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War Of The Worlds

it's not a new thread, really, well it could be, but i don't have the educational wherewithall to back that up. i'm sure there are some very good arguments either way that involve loads of philosphy, but i operate on gut instinct alone, and my gut tells me there is a point. to everything.

you hijacked. i'm telling.
 
you spam with waaaaaah!! that's not spam that's just yelling. you need some tutoring in the art of spam.
 
jenngorham said:
you spam with waaaaaah!! that's not spam that's just yelling. you need some tutoring in the art of spam.
Click to expand...
Yeah! In order to <insert random pop-up here> spam correctly <trojan virus> you need to <adware for v1agra> learn the basics <spyware tracking your every keystroke> of how to <install toolbar software without your knowledge> spam the right <malicious cookie> way in order to <random pornographic image> push <website redirection> the product <ENLARGE YOUR P3N1S NOW!> you are selling <shoot the bouncing monkey to refinance your home mortgage>.
 
OK, just saw it and only because my friend kept on insisting we go see it and I caved in :D

OK, some background.

Firstly, I don't like Stephen Spielberg. I think he is a terrible director. I have also read, and liked, the book and was not really happy about some of the changes I have heard about.

So... you know how when you go to see a movie and you expect it to be crap, and it's not, and you end up pleasantly surprised because you really liked the movie? This is not one of those times. The movie is shit.

The problems with this movie: Let me count the ways!


  • * The aliens
    So the aliens buried advanced fighting machines on a barren planet millions of years ago just on the off chance just on the off chance that a civilisation would grow so they could then beam down to earth on lightning and then eat everybody? WHAT THE ****????

    *
    Said aliens beam down on lightning bolts. HOW? If they came from Mars it's not possible for them to do that because of rotation of the Earth and so forth. Let's suppose they are in orbit then. Alright, so if they are in orbit why go to all the trouble to bury huge fighting machines in the earth and wait millions of years? Stupid.

    * EMP ( electro magnetic pulse ) knocks out all power. Tom Cruise checks lights. nothing! Tom cruise checks fridge. Nothing. Tom Cruise checks cell phone. Nothing. Tom cruise checks phone. Nothing. Tom Cruise runs into street to and all cars are not working!Tom cruise is watching with crowd and a guy has a cam corder ( LCD SCREEN LIT ) and is recording with it. AHEM didn't everything electrical get knocked out? Or is this cam corder a special one that actually works by some unknown form of physics?

    * In the original book we have one lone reporter trying to get to London and meet up with his dear Carrie... Stephen just HAD to put a cute blond little kid in it. Is this really needed??? Just about every Spielberg movie with a few exceptions where it's not possible to include one has a cute little kid in it.

    *There were so many false "let's tug the audience heart strings with this cute little moment" that if there were not people sitting in front of me I would have spewed my lunch!

    * Tom cruise is shit as always. He can't act. And, he is a prick :D

    * Tom cruise same character in all Tom Cruise movies. He is cocky and arrogant maverick character. YAWN.

    * Pretty much the
    whole town is destroyed and a fucking 747 explodes on top of their house... yet they are safe in the basement some how?

    * after they emerge from
    the basement into the former town ( everything just rubble and there are the remains of the huge jumbo jet ) they get into the car. LUCKY THEM! Even though the entire town is rubble and a jumbo jet has exploded on top of it there is a freakish clear route just the right width for their car to drive out of town through!!!

    * The ferry is about to leave dock
    then a tripod comes out of the water to kill them. WHAT??? So what? It was just waiting at the bottom of a river just on the off chance somebody decided to cross it then so it could jump out and go ahhhhhhhhhh! Surprise! Even if that were so, which of course that would be very stupid, then why wait so long to do it? Just get out and kill them all.

    * The
    snake like alien probe! These aliens are so advanced yet they are fooled by some people hiding behind a mirror. It looks above it yet doesn't think to look BEHIND it. Yeah... very intelligent aliens.

    * The aliens
    capture Tom Cruise and cute blond kid. They try to pull guy into their evil machine but Tom Cruise happens to have a hand grenade. Of course. He is Tom Cruise. Of course he would have a hand grenade. Of course there would be one laying right on the ground just as he is about to be taken by some aliens. Sigh... Oh Steven... Sigh....

