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War of the Worlds: a brief review
Thursday, Jun. 30 2005 | Author: joeI just got home from seeing War of the Worlds, and if you overlook some flaws, it’s a good flick.
The good:
- The special effects were great. The CGI was excellent.
- Acting was good, even if you hate Tom Cruise. The little girl from Taken (I’m too stupid to remember her name and too lazy to look it up) was really good in it.
- The sound was nice. I’m a big fan of loud booming noises, and this movie has lots of them.
- Suspense, action, drama and comedy (small doses) made the story flow well.
The bad:
- There are some major continuity flaws in the filming. If you’re not a complete nerd that is obsessed with small details, you might not notice. But I am a complete nerd and I am obsessed with small details (like someone’s leg crossed in a side shot and uncrossed in a front shot) so it irritated me.
- Something really stupid happens at the end (this is a spoiler so I won’t say what it is until later)
You have to realize that the book, War of the Worlds written by H.G. Wells came out in 1898. That’s a long time ago. In order to make a modern day movie, things have to be updated and changed. I think this was done well, and poorly at once.
Minor spoilers follow. Read on if you’ve seen the movie or don’t care.
The book managed to get somewhat in depth with the main characters life, but not so much as to detract from the overall message and story. The movie is really no different. Yes there is a bit of background for Cruise: he’s divorced and has two kids. Why did they get divorced? Do they hate each other? These things aren’t addressed, and rightfully so. The audience doesn’t need to know and shouldn’t care. This is about an extermination and a message, not romance.
The book is written in first person perspective. The same is true with the movie. There is no scene that doesn’t have Cruise in it or nearby (close enough to know what’s going on). It was well done too, not very obvious (a nice tip of the hat to the book basicly).
Many people will scoff at the outcome of the ‘War’, but it makes the most sense and it follows the book.
Big spoiler:
Really the worst part of the movie is the fact that the son doesn’t die and it’s never explained how he lived through a giant explosion that devastated everything in it’s path. This was unrealistic and laughable.
At any rate, War of the Worlds was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while and I definitely recommend it.
Category: Uncategorized
90 Responses for "War of the Worlds: a brief review"
June 30th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
1absolutley unrecommendable. As a geek, I find the extreme amount of logic you have to suspend to watch this movie ridiculous. Sure its a summer blockbuster, but I dont think it moved fast enough to keep most people from thinking about the flaws. examples:
I could go on, but its not really neccesary. My final verdict.. Yes the effects were great, so was the sound, but not worth the price nor the time to watch.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
2If they had a million years (or whatever) to plan this attack, they would have checked to see if earth is something that they really want. If they would taken the time to survey earth before they decided to take it; they wouldn’t have screwed up. They wouldn’t have lost a million years of time finding and taking over another planet, an invasion army, nor made themselves look really — really stupid.
The movie was good until the giant metal creatures, that can be broken by an axe provided they are too dumb to move - yet impervious to nukes, started jumping out of brooklyn. I wonder if there were any hiding next to the National Treasure? — btw its a good thing we’ve never really looked underneath Manhattan while building subways.. No telling what else we might find down there..
This movie is wonderful provided you don’t actually pay attention to ANYTHING that is going on; and focus on the pretty lights that are moving quickly infront of your face.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
3I only spent $7 (got in on a student discount) and I went at 7:30pm… so money and time weren’t an issue for me.
I didn’t think there was too much logic suspension needed. Forgiving missing opposable thumbs is easy when you realize you’re talking about evil aliens taking over the planet with giant machines.
Death ray seemed to be a rather logical choice. It only killed organic human flesh (and the occasional brush fire) so there was minimal damage to the surrondings.
Anyway, you absolutely have to keep in mind that the movie was based off of a book written in the 1800’s. It was the first time (i believe) that the idea of aliens invading the earth had been expressed. Giving the aliens some other machine would have deviated too far from the book.
How believable can a movie about a war between humans and aliens be anyway?
June 30th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
4Well, other people seem to have disliked it, but I, for one, loved it. Certainly worth seeing in the theatre.
June 30th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
5Using death rays in a sci-fi movie is not dumb. Take away the laser shooting out of a robot, a superhero’s eyes, phaser, bouncing off a lightsaber, etc., and the whole genre is virtually gone.
July 2nd, 2005 at 12:43 am
6I gotta give big kudos to the audio guys on this one. The sound the tripods made before blowing people away made me crap my pants.
July 2nd, 2005 at 11:10 am
7I agree with jks…You have to completely throw out logic out of the window while watching this movie and I agree that this is because its based on a relatively old book. If the aliens were so advanced that they could plant these tripods underground millions of years ago and had death rays etc. how come they forgot to factor in what the earth would be like when they would actually invade it ? chack for microbes?
how come their technology was so primitive that the ‘eye’ which was looking around for cruise in that house didn’t even have an xray or some bio sesnor just a visual one?
how come when that thing tried to suck cruise (when he had the grenades) was unable to when all those people started pulling him?
man…i just needed to take it out on some thing…come on steven you can do better than this…a book in the 1800s doesnt stand up to today’s standard..should’ve updates it.
July 2nd, 2005 at 8:18 pm
8Just saw it. I thought it was good and I enjoyed myself. The thing with these “Big summer blockbusters” is that logic MUST be left behind if you want to enjoy yourself. Just relax and enjoy the show!
July 3rd, 2005 at 5:55 pm
9I really wanted to enjoy this one, and kind of did, apart from being highly annoyed by some really dumb things.
1. The story sticks fairly close to the original which is fine, but why have the tripods buried? If the aliens were here a million years ago, why didnt they take over then?
2. If they were here a million years ago, they have already been exposed to most of our microbes anyway.
3. What happened to the ships that delivered the lightning & tripod pilots? Surely the crews would not have been exposed, and would still be a threat?
4.The tripods are buried everywhere, yet no one ever found one whilst mining etc?
5.Like someone else already mentioned, how come the son survived the huge fireball? Even the tanks were turned to slag!
6.Why keep poking that snake/eye thing around the basement? why not just shoot/stomp the whole lot of it like they do everywhere else?
7.Last one, why does the death ray not harm clothes, yet demolishes buildings?
I pretty much enjoyed watching the movie, but after thinking about all these stupid bits, it just annoys the hell out of me.
July 3rd, 2005 at 7:25 pm
10The more complaints I hear, the more I have to agree. Especially do I agree with the last post. Hiding the tripods made no sense. They watched the planet with “envious eyes” for a million years? good god!
I’d also like to add:
Why did the news cameras still work after the aliens knocked out all of the electrical equipment… even more so: why did the guy in the crowd at the beginning have a working digital video camera?
Oversights like that make me wonder why movie makers aren’t more meticulous.
But is still liked the movie!
July 3rd, 2005 at 8:31 pm
11#10/Joe: The topic of the working digital camera in the beginning was discussed in another forum topic. After some research, it turns out that EMP blasts do not neccessarily knock out all battery operated devices. So in a sense, having it work was scientifically accurate.
