War of The Worlds - Steven Spielberg

A lot of it just felt unnatural. Everyone gathering outside, then the shot of every family in their backyards. When is everyone home in the middle of a given day? And how many are going to go outside to watch lightning?

Then the hole in town. The first car that thing threw, everyone, or at least most people, should have taken off running. They're still all there, though, verrrry slowly backing off, like that's nothing to be too concerned about.

In the bit with the news crew and the airplane, they're rummaging and eating like it's been a month since they last ate. It was less than 24 hours from when the aliens started rising, sheez.

The basement hide & seek went on way too long. And the aliens acted like damn morons, I can understand a bit of curiosity at human belongings, but it's ridiculous to have them be amazed by photography and a bike wheel. I'm really tired of stuff like that, if the aliens are building and piloting this advanced machinery far beyond our comprehension, they should be fairly smart, not acting like dumb animals like they were in this and countless other movies.

I didn't even think Robbie not dying was the most annoying part of the end, either (though yeah it was really stupid). It was that the family is just there waiting in their untouched neighborhood, safe and sound and not looking at all worse for the wear. It seemed rather ass-backwards that aliens were ransacking remote farmhouses and small coastal towns, but hadn't even touched a big neighborhood right outside a major city like Boston.

I think the end of the aliens would have gelled better if they simply, say, gave an allusion to people or plants being killed when taken out of their elements, due to not having immunity to region-specific diseases. The Spaniards arriving at South America, for example. Would have helped people wrap their heads around it a little better. As is, it was just "they were killed by disease. the end."

It was worth seeing once for the effects, but there's no meat anywhere else.

Yeah, people are outside their house watching the lightning, so what? If it was the weekend, wouldn't you be looking at a big swirling, blinking mass of clouds that happened to hover over your house? Humans seriously DO act that way when there is something bad or life threatening that is weather related. As an international example, look at the tsunami this year when the people on the beaches who just stood there with mouths agape watched the wave miles off. Look at people who watch tornados.

And then a few minutes later the very same neighborhood is crushed after the underpass next to it is up-ended. Not like it was ever portrayed as the fun, happy safe neighborhood.

Also, the aliens didn't seem "amazed" at the bike wheel or photo, they were just casually looking and touching them. Not like the apes in 2001. It just came off as some employees snooping around someone else's office during their work break. Plus if you came from a culture that used mechanical legs instead of wheels, yeah, maybe the bike wheel would seem a little funny.

Anyways, all that there is to be said about the disease ending has been discussed to death already. It's the same ending as the novel and a MUCH better way for the aliens to die then being killed by water as they were in Signs.

I like how the ending was forshadowed early with Fanning talking about the splinter in her hand. She says something like "My body will just expel it when it's ready to." wich is what the Earth does later to the aliens.

So in a way you could view the aliens as an invading parasite or disease. Even what they do to the landscape looks almost like an infection.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VIDEODROME

I like how the ending was forshadowed early with Fanning talking about the splinter in her hand. She says something like "My body will just expel it when it's ready to." wich is what the Earth does later to the aliens.

---

Ah, that is a really neat little clue. Thanks for pointing that out.

I don't think you should compare it to Signs. Signs was more about one man losing his belief and it took something crazy(the aliens) for him to get it back and understand that things happen for a reason no matter how shitty they may be. I don't really agree with that, but that movie did a good job for what it was going for.

War of the Worlds like Ebert says is just big, and clunky. It was just a spectacle of scenes put together, that was so hit or miss it just didn't have a good flow. Most notable the abrupt end, also the farm house was just blah. I also hate when he comes out of the farm house it is so obvious he is on a really cheesy looking set, which would of been fine if the whole movie was looking for that campy look, but was just way out of place in this movie.

Also in the pods why don't they ever try to pull anyone else down besides Cruise? I know he's hot and all, but you would think they would try to save everyone.

^^^

Actually I really like Signs and agree it has a great excellent thread & theme.

I just think having them die because water splashed on them was kinda lame. WoTW's solution is more plausible, alien biology coming into contact with foreign bacteria/viruses that eventually kills them after they have spent some time mingling in the eco system.

This past weekend I watched the old 50's War of the Worlds and there were some little things that made me enjoy it more. I thought the intro was better, it explained who the aliens were, why they wanted earth and, and why they couldn't take another planet. I also like the fact that they weren't already here and they didn't already walk on our earth and plant ships to use a long time down the road. They watched us from a far and would have no idea how they would react to what was on our planet. Also the movie, although you can see the strings on the spacecraft, didn't seem so fake. These people weren't survivinng one crazy thing after another.

It's like now in movies, there are no limitations in what you can put on film, so let's do it all. I almost miss the days where people were limited with what they could do. Jaws is a great example of high tension created with barely showing anything. I like good special effects as much as the next guy, but it just seems like these people *cough*george lucas*cough* are just surronded by yes men and they need people there to be like I dunno, maybe we should scale it back a bit. The best parts of War of the Worlds were the human interaction scenes. I dunno maybe if they didn't just concentrate on the one family and it was different people surviving all these crazy scenes it wouldn't have felt so shallow and cheap.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by usagi

Also in the pods why don't they ever try to pull anyone else down besides Cruise? I know he's hot and all, but you would think they would try to save everyone.

---

I laughed at this because it looked like he was being forced out of a big alien asshole. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MechDeus

If you've got a better way to display a microscopic, invisible-to-our-eyes air-borne infection from the POV of regular people I'm all ears.

---

Well they took the time to have Cruise run into a news reporter to explain the alien's plans to us, so they felt the need to explain how they got here but not explain to us how their downfall suddenly occurs other than an abrupt voiceover?

I'm sorry, but that doesn't cut it and makes the end feel like a simple deus ex machina.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bacon McShig

When is everyone home in the middle of a given day?

---

Wasn't the whole reason the mom and hubby dropped off the kids because they were running up to Boston for the weekend ("He has a report due on Monday," and so on), hence making that Saturday, a day when most people are home in the middle of the day?

Quote:

---

It was that the family is just there waiting in their untouched neighborhood, safe and sound and not looking at all worse for the wear.

---

I didn't like that either, mostly because everyone had been running from their homes yet the movie's family was all waiting cuddled together in the apartment they were supposed to be in. Random.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FirstBlood

Well they took the time to have Cruise run into a news reporter to explain the alien's plans to us, so they felt the need to explain how they got here but not explain to us how their downfall suddenly occurs other than an abrupt voiceover?

---

Once again, how? When people get something like a cold or flu there's no external signs aside from maybe a cough or runny nose, if they don't verbally express throat or stomach pains it can be hard to tell they're coming down with something until they decide to start calling off work or whatever. And that's from the species we're part of. There's no visual, "Mark, you seem to be getting attacked by nature. Have some medicine." If disease or infection ever shows up on a skin level that's generally well after it's already torn through someone's body for a good amount of time.