    * As mentioned up thread, Tom gets to Boston and family are at home waiting as if nothing ever happened. Even the teenager boy is there none the worse for wear after being involved in a battle NOBODY could ever live through.

    Steven Spielberg! I want 1 hour and 20 mins of my life back! I want my money back! :p





 
Welcome :D

I will add that the special effects are FANTASTIC, but that's the ONLY good thing about this movie. It stinks!
 
Wabbit, I saw all the problems you saw, but I still enjoyed it. It's a freakin' movie. It's not like it's a government study on what would happen if this particular event struck the world. :) Are you sure that your disdain for Spielberg and Cruise didn't turn you off to the movie? I'm just surprised that you feel so strongly because the only two movies that made me feel as though I had been robbed of life and money were The Talented Mr. Ripley and Birth.

I'll add something to your EMP complaint. The clock was still working in the van. It was digital, and should've been dead.

I'll dispute your complaint about the aliens and the grenade.
How do you know that the aliens didn't cultivate life on earth or at least seed life on the earth so that it could be used later like a farm? What was wrong with the grenade? He got it out of a military hummer that was left after the battle there. It wasn't like it just popped up out of nowhere.
 
RitalinKid said:
Wabbit, I saw all the problems you saw, but I still enjoyed it. It's a freakin' movie. It's not like it's a government study on what would happen if this particular event struck the world. :) Are you sure that your disdain for Spielberg and Cruise didn't turn you off to the movie? I'm just surprised that you feel so strongly because the only two movies that made me feel as though I had been robbed of life and money were The Talented Mr. Ripley and Birth.

I'll add something to your EMP complaint. The clock was still working in the van. It was digital, and should've been dead.
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Yeah, I know it's just a movie and I can suspend my disbelive but this was just lazy film making and stupid. I mean, come on! You go to great trouble to show how an EMP pulse has knocked everything out and then you have somebody using an electronic cam corder like 2 minutes later???????

And yes, it's possible that my dislike for Tom Cruise and Stephen Spielburg affected my judgement. That is why I made the point of mentioning it :) Although my friend likes Stephen Spielburg and she likes Tom Cruse and was the one that really wanted to see this movie and she didn't like the movie either.

I'll dispute your complaint about the aliens and the grenade.
How do you know that the aliens didn't cultivate life on earth or at least seed life on the earth so that it could be used later like a farm? What was wrong with the grenade? He got it out of a military hummer that was left after the battle there. It wasn't like it just popped up out of nowhere.
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You are missing my point :)

I don't think it's impossible that some grenades were in the hummer at all. What I think is silly that he just happens to find some grenades simply seconds before he is captured by some aliens! That's like a me going! Wow, i'm about to be attacked, I really wish I had a gun! OOH! LOOK! It's a gun laying right here exactly when I need a gun! That's kind of silly if you ask me :)
 
I wanted to see this movie but I think I'll pass. What is a great
disappoitment to me (apart from Wabbit's list) is that they haven't thought of using any of the music from the old *War of the Worlds* album. "Forever Autumn" by Justin Hayward is a great classic for one. So, another remake add the right :p music, keep to the book... has to be a winner. :D

Btw Wabbit, Tom Cruise is a great guy and he can act. You seen
*Far and Away* and *Born on 4th July* and how many would do his *walk abouts*. ...TC fan! :p
 
I just watched the DVD and I agree with Wabbit. I kept asking "huh?".

1) Before the first attack, TC tells the car mechanic to change the solenoid on the van he's working on. After the attack, that's the only vehicle that works, okay? I accept that.

But how can the news van be working and all its electronic equipment be working? How can the van still run after the attack with the plane crash? Wouldn't it need a new solenoid (whatever the hell that is)?

2) Why, of all the places they could have gone, did they head for Boston? I'd figure that large cities would be the ones wiped out first. They didn't know if Mom and Granny and Gramps would be alive. For that matter, what city was TC living in when the movie opens? I don't recall them saying.

3) The ferry was the last place I would have headed for. Every human alive in the area would also be heading for it, though God knows why. I'd be more afraid of being in a big crowd of people knowing the aliens liked to nuke people, or pick them up and suck them dry.

