*** spoiler alert *** My review of War of the Worlds
POSTED BY: AURaptor
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 2, 2005 11:28
VIEWED: 15587
PAGE 2 of 6
Talk about over-analyzing!! Aside from their technology, we know nothing about these creatures. And Spielburg just lets us guess as to why they did all these things, wondering what will happen next. I loved this movie, and it left me with questions also, but those same questions did not take away from my enjoyment of it.
Everyone dies alone.
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With me, it's chicken wild rice soup. GADS! That was funny. *choke choke, wipe wipe*
Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *gasp* hahahahah *choke* hahahaha *wheeze* hahahah!
Ok, maybe I have a macabre sense of humor, but that just killed me!
<--wiping coffee off his screen...Select to view spoiler:
Why were the humans stuck like grapes and stuck one at a time ? Why not (pardon the greusomness) shovel us in giant shredders and spray us around like mulch??? Glad they didn't, personally.
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/MN-Firefly/
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Sure, you know the story by now. But Spielberg takes a few liberties here and there w/ the classic, while still paying homage to the original. Just saw it today, so here are my thoughts ( not so much a review..)Select to view spoiler:
I didn't like this movie very much. It had some dandy visuals, as damn well it should. But several things about this movie didn't work - AT ALL. Tom Cruise plays a divorced dad-Ray. Robbie and Rachel are his kids who generally stay w/ mom and her new hubby. Robbie's the defiant older son, and Rachel is the wise-beyond-her-years younger daughter. Ok, to the point. What I HATED about his movie is how everyone reacts to things woefully unnatural. Lightning strikes the ground and makes a hole in the street, so everyone crowds around to take a look. Ok, fine. But when the ground below starts to shake, and cracks in the pavement start radiating from said hole ?? RUN LIKE HELL?? Nawwh...seems everyone in NY simply moves back a few feet to give this phenomenon a bit more space to .... shake more and break up more pavement? No friggin way.
Continuing w/ the tearing up of the ground beneath their feet, the curious citizens of NY city kinda sorta think it's about time to move away...only after a SUV falls into the ever widening sink hole..and GETS TOSSED 50 ft in the air back out!! (Begin mingling away, but not TOO fast....) So out pops a ginormous 3 legged alien ship...100 ft tall? ( think giant walking machines from Matrix ) Yeah, I'm thinking taking pictures as you're still STANDING there is a smart thing to do.... untill the vaporizing rays start blasting and NOW you decide it's time to run. But the idiots run DIRECTLY away from the aliens ..as in line of sight! No one thinks of scurruing down an alley or crossing the street a few times to zig zag their way out of certain death....And folks keep DOING this through out the movie....
Then there's Robbie. He's out to prove something to his now distant Dad. In one scene that makes no sense what so ever, Robbie decides to become a man, he MUST defy his father. He wants to SEE our tanks,planes and helicopters do battle w/ an array of alien ships, just over the ridge. Never mind that he's SEEN what these things can do... " I just gotta see! " Bullshit! You run and get the hell OUT of there. Lame ass script, imo! Father tries to get son to come back w/ him, leaving the young daughter all alone (sorta) as the end of all humanity rages just over the ridge. Please. So, Dad lets teenage son go... ( oh, the symbolism ), who promply runs head long over the ridge ( no gun, no training, not even a damn stick in his hand! ) and BLAMO! All hell breaks loose, the aliens bust through the lines and leave Daddy and daughter fleeing in terror.
Then they're saved by Tim Robbin's character(Ogilvy ). He's holed up in his celler, w/ a shot gun and an ax. He's survived the initial onslaught, and isn't worried about seeing death ( he's an ambulance driver , or was ) But when he see's the aliens making humans into fertilizer for ..more aliens? galactic ganja ? ... THAT'S when he really loses it. See, all the death, destruction, mayhem and losing his entire family was hard to take, but THIS!! He starts screaming and carrying on ..'Not MY blood! Not MY blood!'. So, Ray does what any sensible father would do in that situation. He blindfolds Rachel, closes the door and then kills Ogilvy. Riiight.
Ok, so both dad and daughter get snatched up in an alien ship and are about to become Purina Alien Chow , only dad finds a few handy gernades and..well, naturally he destoys the ship and they escape. And I can only assume that when you kill one giant walking tripod alien ship, none of the others will dare mess w/ you. I say this because the two end up finally making it to Boston, where dad's ex is staying for the weekend. Despite the fact that all the major centers of civilization have been destroyed, they decide it's best to go looking at another one first..just to be sure.
And in a scene that's sure to piss off anyone from New YorkNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I hate to be the bitch here but are any of you familiar with the original broadcast or at least of the basic original material? Sounds like Spielberg did whatever the hell he felt like with this "adaption" which to me sounds more and more like Spielberg taking a story people were kinda familiar with and compeltely molding it into what he wanted it to be with little reverence to the original brilliance.
Select to view spoiler:
I mean in the original the aliens come from the damn sky, not the earth. Sounds like Independance Day was closer to WotW than this version. What kills the aliens in this one?
I have no plans to see this movie as the first one was awesome. It's my mom's favorite movie, and we have the original radio broadcast on CD and let me tell you all the Spielberg and Cruise on earth couldn't improve on those.
BTW: Fun fact: ET was based off the actual alien in the original War of the Worlds, it's a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment, but once you see it you realize Spielberg's been sucking ideas off of others for longer than you thought.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Inara: "Do aliens live among us?"
Kaylee: "Yes. One of them's a doctor."
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Yep, I remember seeing the original movie years ago, too. This re-make couldn't possibly be as good as that was.