As for the whole “buried underground” complaint, well, there’s a chance that they just wanted enough humans on Earth to fertilize their red root with the blood. Or so goes my guess.
Sure, there’s holes in the story, but it’s still pretty sweet. :)
July 3rd, 2005 at 8:36 pm
12Good points.
I actually wondered if that’s what the waiting was all about: needing human blood. Of course the only problem with that is: how do they survive on their home planet without human blood as fertilizer?
Arg! I need a companion guide… and still, i’m compelled to purchase the DVD when it comes out.
July 3rd, 2005 at 9:13 pm
13It’s truly visible that there are some flaws on it. However, we must also try to think that the movie was based on a book. It isn’t gradual to remake a movie while at the same time still embedding classic flavors on it.
On top of that, War of the Worlds is only covered for a short period of time. Kudos to Spielberg. The movie really did give me some craps!.
I superbly believe that the movie is remarkable!. Cruise and Fanning are really good!. I admire it profoundly.
I recommend it to all!.
July 4th, 2005 at 5:29 am
14the movie isn’t supposed to make sense or be realistic. it’s about aliens for heaven sakes. but if it does make sense to you, then you need help just like me. im an alien. my whole family is
July 4th, 2005 at 7:25 am
15Another strange flaw i found.
Why did the tripods kill thousands of people at the begining of the film, vapourising anybody they came across, however later on they were capturing the people. wouldn’t it be better instead of vapourising the people, just to kiss them so their blood is still available?
i also agree with all other comments about the film flaws. i also feel it ended very suddenly which i didnt like.
July 4th, 2005 at 7:30 am
16as most of you probably saw in my previous post i wrote kiss instead of kill, common mistake.
i went to see this with my girlfriend who was scared curled up to me ;-). however i just didnt find it scary or apealing. there were not many cliff hangers or real moments of suspense and good action. personally i didnt see what all the fuss was about.
July 4th, 2005 at 8:25 am
17I don’t know about the killing and then capturing thing. It may be addressed in the book, I don’t really remember because it’s been quite a while since I’ve read it (actually re-reading right now).
As far as ending abruptly, that’s basically how the book goes. As suddenly as it began, it ends.
July 4th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
18Perhaps the aliens needed to establish their dominance over the humans through fear before the harvesting began.
It’s just a movie.
And yes, the son should have died.
July 4th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
19Aliens are taking over the world. It happened in Oklahoma for real, and the footage of aliens in the movie are much more realistic than the real life footage from Oklahoma. What more could you want.
I believ in UFOs.
July 5th, 2005 at 12:25 am
20Why wasn’t there any food in the kid’s mother’s house ? They only had Ray’s Peanut butter. That house looked pretty nice.
And if a jetliner crashes into the living room, how could a wooden door stop the rushing flames ???
July 5th, 2005 at 1:00 am
21Doors stop rushing flames for a little while. Even wooden doors.
Why did the kids have to pee but not tom cruise?
July 5th, 2005 at 3:27 am
22Well, this is the first time I’m posting here. Besides the fact that I’m sure everyone hates Spielberg, I don’t have to go into detail about how plastic, hollywood, hollow, and crappy the plots are in his movies. There were definitely a lot of mistakes. Obvious ones stated above. And yes, if aliens were here years ago and buried tripods, then they could have easily taken control back then, and humanity would never have existed. If say, someone else who had a bit more intelligence thought of this story - plot for movie, they could have turned into something cool. There would still be flaws though, but here’s a thought, and I hope everyone get a laugh. Ultra-intelligent aliens are stupid enough to bury tripods years ago and not even conceive of something such as infectious or contaminating organic material. Miners at the turn of the century, start uncovering tripods, but even then gov’ts keep em secret trying to figure out what they are. History goes on into the 21st century, and stupid… ultra-intelligent aliens come back, ride some lightning and decide to start vapourizing humans before they start sucking their blood. But, mankind, with the help of Area 51 and many brilliant scientists are ready. As tripods rise from the ground they are met with mankinds version of gigantic robotic machines built in defence. Actually, that’s still stupid. By 1970’s, scientists would have been able to detect and find prolly every pod. Aliens come to Earth, and realize that their pods and technology are now in hands of man, who by reverse engineering has mastered it, and decide to become the offence and launch into space and StarWars the bastards. But, that would mean a film that would seem to rival Revenge of the Sith, and so Lucas would be pissed. Film scrapped. Hmm…. So the only way to actually make a movie about aliens terrorizing humans successfully, would be to bury the pods, and hope that by luck, no matter by how much mining, digging, drilling, etc. the humans never find them. Then as humans are reaching technological heights like never before, start wiping them out, then of all beings on earth, start drinking their blood. Finally, being that since humans were dumb enough to never find them, not being able to defend themselves, and getting slaughtered like ’sheep’, make this movie, cuz these same humans will pay the $8 bucks to see a Spielberg piece of crap that has of all horrible actors ever to breathe our precious air, Shlong Cruise acting in it….just to see the awesome special effects and choke down the horrible raping of the original story.
*sigh* I will have to admit, the attacking at the ferry in the middle of a rainy night and then parts of the hiding in the basement episode were pretty damn good and scary. But at least I saved my money. Torrent. Yay! It has Dong Cruise in it. I’m not giving him my money to give to the church of scientology.
July 5th, 2005 at 3:31 am
23Oops, I got carried away with the last paragraph that I forgot to say…
“…raping of the original story. So, this sucky plot and story worked, even with Tom Crabs in it. Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!
July 5th, 2005 at 8:26 am
24I still like it. And I like Spielberg. And I like Cruise. Can’t help it. I’m not saying that War of the Worlds or the afore mentioned people are my favorite, but I do like them.
My favorite movies are Eraserhead, Nosferatu, Signs and Night of the Living Dead. I still like Spielberg movies though.
July 5th, 2005 at 8:43 am
25YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF NNNNEEERRRDDDSSSS
July 5th, 2005 at 8:49 am
26Stephen is a complete retard dont listen to him he takes the penis up the ass like 3 times a day i would know i saw war of the worlds with him and he coped it in the cinema from the popcorn boy … derka derka get me a tissue box i cant win mario party
July 5th, 2005 at 8:50 am
27oh and the special effects were good, story line and rest of movie sucks cock
July 5th, 2005 at 8:54 am
28Fabre thinks aids killed the aliens.. obviously he’s an idiot cause anyone with a brain knew it was to do with earth microbes.. but no.. aliens, please take fabre away and educate him
July 5th, 2005 at 8:58 am
29.. aids yeah thats what it was, the aliens had sex with an aids infected human and then THEY ALL DIED, your a complete dickhead nice call … we all know that the plant the aliens were trying to grow couldnt handle the earths bacterias and died before the aliens could use it to live u idiot
July 5th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
30The plant not growing didn’t kill them. The microbes killed the plant and the aliens.