4) TC and the kids swim for shore. Earlier, we saw snowflakes. The water would have been freezing cold, and getting out of the water would have been worse. I can accept that adrenaline might keep you warm in such a situation, but only for so long, especially if you haven't had sleep or food or water in a while. Then in a little while, that kid has NO COAT on.

5) when TC and the kid end up in that basement with the creepy guy, he picks at some reddish strands of something. Never asks out loud, "what the hell is this stuff?", or smells it or anything. I never knew if it was some kind of alien slime or if it was human detrius.

6)
Robbie is alive at the end. I wanna know how the hell he managed to escape that huge fireball that blasted several acres in all directions. No "You're alive! I thought you were dead!!". Oh, no, just "Dad!" as if we're supposed to burst into tears that Robbie finally went from calling TC "Ray", to "Dad".
Going through all that is a hell of a way to earn that respect from your kid.

Oh, I don't want to waste any more time on this drivel. Yes, the special effects were awesome, but like most extravaganzas, more time was spent on the FX than on the story. I'm glad I didn't waste any money buying the DVD (I borrowed it from the library) or going to the theater.
 
I agree with Wabbit and Miss Shelf - the movie was crap. Dakota "I'm in everything" Fanning is annoying, Tom Cruise can't act and the ending is far, far too rushed. If I hadn't read the book then I would be just as confused as the rest of the cinema was at just how
the aliens got defeated in the end
(yes, I wasted my money going to the cinema).

Worst. Movie. Ever.
 
I didn't know if I was slow or something, but I didn't understand the ending at first, had to think very carefully about what it was-
when they were being mysterious at the very end and saying how the aliens were defeated by ...blahblahblahGodblah... I didn't get it till I put it together with the very beginning, but they didn't say specifically what it was-flukes? nematodes? bacteria? viruses? I didn't feel like going back to the beginning.

Another thing...
how the hell did they have enough gasoline in that van to get to where they were going? It looked as if they drove two days and nights to get to that ferry.
 
Miss Shelf said:
I didn't know if I was slow or something, but I didn't understand the ending at first, had to think very carefully about what it was-
when they were being mysterious at the very end and saying how the aliens were defeated by ...blahblahblahGodblah... I didn't get it till I put it together with the very beginning, but they didn't say specifically what it was-flukes? nematodes? bacteria? viruses? I didn't feel like going back to the beginning.
Click to expand...
They made the end very confusing. If it was following the book's ending then
they were defeated by the common cold, but in the movie they just ramble on a little bit about god knows what, so I'm not sure exactly what it was in the movie
 
It's been so long since I read the book, I couldn't remember what caused the aliens to die. What I was thinking was, "who's gonna clean up the mess and how long will it take?".
 
I like Cruise, I like Spielberg, I adore big Hollywood summer flicks, and I hated this movie. It wasn't just poorly plotted, written and executed, it was actually insulting. In order to make a Very Important Point about guns being bad, Spielberg asked us to believe that in the states of NY, NJ and PA, there were only two people who owned guns. Has Spielberg been to America recently? 70% of the refugees would have been armed. Not the mention the idea that Cruise's character was so desperate to unload his kids that even in the teeth of an alien invasion, he ignored the obvious - run west, into the vasty spaces of Ohio and beyond where you can hide for decades - and went north, from one massive urban target to another, just so he could work out his Peter Pan complex? Jesus. The final straw is the miraculous ending, where a boy, a quaint Boston street and, presumably, a comfortable upper middle-class life survives amidst the devastation.

Fantastic f/x, especially the scary-as-hell lightning.
 
I loved this movie. :D Loved the special effects, and that oh-so-scary moment when the lightning first struck. I was at the edge of my seat in the cinema just waiting for what happens next. It was just non-stop action, switch-your-brain off, and enjoy. I know it had a large number of plot holes, and was a bit too sugary-sweet at the end, but for me it didn't detract from the film one bit. It was pure entertainment, not the kind of film that changes lives, so I'm not too bothered by plot-holes, and improbabilities. :D

I'm also about to start reading the book later today, so I can finally compare it with the movie, and see what the differences are.
 
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