I have the same feeling about the new "King Kong" movie. There's a very good reason why the original, with Faye Wray (sp?), was such a classic. I'm absolutely sure the new one will have a better picture, effects, cinematography, and other technical features. But the way the STORY is told will probably suffer as a result.
Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.
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Quote:That wasn't so much a "pronouncement" as it was a "sidebar," I'd say. Maybe even an "afterthought."
Originally posted by ecgordon:Quote:
Originally posted by Hell's Kitten:
...from an interview with Harlan Ellison (who, by the way, is a really fascinating man to hang around with):
You can't get away with a pronouncement like that without more explanation. When and where were you lucky enough to hang out with Harlan?
Um, yeah, it's a long story, but I'll try to hit just the highlights. At a comic book convention, I was fortunate enough to be high bidder in a charity auction; the object of bidding being a lunch with Neil Gaiman during another convention several months later in Madison, WI. At this particular convention, Neil Gaiman and Harlan Ellison were guests of honor where they would finish writing the book they've been writing together for some time.
While setting up all the details with the man who was running the convention, he mentioned that I could opt for a dinner with Harlan and Neil (and a few other guests) instead of the lunch with Neil. Now, at that time, I had never heard of this "Harlan" fellow, so I said to the convention running man "Gosh, that would be neat, but I'd prefer the lunch with Neil............. Unless you'd let me do both." (insert cute smiles and eyelash fluttering and whatever other wiles I had at my disposal... over email... heh)
Conventioning Running Man was such a sweet guy (I'm still friends with him, by the way) that he let me do both. So, for the entire weekend, I was able to hang around with both Harlan and Neil; dinners, driving around, book store signings, hotel room gatherings, lunches, and other sorts of after-hours / after-con milling about and chatting. All the stories Harlan would tell, all the every-day small talk, all inside info on new things Neil was working on... it was fantastic... I could listen to Harlan speak for an eternity and never get tired of it. It was really trippy. I hoped for just a lunch with me and Neil, and ended up getting that and a whole lot more. Um. Platonically speaking.
Here's where I'll stop before I continue to ramble, reminiscing dreamily about a weekend that happened 3 years ago, which is completely off topic. /end thread hijacking
Cheers.
无 党派 人士
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*spoiler*
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WHen we first saw the humans get drained of blood from the alien thing, the first thing I thought was River. "The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds, given adequate vacumming systems..." lol I love bein a browncoat!
YES! THAT'S why it bothered me so much. I KNEW there was a burrowed memory of something deep down that just didn't sit right. Great observation! Even better than my People Chipper™ comment.
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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Quote:
Originally posted by BlackEyedGirl:
I hate to be the bitch here but are any of you familiar with the original broadcast or at least of the basic original material? Sounds like Spielberg did whatever the hell he felt like with this "adaption" which to me sounds more and more like Spielberg taking a story people were kinda familiar with and compeltely molding it into what he wanted it to be with little reverence to the original brilliance.Select to view spoiler:
I mean in the original the aliens come from the damn sky, not the earth. Sounds like Independance Day was closer to WotW than this version. What kills the aliens in this one?
I have no plans to see this movie as the first one was awesome. It's my mom's favorite movie, and we have the original radio broadcast on CD and let me tell you all the Spielberg and Cruise on earth couldn't improve on those.
BTW: Fun fact: ET was based off the actual alien in the original War of the Worlds, it's a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment, but once you see it you realize Spielberg's been sucking ideas off of others for longer than you thought.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Inara: "Do aliens live among us?"
Kaylee: "Yes. One of them's a doctor."
Why can't Spielberg take the old versions (both movie and/or radio) and make his own "adaptation"? I have seen the original movie numerous times, heard the broadcast, but never read the novel, which I understand, is somewhat like this new "adaptation". It's his to do with what he wants, then put it out there for all to see, if you want to. Don't be like those people who condemned "The Last Temptation of Christ" without seeing the it.
The aliens do come from the sky, they're "transported" through the lightning to the tripods. They also die just like the aliens in the first movie, from germs or viruses which we long ago became immune to.
Spielberg may or may not have improved on the originals (I believe he did with the new family dynamic), but the material was still his to do whatever he wanted to do with it! If another director comes along in 50 years and thinks he can improve on this version, then I say more power to him!
Everyone dies alone.
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While I will admit that I found the movie pretty entertaining, I think I did walk away from the theatre a little disappointed. To me, the movie just didn't come across as this huge blockbuster it was hyped up to be.
Select to view spoiler:
And I agree with what a lot of you had said, there are a LOT of plot holes, my favorite being one someone else said, why hadn't we discovered at least one of the ships by now? You'd think with all the tunnels, sewers, and everything else beneath New York, someone would have at least STUMBLED across one.
And also, another little one I kinda noticed. When the first ship is coming out of the ground, EVERYTHING electronic in the area has ceased working. Cars, cell phones, even watches. Yet, as this gigantic thing is rising out of the ground, someone is standing there RECORDING the whole thing on a camcorder! What makes a camcorder to special that it wouldnt have been affected like everything else?
All in all, I'd say its probably worth seeing, just don't go in expecting to see a masterpiece, and you'll come out just fine.
"How drunk was I last night?"
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Oh, Spielberg has the clout and the box office track record to make any movie he wants, any way he wants. He just hasn't made anything that's interested me since, well, I really liked "Saving Private Ryan" (and not just because Nathan Fillion was in it). Most of his other movies tend to be skewed toward a much younger audience. And it looks like that's what he's doing with WotW - skewing it toward a younger audience than the original film. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it will probably do better at the box office because of that. It just won't do better with any of my money.
Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.
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