddly enough, it was Spielberg who was one of the first to break the never kill a kid rule back in 1975 with the Kintner boy in JAWS. Until then, there seemed to be an immutable rule that said you could put a child in harms way, but don't actually hurt him. Shocked the hell out of me when I was 11, because even then I was aware of the taboo of killing kids onscreen.

Re: War of the Worlds (SPOILERS)

*bump*

Got to seeing it at last. Probably the most scary movie I've ever seen in a movie theatre - definitely was more scary on a small screen, at 20, than Indepence Day was for me on a big, big screen, when I was 12.
The directing was definitely stunning. I was quite sitting on the edge of my seat from the beginning of the storm brewing up towards pretty far towards the end. The directing was definitely stunning - one shot in particular impressed me, I've no idea if anyone else would have noticed. When they're fleeing from New York in the car, the camera is aimed at the right window of the car while the car is driving full speed. The camera then zooms out, moves away to the car speeding alond the highway, and then zooms in on the left side of the car and shows the inside of the car again from then - without a single cut. I do wonder how they did that - didn't see any space where they could have had a cart-thingy rolling

As for everyone important surviving - I went into the movie with the following assumption: In any such catastrophy, killing a whole lot of people but also leaving a whole lot of survivors, statistically speaking, there will be families in which everyone survives, also if not many of them. So I assumed that Spielberg was just being nice enough to show us one of those few families from the beginning - made the whole thing seem a lot less implausible .. though Robbie being alive did seem a bit of a cheat, I wasn't really shocked about it.

I was a bit dissatisfied by the ending though - not because of the principle, that I found quite realistical - especially considering that similar things have happened with colonialism, doesn't seem like a far stretch that it would happen on an interplanitary basis - so no complaints to HG Wells for that from me .. what bothered me about the ending was the abruptness. Yes, I know, wouldn't make any sense at all for Tom Cruise to have any clue as of what was going on .. it just did somehow seem a bit strange that one one moment sees the aliens showing signs of weakness .. and the next moment the movie is over, with an end note explaining what happened without much of a prior warning aside from the microbes being shown in the beginning of the movie (when I was unfortunately distracted by a bunch of LOUD kids coming into the movie and trying to find seats, yelling against the rows to eachother while getting seated - ignoring that they were late and the movie had already bloody started ) .. it did seem a bit anticlimatic. Not that I would have any clue how it could have been done better
All in all though, definitely the best "scary" alien invade earth movie I've seen yet. Not that I saw too many of those .. but it definitely managed to converge the feeling of hopelessnesss that Independence Day just .. didn't. In that, I was always sure that we would be saved by our all american heroes soon enough. The way this one just stayed on the ground really made one feel a lot like an ant trying to avoide being stepped on. I did like how they left real "successful" heroics out of it - that humans just survived since they were bloody lucky.

As for boycotting it for Cruise .. well, I wouldn't say it was Cruise's movie - if it was anyone's movie, it was Spielberg, who is not anywhere close to Cruise on any of the matters discussed. If Spielberg can manage to still survive with Cruise around, so can I.

Hmpf. Now I'm at the point where there is truely absolutely *nothing* left in the theatres or coming anytime soon that I in any way am interested. Gwaa!! (Serenity, the only exception, is not coming at all to Austria it seems - and not to the Czech Republic till late November)