War of The Worlds - Steven Spielberg

[1CCOSA]

"These people live through impossible stuff!" It is a Spielberg sci fi movie, people, not a Ridley Scott film where we expect the central characters to gradually die or meet terrible ends. Again, Spielberg and Cruise have said repeatedly the movie was going to be about a man trying to save his family. So what is the big surprise here that Cruise saves his kids?

Again, read the book. In Well's novel the main character wanders all over the countryside surviving random attacks by the aliens, crosses paths with an artillery crew which gets wiped out by the tripods, he almost starves to death in a farmer's basement while one of the martians waits outside to eat them, and so on yet he still survives. Oh nooo. The lack of credibility just ruins the enjoyment.


I really am not getting this "nobody dies, it sucks" defense.

Lessee here, not spielberg per se but Star Wars OT: the only people that die are Obi Wan, Yoda and Anakin who are already old and up the creek. Everyone else lives.

Indiana Jones. An everyman who uses a whip to live through impossible melee fights both against man and machine.

Pretty darn good movies I'd say.

Saving Private Ryan: Tom Hanks doesn't die till the very end of the movie but in between survives "impossible" odds taking down countless platoons and machines.

Again, this just sounds more and more like good ole 'net nit pickin.' Unless Fanning does something really stupid like a gymnastic move on one of the aliens then I think it'll be OK.

And i again think it's funny how some are so outraged about the virus ending that it's "too simple." So obvious some of you peeps never bothered to read the book or to read up on the Orsen Well's radio play. Considering the novel was written 107 years ago, the virus/microbe ending was probably considered relatively cutting edge back then. Of course it's not so "amazing" a thought today but if Spielberg "updated" the virus/bacteria angle people would then be frothing that he "raped the book." Whatever.

Just 20 more hours. Gah.

The two main characters of the original 50's movie have cameos in the very end of the picture where they play the mothers parents. They have no lines though, just an homage.

Ps. I hope we don't let you down!

PPS. does anyone have the tripod's foghorn sound as wav file? Its not on the official soundtrack.

Ah, cool. Thanks for pointing where to look for the cameo. The '53 flick was suprisingly well done for such an old sci fi movie. Watched it back in February.

[Regus]

Stop defending a movie you haven't seen. Once you've seen it you'll understand that our complaints are valid.

[1CCOSA]

Stop defending a movie you haven't seen. Once you've seen it you'll understand that our complaints are valid.

I'm not going to be using your complaints to gauge my enjoyment or lack thereof. I will be using Well's novel as my gauge. Good enough comparison source there.

[Rumpy]

Fuck the book. I watched a movie that, going by what others have said, is vastly different from the book anyway. The book and the movie are two different things and saying that "well, the book does this and this" doesn't mean anything because...we're talking about the movie. I've never read the book so I can only compair this movie experiance to other sci fi alien movies I've seen. Is anyone else here even compairing the book to the movie besides you? It's all great until a shitty ending that really takes away from the whole story. The ending is so fucking ubrupt and lame that I wish they had changed it to make it a better MOVIE. And that doesn't mean "everyone has to die".

Seriously, just watch the movie. I feel bad for you because when you do watch it your going to have all this shit swirling around in your head.

[animegirl]

Fuck the book. I watched a movie that, going by what others have said, is vastly different from the book anyway. The book and the movie are two different things and saying that "well, the book does this and this" doesn't mean anything because...we're talking about the movie. I've never read the book so I can only compair this movie experiance to other sci fi alien movies I've seen. Is anyone else here even compairing the book to the movie besides you? It's all great until a shitty ending that really takes away from the whole story. The ending is so fucking ubrupt and lame that I wish they had changed it to make it a better MOVIE. And that doesn't mean "everyone has to die".

Seriously, just watch the movie. I feel bad for you because when you do watch it your going to have all this shit swirling around in your head.

I recently read the the book (again) and it is pretty damn close. Are people so cynical these days that if the main characters don't die they feel cheated? They survived, oh fucking well, the whole point of the family is to put yourself in their place, to experience the events with them. Oh, and whoever said the opening narration had "bad grammar" it is word for word out of the novel. The book was written in 1898, a time where disease was a major concern for people, so yeah the ending does seem a bit antiquated in our immunized society. I think he was trying to stay true to the book and keep some semblance of a happy ending. It's not THAT happy, millions of people still died and most of the US (and around the globe) was decimated. Anyway, I really enjoyed the film, the special effects were insane, I have never seen such destruction captured so realistically on film.

[aren]

I just got back from seeing it, but before I say anything, the 7:50 showing was soldout and the 8:30 showing (the one I saw it) was soldout. I can't believe 2 showings were soldout on a Thursday night.

Anyway, I'm too tired to write a review. I'm kind of confused on how I would grade the movie. The story and acting are superb. The movie istself was highly enjoyable, but when it reaches the end, it feels like Steven Spielberg got lazy and decided to end the movie at a random spot. Maybe if he added 10-15 more minutes or redid the ending, I could see this being a contender for best movie of the year.

I'll write a review tomorrow with more thoughts.

[animegirl]

I don't understand why people don't like the ending. What more did you want? Tom Cruise flying in on an F-16 blowing up the aliens while rock music blared?

[dakidski]

Ah, cool. Thanks for pointing where to look for the cameo. The '53 flick was suprisingly well done for such an old sci fi movie. Watched it back in February.

"Gene Barry will also be making a cameo appearance aswell as Ann Robinson from the 1953 George Pal film."

I read it, but then again. I was in the fourth grade.

Hey, am I the only one that thought of Gunstar Heroes when the flaming train flew past tom cruise?

Yes, very likely. It was one amazing scene though, the kind of scene that stun an audience to silence.

I don't understand why people don't like the ending. What more did you want? Tom Cruise flying in on an F-16 blowing up the aliens while rock music blared?

Heh, did you just make a Will Smith joke?

[Zerohero]

Seriously,


The only problem with the ending is that the son came back. Surviving imposible odds is not a problem. I mean it's still a movie thats what they are supposed to do.

[Dolemite]

Oh, I'm sorry they should have made it more realistic and had all the main characters die in the first five minutes. That would have been an awesome movie.

I admit the minivan being unscratched and having a clear path to drive through was a bit silly, but you're right. It's a movie. Personally, I would have had the minivan at least damaged, but it's just one of those things you just shake your head at and say "whatever". I wouldn't call it a real complaint or anything.