July 5th, 2005 at 4:57 pm
31After looking at itself in the mirror and turning away to leave, girl slips and causes noise, her foot is visible beside the mirror. The ‘eye thing’ ’senses’ noise, quickly turned around instantly capturing the visible shoes/leg. It goes around the mirror to find no one and so it left. Now there’s a couple of things bugging me with this scene. 1. How do you slip out of your boots and change hiding places so fast? 2. How did Tom and his mates figure out what part of the the girl was seen? I mean what if her stockings were seen or her whole leg up to her shin? would you leave her leg there? 3. Does this alien thing have memory cells-I mean it came and looked and there where no boots at first. A little noise later and now there are boots? Hmm someone must be in the house somewhere.
Anyone wonder where they got the lightening from to travel or does their travel cause the lightening? Wow they must be travelling fast. At least they’re on mach 80 what are we on mach 7? How do you get into one of those tripods?? Any doors? Actually when one of them dies, it comes out of an entrance in the bottom of the tripod. If the lightening bolt shoots you thru the ground how do you board that thing while underground? oh wait the lightening bolt shoots you all the way into your seat. When such a disaster happens, I leave the country I don’t move to the next house or up the street. How come aliens always have unlimited ammo? How come there were no police patrol cruisers? The so-called mr. intelligent teenage son asks “is it a terrorist”. That is pretty dumb. How can a machine be a terrorist? Given this i’m sure its safe to assume that they knew that terrorists had attacked USA before. OK you run when a building is collapsing but you stand when something is coming up from underground?? And the girl, whatever her name is, poor acting. Too flippant to play an ‘innocent child’ role. I mean even Tom makes it to the top of the list for bad acting. Remember the ‘under the table’ scene in the beginning? ugh!! painful. I’ll stop here. PS Dreamcatcher SUCKS!!
July 5th, 2005 at 5:16 pm
32Where was all that weird orchestra music coming from? Oh yea, that’s right… it’s a movie.
July 5th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
33What I can’t figure out is: if they had a million years, why didn’t they check out our BACTERIA before they embarked on such a mission.
that sound the tripods made was probably one of the best aspects of the movie.
July 5th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
34Ok, the last thing I’m going to say about the movie:
All mistakes mentioned above can be forgiven, except for hiding the tripods before humans made it to the earth. That was not in the book.
Hiding tripods raises too many questions. It’s a major plot hole. In the book the aliens watched the earth “with envious eyes” as well, but they didn’t have giant machines poised on earth prior to the attack.
Not having giant machines buried on earth (meaning that the aliens never visited earth) makes the ending feel more real. They went to the earth but had never had the chance to scope it out. In the movie they had already been there. They should have already been exposed and died from the microbes OR they should have taken over the earth right away. I have to agree that it’s a major mistake.
July 6th, 2005 at 2:05 am
35The idea of the aliens coming to earth and not taking over (in the past) is plausible. Perhaps the reason we’re even here was their doing? More food for though is that their ships seemed to run on human blood. Maybe we’re just a crop being cultivated after a long incubation period? And if that were the case it would make sense to get rid of the unneeded crops to prevent overgrowth, or worse, retaliation. In this sense, wiping out billions and leaving only a few hundred millions to cultivate seems fine for an alien intelligence.
The point is, the plot holes aren’t really plot holes at all. They’re portions of the story that are left open to the imagination, which is very much in line with the concept of the story. Furthermore, this movile was more about the interaction with a guy and his kids that it was about aliens. The alien invation could have just as easily been replaced with an invading nation, terroist event, or cosmic catastrophe. Don’t sweat the details and enjoy the core of the story for what it is. If you do that I guarantee you’ll enjoy it more.
July 6th, 2005 at 5:55 am
36they planted the tripod thingys a million years agoo… why didn’t they just kill us then. they obviously already had the technology and had way less people to kill. they hated us from the beginning why wait a million more years for us to multiply?
July 6th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
37I thought the movie was well done. It managed to stick close to the original cheesy storyline yet still inspire awe. The effects were awesome.
The one glaring flaw is speilbergs weakness for sappy endings. The boy died,Dammit! One other flaw that made me groan is that when the machine was emerging from the ground, hundreds of people just stood there watching, and they didn’t seemed horrified until it started shooting.
As far as the arguement that the aliens should have know about germs… THEY ARE ALIENS! Lets assume that not every race in the universe thinks like us. Look at insects. They do some pretty amazing things, but that doesn’t mean they all studied microbiology.
Anyhoo… bottom line is it is a remake of a very old story, back when all men had back hair.
July 6th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
38the tripods were sick, but pretty damn stupid to be defeated by microbes.
the boy should have died and tom cruise should have shot that smart ass little shit who kept screaming when he had the chance.
and how come if they were afraid of germs they didnt die when they comeout?
how come its always the japanese that figures out how 2 defeat the aliens first and how would they know if all the electronic communications had been disabled?
at least someone should have died when they were dropped from the tripod in the captured cell
all throughout the movie i was expecting some kind of MIB to come out, area 51 or whatever, but there was no one but some military dudes who kept on wasting ammos on the force fields
other then that its pretty sweet
July 6th, 2005 at 9:25 pm
39A download of the tripod call sound is available at http://www.waroftheworldsfilm.com
July 6th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
40I don’t think the minivan would have worked after replacing the one part. I think the parts on the shelves would either have been messed up as well, or all the cars that were not turned on at the time of the event would have worked too. Then, how did a path big enough for the van magically appear through all the wreckage? Later on, it bothered me how they tried harder to save Tom Cruise from being sucked up by the alien machine than the first guy. I hoped Tom would sacrifice himself and redeem his obnoxious character somewhat. Plus I thought the alien heads looked suspiciously like the alien heads in Independence Day.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:26 am
41How did the tri-pods died after the one that Ray blow up?
July 7th, 2005 at 12:27 am
42Movie is a scary drama. SF with no emergency exit possibility. I was shocked thinking about possibility they are for us what we are for worms.
But, what if there is something that is for us like we are for plants?
I saw many interesting ideas here, maybe Spielberg will read them and input them in War of the Worlds II, I think it would be good trilogy, cause nobody (main actors, except Ogilvy) died at the first part. First part: they came from the ground, Second part, they will arrive from space, Third part: we will fight them at their own terrain.
This movie functioning really good, except the end. It really looks, seems to be cut, cause of the 2hrs time movie standard. I do believe that Spielberg has 2, 3 maybe 10hrs extra action time.
Also, Spielberg has all credits, oportunities, art freedom, to do what he wants to do. And and do believe he made really good movie.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:32 am
43Seriously, the one tri-pod died , then the others died. How? It dosen’t said how they died and it dosen’t said how robbie stay alive
July 7th, 2005 at 12:34 am
44The movie is really good. It got very intense part. I like it!
July 7th, 2005 at 1:46 am
45Keep in mind that those who read science fiction tend to be a little more unforgiving about inconsistencies in both print and film. These are just my thoughts on some of the topics raised about War of the Worlds that I have discussed with some friends.
