War Of The Worlds, a review (of sorts), and some rambling...*SPOILERS*
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Saturday, January 7, 2006 13:58
VIEWED: 3908
PAGE 2 of 3
I don't particularly rate any of the War of the Worlds films. The fifties one was better than Speilbergs attempt, but I still found it pretty cheesy.
HG Wells original was fantastic, and loses nothing being set in Victorian England.
I think a film that was a direct adaptation of the Book (i.e. set in Victorian England) would be superb. Half the fear element of the original is the onset of killing machines to a culture incapable of handeling them, like the tank from world war one 
HG Wells was a visionary, and his original in it's original format is better, more striking and hits harder than any of the later adaptations could ever hope for. Hell even the Jeff Wayne Musical version is better than any of the films.
There will never be a decent film adaptation though, since Hollywood only does period stuff if it means changing history, and they'd HAVE to set it in Washington, couldn't be set in London after all .
Finn:
I can't help thinking you've missed the point. HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds in 1898. I heard of and read the book before i'd even heard of the radio broadcast. The book wouldn't of been popular or famous without the radio braodcast? Please, it had been around and been popular long before that broadcast.
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
Remember, the ice caps aren't melting, the water is being liberated.
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Quote:HK, I agree about A.I., I feel it's the exception. A great and disturbing flick.
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
I saw A.I., and that was in no way a happy ending. Creepy yes, disturbing yes, devastatingly downbeat even, but happy? For whom? The human race is gone, Chris. All that's left are these memory machines, reliving a past that doesn't even belong to them. And the whole thing with Blue Fairy and Mommy and living one day forever is just a Freudian nightmare. Best Kubrick movie he never made.
And I could have handled WOTW's ending if Minority Report hadn't handed me a nonsense all's-well finale.
I can see the horror aspect you cite, but watch it a second time, I dare ya!
Chrisisall, a Tom fan even
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Quote:While I agree with your sentiments, realistically, that would have been problematic. His son was feisty; might have taken repeated blows to get him limp, and in the frenzy around, Tom might have accidentally hurt him severly, like, broken his neck. Plus the daughter was alone for too long already, and that further split his concentration. That was the good part of the movie, the sense of helplessness all around...
Originally posted by AURaptor:
The next time your only teenage son whines that he wants to wander over a hill, with no weapons, training or damn business of being there in the first place to watch heavy artillary do battle w/ invincible alien craft...you knock his ass out and carry him away!!!
But knocking him out WAS the first thing that came to my mind, too!
Chrisisall, skating in Hell
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Quote:Yep, do the book as written, that was what I'd hoped when I first heard Speilberg was doing it.
Originally posted by citizen:
I think a film that was a direct adaptation of the Book (i.e. set in Victorian England) would be superb. Half the fear element of the original is the onset of killing machines to a culture incapable of handeling them, like the tank from world war one
But as far as us being utterly incapible of handeling them, the 1953 version is still the best we've gotten.
(BTW, Wells got the idea for WOTW from seeing Invasion Of The Saucer People when he was travelling in his real time machine, I've heard it said)
Time After Time fan Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
since Hollywood only does period stuff if it means changing history, and they'd HAVE to set it in Washington, couldn't be set in London after all
I agree. Although I think Jackson could do a Victorian War of the Worlds and make it a bigger blockbuster then Spielburg could hope for. Just look at what he did with King Kong. That movie looks amazing...too long for the theaters, but films like that need to be made. King Kong and Star Wars aren't the reason Hollywood isn't making money this year, after all great films are still great. Its so many crappy little movies that clog the system preventing potentially profitable 2nd String films like Serenity from making the money Hollywood needs.
I'm not knocking Serenity, I love that movie and will be getting it for mine own on December 20th, but its not and never would have been a blockbuster, it should have been a breakout hit, but how can you break out when your competing with 20 other crappy movies at the same time?
H
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Quote:Citizen's right, and the story's too compelling not to have been made into a movie someday, with, or without the Orson Wells (you were thinking 1984 writer, nes pas?) broadcast.
