War of the Wars.

[pasithea]

So. Stacey and I went to see War of the Worlds tonight. Not sure what I should say about it. The machines were designed closely off The Tripods Woe that the story had not been. Speilburg takes a prefectly good, dark, human-slaughtering film and makes sure that the tension of a real drama is broken every couple of minutes with some ignorant chuckle scene, none of which made me laugh. The aliens got little screen time, instead, he (ironically) goes for the 'human' angle by spending 98% of his camera time on Tom Cruise (A man who believes he's part alien.) The scientology and religious intervention stuff is tangible and overstated in about half the scenes, giving me a (what's the opposite of feel-good moment?) Spielberg also makes an ass of himself by replaying images of the World Trade Center disaster (dust, smoke, falling shredded materials) and in a lot of ways glorifying the noble sacrifices of the military and, much like in Iraq, hides their utter failure off-camera.

This movie was just utter propagandist crap and the few seconds of sleek alien spacecraft vapouring (not nearly enough) pathetic quivering humans does NOT make up for it. He also goes with the ham-handed 50's ending where it was GOD who planned all along that the aliens would be defeated by our viruses! 1) Wells was a hard-line atheist and the whole POINT was that we'd evolved to handle our bacteria and the bacteria had evolved along with us and the alien's data was incomplete. 2) That idea played well in Wells' day when people died left and right of seemingly mysterious diseases but the story seriously needed to be updated to take into consideration things like remote controlled drones, biotechnology, and the rest. In the book, Wells explains the gap in the alien's technology by giving other examples where they have gone in a different direction from us and not made the same discoveries. The movie does nothing of the short. It's all Mystical Shit

All in all, it COULD HAVE BEEN a fantastic movie as awe-inspiring as Close Encounters and it could have scared the crap out of you and made you feel weak, powerless, small, and insignificant. Instead you feel like 'I want to strangle these kids, Tom Cruise is an ass and DUDE! Where's my WAR OF THE WORLDS WE NEVER EVEN SEE ANY FUCKING WAR! ARMY VERSUS ALIENS!?!? ALL OFF CAMERA! There's only massacre of a few humans who are running in less than convincing 'terror'.

GODDAMNIT! I wanted this movie to be good! AT _LEAST_ It could have been half as good as the 1950's version but I'd rather watch that than this again. Fucking assholes. *sigh* I wish I had the comic.

Comments

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Tripods! Wow.. Someone else remembers that series! I remember seeing that on PBS and really loved it until they cancelled it just at the good part.

I never read the HG Wells book but recall hearing it did have walking robot ships (unlike the 50's movie).

I'd have to see the movie before I condemn it -- from what you described it sounds rather painful at parts.

[centauress.livejournal.com]

Yikes, I was the one ranting as we left the theater!

Yeah, they used the brackets and intro they slipped into the 50's movie over the objections of the director.

For some reason, they did things like show people being shredded by electron beams full screen, but didn't pay for a single tank to be blown up and only did one scene of walkers bull-dozing a city.

The walkers in the 50's version rode limbs of light (still tripods, though) because that allowed easier animation and was a 'twist' to the tri-theme of the units. Their battles were epice, beautiful, and even included hitting units with a nuclear exchange and losing.

Also, this version dwelled entirely too much on any one action, showing it at least five times each: The power was out, so we see two light switches fail, the refridgerator, the tv, and then repeat it again in the next room with a ceiling fan and the light switch again... They did the same with the lightning, the lightning-guns, the clothes falling from the sky, and the 'they planned for millions of years because the walkers were buried' line which was only a kook's theory in HG Wells's version.

The pacing was off as well, with the walkers unfolding and deploying not in triads, but singles or pairs; taking minutes to go from EMP, litho-insertion, and deployment...

...The prior versions all had better pacing, even the stupid 80's TV series.

It was pretty, though, and you spend most of the time trying to look around the stupid Cruise character acting like and ass and 'protecting' his daughter from seeing things she obviously (and demonstrates in the begining of the film she's smarter than him, five times, of course) already knows and has observed.

Grr. It takes about five exchanges before he even answers her honestly about the attacks...

"My horse is probably ash by now. Do you think so?"
"He's... I... I don't know honey."

[centauress.livejournal.com]

PS, I need a suitably Sci-fi icon, as well as a sad one. Hmm. Maybe an angry one, too...

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I'll get on that. I need more than one pissed-off icon, I think. I use Medusa too much and she's getting dated.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Wow. I figured that War of the Worlds would be seriously lame, but judging by what you and Centauress have to say, wow...

[ataramos.livejournal.com]

You could look for the Timothy Hines version that came out this year too? The reviwer on IMDB doesn't have the best to say about it, and it was apparently really low budget and lacked forthought on some things, but, well, maybe its better? Heh. I didnt really expect this version to be good, Tom Cruise creeps me the hell out, but still, its unfortunate.

[centauress.livejournal.com]

Actually, that helps you keep your attention on the FX, which was top-notch.

The biggest problem I kept feeling, though, was if you've seen that one scene with the highway toppling over - the one in the commercial - you've seen the entire model destruction budget.

Come to think of it, the background was more interesting to watch in Harry Potter.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

That blows, I had some hopes for that film.

As for the Tripods: you may have read the comic and seen the TV series, but did you read the John Christopher novels that, I think, predated both?

Creepy, despairing british SF of the 1970s really had way too much effect on me, growing up.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Go see Batman Begins. :D

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I might have, if it was a fairly easy read. It seems familiar but I did read the comic (well, the Boy's Life strip) and I think I might have read the book because War of the Worlds was one of my favourite books/childhood films and I was so totally into sci-fi back then. But my brain got really scrambled when I was hit by that car so things like comics, movies, and books all sort of blend together into some mishmash and I'm never completely certain which things go with which when they're similar concepts.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was saying they ought to make a Tripods movie. As for the story being any good or even terribly engrossing, well, not on this continent.

I saw 'Revenge of the Sith' the day before yesterday. As a sensory experience, it was excellent. Story-wise... enh. For me that was mostly bookkeeping, tying up loose ends. I was interested in knowing how all of it hooked up, but more interested in explosions and spaceships, thus I saw it in the theatre.

But I can't believe $6.75 is the matinee price... it wasn't so long ago that was the regular price. This wasn't a new theater with all the latest upgrades, either, it was the Century theater near the mall.

[salia-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh! the tripods. ^_^ I remember reading that series. <.<

Found the second book back in either second or third grade. Then with some digging and beggeing of the librarian, found the third. the first took a while to find though. I might still have a copy of the second one laying around...somewhere...x.x

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

OMG you were introduced to it in those strips too?!?? Wow. (I clipped and collected those somewhere, BTW. Must dig them up and post them...)

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Wow. Where'd you manage to find 6.75? The theatre over here is like NINE DOLLARS for a matinee.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said, the Century near the mall, the Century 22 to be specific, near Valley Fair.