EMP damage depends on susceptibility and capture area. Systems like the power grid are very robust and not susceptible to damage but also have a huge capture area and are normally shut down in the event of unusual problems. It could have been reset relatively easily but of course the war was on by then.
The starters on the cars are the last thing I would expect to be damaged by EMP. They are 4 pole 12 volt DC motors that draw upwards of 200 amps. Not only is the capture area in a car’s electrical system small but the starter motor itself is just about impervious to anything short of a direct lightning strike. You can’t even cause a short through the winding insulation to the case because the case is the ground terminal and the power terminal has a DC resistance of less then 0.05 ohms to ground. The same goes for the solenoid which is a 12V DC relay for switching the starter on and off. What I would believe is failure of systems like the radio or worse the ignition computer which would completely disable a modern vehicle. I actually think this would have made a much more interesting movie since all of the old cars would have still been running including Cruise’s Fastback Mustang assuming he had not upgraded the ignition and maybe even then. Carburetors and points do not give the efficiency of electronic ignition and fuel injection but they are much more resistant to sudden induced failure. For similar reasons, older diesels might not even notice.
As for the machines using humans for fertilizer, aliens do alien things for alien reasons. We do not know why they delayed attacking for millions of years after planting their war machines and I also wonder why we never noticed them. Killing first and harvesting second seems reasonable if you are unsure what type of resistance you will meet. Once it is clear the humans can not fight back effectively, you can risk capturing them.
Cruise’s character struck me as not nearly paranoid enough about the unknown and especially about other people but unless he had experienced war first hand or had a specialized education, that is certainly forgivable. I almost immediately wrote off Tim Robbins as insane which would hardly be unexpected given his situation. Cruise’s solution to that problem after exhausting other methods was unexpected but enlightening. He was going to save his remaining child through any means and I did not think he had it in him. I would have enjoyed characters that were more complex and the movie had ample opportunity for the characterization needed but did not bother. Maybe this was the perfect role for Cruise.
I was disappointed in the brief glimpses we saw of organized resistance by the military. I would have enjoyed both a slightly larger overview of what was happening as well as a better understanding of the one battle we saw. Charging to the top of a hill without placing your tanks in hull down position and then charging directly into the enemy did not seem like the best use of maneuver warfare when you lack infantry. Maybe commanding officer casualties had been high and those remaining did not know any better. It seemed especially tragic since it was not clear that anything near that location needed defending and the aliens had shown no tenancy not to attack prepared positions. I imagine a scene where an atomic weapon is used to good effect after slowing an alien advance (or not slowing) and results in the tripods blown in various directions, getting back up, dusting themselves off, and resuming the advance.
The ending is not as outlandish as one might expect. Look at our own history and see what happened to the new world populations when old world explorers who did not know any better (I am being polite) showed up carrying new diseases. If the south American Indians had invaded Spain in the early 1400s, I would expect 90% of them to be sick or dead within a month even without fighting. Even now our ability to treat viruses is very limited. Ignoring for the moment that the aliens apparently have been at the same level of technology for longer then man has had a civilization, is it possible they eradicated their own diseases so thoroughly in the past that they no longer have a medical science for dealing with them? If I had to study diseases that infect only insects, I would hardly know where to start.
One thing I really enjoyed in this movie was the music and sound effects. I was not expecting John Williams to be as subtle as he was after getting used to hearing him in the Star Wars films. I find myself at odd times hearing the rumble of traffic and looking twice to see that the pavement is not unscrewing in a circle.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:48 am
46The tripods “died” because of infections that the aliens got from earth’s micro-organisms. Consider this: if you were whisked away in to a contained bubble room free from all microbes and viruses, and then one day you were let loose, you would die from all the crap in the air, water etc. Your body wouldn’t have been used to everything to adjust.
There will never be a sequel or a third. The movie is based off of the War of the Worlds book. There is no need to make a follow up. The point was made. The movie (and the book) wasn’t really about the war, it was about people in the attack and how man can triumph against all odds due to god’s planning.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:53 am
47True, except that it was a stupid move to bury the tripods. It wasn’t in the book and wasn’t needed.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
48Ok I was also disappointed with the lack of logic in the movie too. But I think I understand why the tripods were buried and why it took one million years for the aliens to return.
I believe the aliens *DID* know about the dangerous microbs on earth, thats why it took so longer to return to our ripe little world. However, remember what happened 13 years before they returned? They sent their peaceful herbitarian cousins to investigate and bring back samples. Remember E.T.? Just like the aliens- E.T. almost died, however Eliots love pulled him through. Seeing that little cuz(aka guinea pig) was able to survive, they assumed that it was now safe to return and harvest…opps big mistake!
July 7th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
49what is robby’s real name i want to know…well anyway if u read this please tell me my dad left before i could see.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
50I saw the movie last night and the sound, the visual effects were good. It’s true that the movie is not so much about a war between aliens and human as about how a man would behave in such events as ending of the world and the entire human race. On this the movie did a pretty good job.
Technically, stupid flaws abound. The boy should be dead, the aliens should have checked about microbes already, we should have found some pods, the ’snake’ shouldn’t need a light to detect human, …
It’s just hard to have a movie that’s both technically plausible and visually enjoyable. I couldnt think of any example, somebody’s got one?
July 8th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
51Come on guys! All you critics need to lighten up.
This film has glaring holes, but depending on how you choose to look at it, that’s totally OK.
First of all, as has been pointed out already by a few other posters, this is a remake of a book that was written in 1898. That’s a long-ass time ago, and this adaptation of the story was pretty true to it’s roots.
Spielberg wasn’t going for an iron-clad, definitive alien-invasion movie. If he had, then that’s what we would have gotten. Have we forgotten the realism of Saving Private Ryan? Clearly, the man is capable of making a film in any way that he wants to. He made these choices deliberately. The changes that he made were not all that huge, but I’m sure he had his reason. More than anything, though, it was true to the original. He was paying homage to a classic story that still holds people’s imaginations, over 100 years after it was first introduced.
As for the deviations he did make, I’ll quickly try to come up with some rationalizations for them. You can buy them if you want to, but like I already said, this movie was mostly about fun. Certainly, there are many examples of movies that try to do something similar, and don’t even come anywhere near to being as good as this one was.
OK, here goes, in no particular order…
1) Buried under ground 1 million years or more ago. Why?
Perhaps they are an empire, spanning many worlds. They’ve done this many times in the past, on many other planets but, like any good military planner knows, you never want to over-extend your forces, so…they wait. They have star maps of every known life-supporting planetoid within their reach, and they’ve used that to create an invasion timetable. They conquer each planet in turn, gradually expanding their domain. They follow the timetable precisely. No planet gets conquered before it’s pre-determined time. After all, what’s the rush? We’re totally primitive, compared to them. We can’t possibly oppose them, so they aren’t in any hurry. It was just unfortunate for us that our time had finally come.
Alternately, maybe they had been here before, and left their stuff, just in case. They didn’t really need, or want, Earth, when they were here before, but they weren’t sure. Then, their planet begins to die, their star is burning out, black hole coming too close, whatever…
2) OK, I buy that as being possible. So, they buried them. But then how the hell is it that we never found one?