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
It would never have been as popular as it is, in fact may never have even been remember, had it not been for the controversy created by Orwell’s 1938 radio broadcast, suggesting that people really are that stupid.
Aside: the first time Night Of The Living Dead was shown on broadcast TV in NY, the network got hundreds of phone calls asking if it was real (the TV announcer segments) prompting them to run a disclaimer across the bottom in subsequent broadcasts.
Yes, Virginia, there really are zombies out there.
Chrisisall
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Serenity is a good movie, not just bias I think. If it had had Halle Berry as Inara and George Clooney as Mal then it would be big.
Remember, no one cares about stories, it's all about the stars...
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
Remember, the ice caps aren't melting, the water is being liberated.
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Quote:Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve missed the point. I’ve never actually read the book, to be honest. I just assumed the stories I’ve seen were a fair representation of the book, which may not be a very good assumption. You could be right. I’ll read the book, but if it stinks I’m going to be pissed.
Originally posted by citizen:
I can't help thinking you've missed the point. HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds in 1898. I heard of and read the book before i'd even heard of the radio broadcast. The book wouldn't of been popular or famous without the radio braodcast? Please, it had been around and been popular long before that broadcast.
And also, I didn’t actually not like Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. It was a good movie, but it had a major flaw in it. I had a very hard time drumming up much sympathy for many of the characters. With the exception of the little girl, there just wasn’t much there to be concerned about. Cruise’s character and his dysfunctional relationship with his son not only failed to produce much sympathy but it was also annoying. What kind of narcissistic psychotic kid would leave his sister and father during this time to go watch the “fireworks?” I hated that kid. I was furious to see that little treacherous brat alive at the end of the story. Not only did it make no sense that he should live, but it undermined the devastation and rewarded bad behavior, and somehow I’m supposed to care about his kid? So what if Cruise’s character finally realizes his potential as a father? I couldn’t give a rat’s posterior. Aliens are destroying the world, for the love of god. Dakota Fanning’s character was good for two reasons: first, she did an excellent job with it, and second because she was helpless and terrified, which makes sense. Her character was written and acted in a way that created sympathy and was plausible for the character. I cared for her. The only times I had any emotional response to this movie at all involved her, and if there was any redeeming factor to Cruise’s character and his son was that it made the little girl’s situation even more desperate.
Quote:Oui, tu dis la vérité, car j’ai dit “Orwell” je ne sais comment.
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Citizen's right, and the story's too compelling not to have been made into a movie someday, with, or without the Orson Wells (you were thinking 1984 writer, nes pas?) broadcast.
Something in my brain contracted Orson Wells and created Orwell. I don’t know why.
Quote:People are dumb. We have to be told that our coffee is hot and that the dead don’t actually re-animate to consume human brains. Why this is true, escapes me.
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Aside: the first time Night Of The Living Dead was shown on broadcast TV in NY, the network got hundreds of phone calls asking if it was real (the TV announcer segments) prompting them to run a disclaimer across the bottom in subsequent broadcasts.
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Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.
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I agree with what Finn said about not feeling any sympathy for any of the characters except the little girl. I understand that the ending was correct but the actual movie just felt rushed at the end. Spielberg could have lengthened the movie and created a tighter and more suspensful ending and f course left the son dead.
Ray Harryhausen started storyboarding a remake of War of the Worlds that was true to the book and set in Victorian England. However he wasn't able to get the backing. Now I think he would have done a much better job than Spielberg. The mighty Jason and the Argonauts is still a lesson in how an SFX adventure is suposed to be done.
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The most lucicrous plot point in the film is the idea that the war machines could have been buried underfoot for a million years, and nobody on Earth would have noticed, when we've spent the last ten thousand years digging up the planet's surface, sometimes to a depth of miles. Surely if the invaders are that good at long-range planning they'd have noticed our planet has a microorganism-rich ecosphere by now...
And since they're already postulating that the machine's pilots are being teleported in, why not assume that the machines are too, and some limitation on their teleportation system requires the terminal end of the process be deep within solid matter? It's just as reasonable, given a completely unknown tech.
"She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true." -- Zoë Washburn
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