Cloaking technology? Something subtle that, even if we got close, somehow directed us to dig in a different direction? Sounds flakey but, certainly a race as advanced as their machines would lead to believe they were, would have vast and incredible technologies that we simply never saw, simply because it wasn’t important enough to the overall story to make it worth devoting the time to.
Maybe they were deeper than we think. How’d they get out then? I don’t know. Maybe they can use their legs as support rods, climbing upwards while bracing themselves with their legs against the rock.
Maybe they just got lucky and we never did. That seems highly implausible, but it’s at least mathematically possible. Maybe we could have found them, but they just didn’t care, because we either wouldn’t have known how to use them, or couldn’t have gotten in. Maybe they had weak force-fields around them, powered by something we don’t understand, that would last over a million years and would prevent entry. Maybe they would have self-destructed.
Overall, I have to agree. I think it wasn’t maybe the best choice for Spielberg to go this route. However, I think I know why he chose it. In the original book, they crashed giant cylinders into the ground, and then we all stood around wondering what the hell was going on, while they labored in the pits building their machines. I think he chose this route because that would have taken time, during which we would have at least tried to attack, with utter futility, no doubt, but attacked nonetheless. That could have been suspenseful, as we watched and waited, and tried to figure out what to do, before they finally emerged and started wasting everything. Spielberg chose this route because it offered the whole surprise element. It all happens very quickly and, hard to believe or not, it’s sort of eerie to imagine that it might even be possible that something like that could be here right this very moment, and we don’t even know. Plus, the whole sequence of the tripod rising out of the ground and towering over everything, belching steam and emitting that deafening call, very spooky. The tripod call was definitely done well, much more scary than the Ooooo-Laaaaah! from Jeff Daniels’ 1977 musical version (which, by the way, featured excellent narration by Richard Burton, and a soundtrack by the Moody Blues). All you youngsters should go to Amazon and check that out. You’ll probably think it’s a little cheesey, with a definite 70’s sort of disco-ey sound, but as a kid, I used to listen to it almost every single day. As a result, I had a pretty firm understanding of what this film would be like. I have to say I like it for what it is, and am not too critical of what it is not, or what it could have been.
3) They ride lightning bolts straight down out of the sky and into their machines? Are you fucking kidding me?
OK, I sort of had a problem with that, but I guess we’re just supposed to say to ourselves that their technology is so far advanced from ours that pretty much anything could be possible. What if a caveman saw a digital camera? Not everything that works makes sense, when you get your first glimpse of it. My biggest problem was, how would that work. It’s going so fast, but then what? It just slams through the hole in the ground, presumably tracking directly to a point on the war machine where the transport vehicle can “dock” or maybe just slam into a slot that’s a perfect fit for it, but wouldn’t they be going so damn fast that the g-forces involved would just totally emulsify the passenger? There again, alien technology. Who knows? Maybe they can manipulate gravity, so that the g-forces wouldn’t have any effect. Most theorists these days pretty much agree that some sort of gravity manipulation must somehow be involved, if inter-steller space-travel is even possible. Even worm-holes are really just thought to be rifts, folds, tears, what-have-you, in the fabric of space-time. That would more than likely involve some sort of gravitational anomoly, like the boundary (event horizen) of a black hole.
4) The kid should have died.
Yeah, probably. Oh well, I guess it’s possible that he was past the fire, or something. Doesn’t seem likely, but then again, didn’t some 70 year old woman just fall 9 stories and land on an awning and live, just like in a fucking cartoon? Strange shit happens sometimes folks. Yeah, he took the pussy, sappy, lovey-dovey, family’s all OK, way out, but I can even forgive him for that.
5) Why’d the death ray kill people, but leave their clothes?
Here again, I’m inclined to side with the critics. I would have maybe argued for a technology that would make that possible, except for the fact that they showed the rays doing damage to other inanimate objects. I think that was a case of them not being consistent.
They can modulate their weapons, on the fly, to do damage to some things, but not to others, so each shot can have a very specific purpose. Maybe they hate us, and they don’t like our buildings either, because they’ll just build their own, out of the ruins. They really dig our super-fly threads, though. No? OK. Didn’t think so. It was worth a shot.
I could go on, but I doubt any of you are still reading anyway. The point is, it was a good movie, worth my money, very entertaining. Just think of all the other, far shittier, movies that you’ve paid to see. Wasn’t this at least a fun time? That’s all it was meant to be, nothing more.
Peace!
July 8th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
52Come on guys! All you critics need to lighten up.
This film has glaring holes, but depending on how you choose to look at it, that’s totally OK.
First of all, as has been pointed out already by a few other posters, this is a remake of a book that was written in 1898. That’s a long-ass time ago, and this adaptation of the story was pretty true to it’s roots.
Spielberg wasn’t going for an iron-clad, definitive alien-invasion movie. If he had, then that’s what we would have gotten. Have we forgotten the realism of Saving Private Ryan? Clearly, the man is capable of making a film in any way that he wants to. He made these choices deliberately. The changes that he made were not all that huge, but I’m sure he had his reason. More than anything, though, it was true to the original. He was paying homage to a classic story that still holds people’s imaginations, over 100 years after it was first introduced.
As for the deviations he did make, I’ll quickly try to come up with some rationalizations for them. You can buy them if you want to, but like I already said, this movie was mostly about fun. Certainly, there are many examples of movies that try to do something similar, and don’t even come anywhere near to being as good as this one was.
OK, here goes, in no particular order…
1) Buried under ground 1 million years or more ago. Why?
Perhaps they are an empire, spanning many worlds. They’ve done this many times in the past, on many other planets but, like any good military planner knows, you never want to over-extend your forces, so…they wait. They have star maps of every known life-supporting planetoid within their reach, and they’ve used that to create an invasion timetable. They conquer each planet in turn, gradually expanding their domain. They follow the timetable precisely. No planet gets conquered before it’s pre-determined time. After all, what’s the rush? We’re totally primitive, compared to them. We can’t possibly oppose them, so they aren’t in any hurry. It was just unfortunate for us that our time had finally come.
Alternately, maybe they had been here before, and left their stuff, just in case. They didn’t really need, or want, Earth, when they were here before, but they weren’t sure. Then, their planet begins to die, their star is burning out, black hole coming too close, whatever…
2) OK, I buy that as being possible. So, they buried them. But then how the hell is it that we never found one?
Cloaking technology? Something subtle that, even if we got close, somehow directed us to dig in a different direction? Sounds flakey but, certainly a race as advanced as their machines would lead to believe they were, would have vast and incredible technologies that we simply never saw, simply because it wasn’t important enough to the overall story to make it worth devoting the time to.
Maybe they were deeper than we think. How’d they get out then? I don’t know. Maybe they can use their legs as support rods, climbing upwards while bracing themselves with their legs against the rock.
Maybe they just got lucky and we never did. That seems highly implausible, but it’s at least mathematically possible. Maybe we could have found them, but they just didn’t care, because we either wouldn’t have known how to use them, or couldn’t have gotten in. Maybe they had weak force-fields around them, powered by something we don’t understand, that would last over a million years and would prevent entry. Maybe they would have self-destructed.
Overall, I have to agree. I think it wasn’t maybe the best choice for Spielberg to go this route. However, I think I know why he chose it. In the original book, they crashed giant cylinders into the ground, and then we all stood around wondering what the hell was going on, while they labored in the pits building their machines. I think he chose this route because that would have taken time, during which we would have at least tried to attack, with utter futility, no doubt, but attacked nonetheless. That could have been suspenseful, as we watched and waited, and tried to figure out what to do, before they finally emerged and started wasting everything. Spielberg chose this route because it offered the whole surprise element. It all happens very quickly and, hard to believe or not, it’s sort of eerie to imagine that it might even be possible that something like that could be here right this very moment, and we don’t even know. Plus, the whole sequence of the tripod rising out of the ground and towering over everything, belching steam and emitting that deafening call, very spooky. The tripod call was definitely done well, much more scary than the Ooooo-Laaaaah! from Jeff Daniels’ 1977 musical version (which, by the way, featured excellent narration by Richard Burton, and a soundtrack by the Moody Blues). All you youngsters should go to Amazon and check that out. You’ll probably think it’s a little cheesey, with a definite 70’s sort of disco-ey sound, but as a kid, I used to listen to it almost every single day. As a result, I had a pretty firm understanding of what this film would be like. I have to say I like it for what it is, and am not too critical of what it is not, or what it could have been.
3) They ride lightning bolts straight down out of the sky and into their machines? Are you fucking kidding me?
OK, I sort of had a problem with that, but I guess we’re just supposed to say to ourselves that their technology is so far advanced from ours that pretty much anything could be possible. What if a caveman saw a digital camera? Not everything that works makes sense, when you get your first glimpse of it. My biggest problem was, how would that work. It’s going so fast, but then what? It just slams through the hole in the ground, presumably tracking directly to a point on the war machine where the transport vehicle can “dock” or maybe just slam into a slot that’s a perfect fit for it, but wouldn’t they be going so damn fast that the g-forces involved would just totally emulsify the passenger? There again, alien technology. Who knows? Maybe they can manipulate gravity, so that the g-forces wouldn’t have any effect. Most theorists these days pretty much agree that some sort of gravity manipulation must somehow be involved, if inter-steller space-travel is even possible. Even worm-holes are really just thought to be rifts, folds, tears, what-have-you, in the fabric of space-time. That would more than likely involve some sort of gravitational anomoly, like the boundary (event horizen) of a black hole.
4) The kid should have died.
Yeah, probably. Oh well, I guess it’s possible that he was past the fire, or something. Doesn’t seem likely, but then again, didn’t some 70 year old woman just fall 9 stories and land on an awning and live, just like in a fucking cartoon? Strange shit happens sometimes folks. Yeah, he took the pussy, sappy, lovey-dovey, family’s all OK, way out, but I can even forgive him for that.
5) Why’d the death ray kill people, but leave their clothes?
Here again, I’m inclined to side with the critics. I would have maybe argued for a technology that would make that possible, except for the fact that they showed the rays doing damage to other inanimate objects. I think that was a case of them not being consistent.
They can modulate their weapons, on the fly, to do damage to some things, but not to others, so each shot can have a very specific purpose. Maybe they hate us, and they don’t like our buildings either, because they’ll just build their own, out of the ruins. They really dig our super-fly threads, though. No? OK. Didn’t think so. It was worth a shot.
I could go on, but I doubt any of you are still reading anyway. The point is, it was a good movie, worth my money, very entertaining. Just think of all the other, far shittier, movies that you’ve paid to see. Wasn’t this at least a fun time? That’s all it was meant to be, nothing more.
Peace!
July 8th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
53Wots all the veins bout? Sum1 sed tis the blood the aliens sprayd all ova the land, bt if so y did it turn in2 veins n y did it grow?
July 8th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
54It’s just hard to have a movie that’s both technically plausible and visually enjoyable. I couldnt think of any example, somebody’s got one?
Other then 2001 the closest I could think of and more along the lines of WotW was Quatermass and the Pit (5 Million Years to Earth for the American release) but the visual effects in that movie were secondary. Oddly enough, it also deals with a buried alien machine except in this case it is one we discover and accidentally activate. The geology and paleontology in the movie was likely flawed but not important for the plot. This is another movie with well done somewhat creepy sound.
Buried under ground 1 million years or more ago. Why?
As someone may have pointed out, Ogilvy can hardly be called an expert witness. It is easier to assume he was just guessing and that the machines were stored underground for a period of time short enough that we did not notice them before the start of the war. I hate to think that they were planted in the lightning storms that brought the crew though. Why bother concealing them for all of 15 minutes? If they came up out of the ground then they were placed there over a period of time we were unlikely to notice and the crew arrived later like we saw.
I would have preferred a plot where we discover one Tripod thereby triggering the invasion before we learn too much. That would take care of the “why now?” question although it makes the aliens seem a little too prepared.
5) Why’d the death ray kill people, but leave their clothes?
You can tune RF weapons to preferentially heat certain materials but it just is not that selective. Anything causing ionization like we saw would tend to catch whatever it was aimed at on fire. I would have been happy if the clothes were mostly burnt with some pieces surviving. The reaction of a body being heated by a beam of microwaves (maybe a maser?) strong enough to ionize the air is better imagined then witnessed though.
Figuring out the effects of various weapon designs is not that difficult. Actually making them practical is. Most science fiction movies suffer from this when they do not really need to. Give me a reaction drive large enough and I will boil the Earth to vapor. No magic is needed.
July 9th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
55There was alot of thing that bothered me about the movie like : how did the Robbie survive? i think thats what bothered me the most! And the part were Robbie was helping the people hanging from the ferry the water was calm but a few seconds before the water was making waves and everything but anywayz over all i loved the movie :)
July 9th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
56Lighten up for gods sake! The film was great! Justin chatwin was a great actor in this film and we all know that tom cruise is good! the little girl was the best actress/actor in the whole film though. The only thing i do have a problem with is the fact that “robbie” didnt die. i loved the character but he should have died. Maybe all will be revealed in a sequel??? ( including all of the “gaping holes” like the fact they were buried under ground??? ) i hope so!
:-) Bloody good film
July 10th, 2005 at 12:02 am
57I said it once, I’m saying it again: there will never be a War of the Worlds 2. It’s based off of a book that had no sequel. There’s no need to have a sequel, everything was summed up. That’s like thinking there will be a Signs 2, or The Sixth Sense 2. Won’t happen.
July 10th, 2005 at 9:08 am
58could someone please tell me how many legs and arms the aliens have!?! it’s really bugging me. thanks.
July 10th, 2005 at 9:16 am
59I think they have 3 legs (like a tripod), but the two in the front double as arms.
July 10th, 2005 at 9:30 am
60that helps. i know they have 2 little spaggy arms at the front, and i did think that there was 1 big leg at the back, plus 2 big ones at the front, but my girlfriend was convinced that i was wrong.
thanks joe.
July 10th, 2005 at 9:42 am
61No problem. I took another look though and we’re both right:
3 legs, the two in the front double as arms, plus two scrappy little arms protruding from their teat area. So 2 regular t-rex arms, 2 arm-legs, and one regular leg.
July 10th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
62People,
You are assuming that they are buried 10 feet underground? They could easily be buried 10 miles underground.
July 16th, 2005 at 3:45 am
63did any body notice that this is like the 10th movied based on the original war of the worlds? independance day, mars attacks, so on.. there all based off war of the worlds
July 18th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
64Ok, I loved the movie but one thing really turned me off. When Ray and the kids went into the ex-wife’s house, why didn’t he turn on the TV or the radio to figure out what was goin’ on with the aliens and tripods killing people and taking over the world and stuff? When they went into the house the fricken lights on ( the power was still on to put on a TV) but no, HE HAD TO MAKE STUPID SANWICHES!!! I recomend the movie though.
July 18th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
65Something that bothered me in the film was that Speilberg took some scenes of his other hit movies and put the in War of the Worlds. A few examples:
1. Probe in basement looking for Robbins/Cruise/Fanning in basement
Ok the probe’s movement reminded me of a Velociraptor in “Jurassic Park”.The reaction Ray and Rachel had when they had to get away from the probe was the same as the two kids trying to get away from the Velociraptor.
2. The lights coming from the windows when the Tripods were outside blasting stuff.
The lights really reminded me of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. Very similar.
3. The clothes in the air after the Tripods shot the people into dust
In “Schindler’s List” people’s ashes came down from the sky from the concentartion camp. It was the same concept as the clothes falling out of the sky in WOTW.
They’re maybe more movie scene “remakes” Speilberg has made in the film. If u watch WOTW carefully, u would see what i mean. WOTW was a great movie and a scary one too.
July 18th, 2005 at 10:10 pm
66I noticed that also. The probe scene had me thinking of Jurassic Park the whole time. Even hiding behind the mirror was similar to what the kids in Jurassic Park did (hiding in a reflective cabinet)
July 22nd, 2005 at 3:43 pm
67Doug..Your an idiot..after the one tri pod died the others DIDNT die..If you actually pay attetion at the end, it says our microbes killed them not from the one tri pod dying. Also whoever said that the jap’s killed them is a dumbass. If you listen they said they found out how to get TWO of them, not the whole army. My guess is they needed more humans for their plants, but if they came out millions of years ago, they wouldnt have had alot..actually any at all..They were prolly just waiting for a time they needed it, and struck then. The reason they didnt die when the first time they came here is cause we (humans) didnt fuck up the atmosphere (from polution). I did wish that the son would have died and i didnt quite get why his watch (battery powered) turned off. Cause emp shock waves dont disable batteries. The whole 3 fingers thing is fine, cause lacking in fingers is made up for in brains. I too didnt understand the hole “bodies floating in river ” thing or not getting deathly ill from swimming in the river and being in the rain, but these can be answered..its TOM CRUISE.
July 23rd, 2005 at 7:31 pm
68For God’s Sake! Sorry, this film was alright, but the silly little easy to be remedied flaws (hundreds listed above)in this picture are laughable. I do like some of spielbergs more gritty films, but sometimes he gets so caught up in pathetic hollywood ‘god bless america’ slogan that just about nothing he does leaves me entirely satisfied.
I’m still finding it hard to believe that noone has attemted a pure film version faithful to the book, based in victorian England. With todays film technology, this victorian time period combined with alien invasion WOULD BE ACE on screen! arent people tired of the usual ‘normal guy’ getting caught up world devastation and destruction of the usual world landmarks???. I thought I understood SS’s reason for the contempory retelling (more indentifyable to people and more shit to blow up) but having seen the film - none of this seems to have been exploited. I think the complicated relationships that SS wanted to focus on with Cruise and Fanning make the title ‘war of the worlds’ a scapegoat for a picky family drama, which although SS can do as he pleases, to me seems to betray the orginal story somewhat.
All I can say is I can’t wait to see Jeff Wayne’s new CGI film of the original story combined with his wonderful music!….I think this will be far more interesting…..
July 25th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
69I love it.
Tom Cruise is attractive as ever, his son very cute, and the daughter an incredible actress.
Great movie, made me want to cry, laugh and made me scream (which I recieved some stick for!)
July 28th, 2005 at 5:18 pm
70I really hope all those who have ripped this flick, will hold the original movie to the same standards - of course, with exception to the special effects. But all of these nit-pickers, come on already - did you do this to the original ? How about the radio broadcast ? Did you scrutinize every word there as well ? I wonder if any of you who ripped this, happen top be LOTR fans ? Start Wars ? The Matrix ? This goes especially for the guy who posted about the aliens having only 3 fingers…thats what you took home after seeing this ? You must be a killer with the ladies…
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:13 pm
71Well having read all the comments above, I have to say that for me the film, and a lot of the people above have missed the point of the story completely. H G Wells original book although written many years ago, stands the test of time even today. The point being that we humans consider ourselves superior to all other life forms, be it from this planet or elswhere. But to a race such as the aliens in this film we would be like little ants.
Also the fact that the film was given a 12 certificate also means that a lot of horror and suspense had to be forgone for the censors. Shame
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:55 pm
72i agree. i loved the movie
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:43 pm
73I am just glad that they are discussing on making a revamp of that 70 martian movie Mars Attacks (please excuse title have not seen the movie in 7 years)
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:52 pm
7470 martian movie?
August 8th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
75Sure the movie has it’s logic problems, but I don’t care, I loved it anyway. I like Spielberg’s work, and I like Tom Cruise (Although the only movies I’ve seen with him are Rain Man, The Last Samurai, and War of the Worlds). Anyway, as for the argument “Why didn’t we find the pods before?”, well, have we considered how deep underground they were? It’s quite apparent that the Martians (They were martians in the book) are far more advanced than we are, who knows how deep they were able to get. And the other argument “Why weren’t they effected by the microbes when they came here before??”. Maybe the microbes that were so deadly to them were only in human blood, so they didn’t come into contact with them until they started doing their vampire thing, or maybe Spielberg simply overlooked it. And my final argument for the arguments, is the “Why not start taking our blood instantly? Why slaughter everyone and lose all that blood?” one. Well, perhaps they wanted to crush any resistance before “harvest season”.
Moving away from the arguments now, here’s my take on the movie. When I went to see it, I had not read the book, after seeing it, I immediately started reading, and, after reading it, I saw the movie again with my new understanding of the story. First off, there are two major differences between the book and the movie:
1. In the book, it was common knowledge that the aliens were in fact from Mars. In Spielberg’s adaptation, any connection with Mars has been removed, which is a good thing in my mind, sure, in 1898, the idea of life on Mars was new, and intruiging, but today, the idea of Martian life has become so cliched, with all the 50’s B-movies, little green men, etc. that the film just wouldn’t have had the same effect.
2. The movie is not set in 18th century England. Again, definitely a good thing, having it in our time and in a familiar location means it hits that much closer to home.
Apart from the few logic errors, I thoroughly enjoyed myself (Both times). The CG is amazing, the sound is excellent (I’ll never forget the sound that first tripod made, got goosebumps all over.) I recommend the film to everyone. (Except someone who would pay good money to see something like “Deuce Bigolo”, or pretty much anything with Vince Vaughn or Rob Schneider…Fabre, I’m looking in your direction.)
Go see the movie, and most of all, remember, it’s just a movie!
P.S. I’m not a scientist, nor am I a microbiologist, if the “Only in human blood” thing is impossible, then just disregard it, like I said, I’m no expert.
August 9th, 2005 at 10:08 am
76One more thing I forgot to mention.
The only thing that really bothered me about the movie, was the fact that Spielberg decided to show us what the aliens looked like. I know it was in the book, but after seeing them, the tripods really didn’t seem as threatening. It was the anonymity of the things that made them frightening.
August 9th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
77I noticed that the Aliens resembled the Tripods. (You guyz probably already knew that.) And the Tripods to me sort of looked like squids. It’s just my opinion! I can’t wait til’ it comes out on DVD, that would be AWSOME!
August 9th, 2005 at 7:11 pm
78No, what would be really awesome would be a PSP version, although I guess pirates can already do that…Damn morals!
August 9th, 2005 at 7:16 pm
79I keep forgetting to say things.
They probably resembled the tripods because they built them in their own likeness. The only example I can think of, is that whenever you see a giant man-made robots/machines/mechs/whatever in a movie, they almost always have two legs, and two arms, probably because we’re inclined to create things in our own likeness.
August 31st, 2005 at 2:47 am
80Forgive me this is a long one.
Saw the movie, then read the book again. I must say that Spielberg did a pretty good (not fantastic) job of following a book that was published in 1898, bringing said book into the 21st century and compressing all that into a movie that doesn’t require you to sit down for six hours. I know a LOT of people have detailed their gripes but here my takes.
1) buried underground machines. Lets say they really used nano tech micro machines, they were assembled in about 15 minutes. That’s about the only way to make this work. I could come up with a scenerio where the first lighting blast made a cavern where the ‘pilot pods’ assembled, disembarked and with a wave of their high tech wands had super fast robots build their death machines. They climb aboard and off to the races. Spielberg should have nixed that stupid line about ‘a million years’ stuff before he even $%@% filmed it. You don’t send things a million years ahead of yourself because in that time your own technology curve will have passed those things up. It would be like the Romans burying chariots all over Europe and then the 21st century Italians being told to go dig up the war machines and conquer Europe with them. Maybe Spielberg got really drunk one night and decided to fuse another H.G. Wells book into the movie (The Time Machine).
2) why tripods? Because they are as alien as you can get to this planet. Wells knew this, he was a well schooled biologist for his day. For this I give Spielberg a big thumbs up because they are very very close to the books description of them, right up to the baskets of human goodies for a midnight snack. The tripods in this film are much better then George Pals version.
3) the look of the aliens. Well, the book has them looking like a land based octopus; blubbery, weak, panting and barely able to move. Not very intimidating. The George Pal aliens were pathetic. Spielbergs critters are alien enough to stay true to the feeling they must have had on 19th century readers when the book came out.
4) death rays. They do a pretty good job of making you feel naked and helpless against such technology, much like an invisible soundless ‘heat ray’ did to the 19th century readers. I agree with many here, leaving the clothes behind is shades of ‘neutron bomb’ stuff. I think he just liked the visual effect and said bobs your uncle to the critics.
5) character compression. I’m a little peeved that Spielberg decided to combine three characters into Tim Robbins part, thats a little much even for an accomplished actor like Robbins. For those who haven’t read the book I think he was playing the Currate, Artilleryman and by nature of his name Ogilvy the astronomer.I see this happening more and more in Hollywood, fewer actors means fewer fingers in the aftermarket pie.
That’s about enough ranting for now. I do think there is room for a WOTW2 where we take apart their machines, analyze the technology and invade THEIR planets for a nice dose of ‘it’s payback time boys’.
September 26th, 2005 at 3:08 pm
81WHEN IS THE MOVIE COMING OUT ON TAPE??
November 14th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
82Gracis
November 19th, 2005 at 5:34 am
83IF THE ALIENS WERE SO INTELLIGENT, WHY DID THEY WAIT FOR THE PLANBET TO BECOME INHABITED BEFORE THEY TOOK IT OVER… THEY APPARANTLY WERE BURIED THOUSANDS / MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO - WHY WAIT FOR THE PLANET TO GET POPULATED? WAS IT SOME SORT OF SORDID ‘GAME’? (BIT OF A STUPID PLOT REALLY)
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:16 pm
84Some other thoughts:
1. The tripod machines were buried so deep that human technology never found them. We never did see the depth of a crater as a tripod emerged.
2. The “opposable thumbs” drivel: we have 4 fingers and one opposable thumb; the alien fingers perhaps were all opposable, giving them superior dexterity to build, etc.; or, the aliens that came to earth were inferior, were “soldiers” while the superior aliens stayed safe at home.
3. The tripods were deposited by mother ships many years ago, the pilots of those mother ships not exposed to microbes (which certainly existed even before humans!); the “lightning bolts” were not even remotely similar to lightning, but were massive energy beams delivering the aliens from a great distance (the storms that preceded the deposit of aliens were possibly an atmospheric disturbance caused by the coming alien pods).
4. They waited for a sufficient # of humans to populate the earth to be used to fertilize the red root (to be consumed? to make earth environment more hospitable?), but couldn’t wait much longer as the human technology in another 100 years might be able to defeat the tripods.
5. Their “technology curve” almost certainly did exceed the tripod machines on earth, but the tripods were sufficient to conquer earthlings; any new technology invented by the aliens was used in other parts of the galaxy to conquer more-advanced beings. (If I see an ant and want to kill it, I can simply step on it, or I can use a much more advanced technology like a magnifying glass… but why bother taking the time and effort?)
6. The reason the aliens pulverized humans was to frighten, cause mayhem, to scare humans into the open where they could be more easily captured. Without the death ray blasts, the tripod machines would have to search house to house to find prey, would take far too long.
What I loved: the tripod call scared the heck out of me, totally unexpected and a master stroke! Also liked that the tripod machines were mechanical (not perfect alien craft), they belched smoke, dropped oil, and were connected to the ground by their legs which made them very scary (Cruise peering around the building to see the tripod walk by was chilling, how would you feel if you saw this?); liked that the end of the movie was true to the book. Also very disturbing was the collective screaming of people in the river, and then the collective cry of humans as the tripods emerged over the hill, very scary to me and a Spielberg special.
Disappointments: The son lived (thought he was a totally unnecessary char