War of the Worlds

[VaSteve]

Did anyone else see this POS? My wife picked it up and it was one of the WORST movies I have every seen. I didn't see much discussion here about it, so I will throw down the gauntlet, with my hasty Netflix review. (I had to edit it to fit it in the box...) Any other thoughts from the OT forum?

Originally posted by Me to Netflix:
I’m not sure that I can write about how bad this is this little box. This move is simply special effects pornography: No plot, all CGI action and screaming.

I can’t begin to count the plot hole and inconsistencies, but I will start. An EMP that destroys all electrical equipment would likely have killed that camcorder. Did you think of that Spielberg? What about cars that weren’t running when the EMP went off? Why would a mechanic need to ask Tom Cruise how to fix a car? A 1968 Mustang doesn’t have any computers in it to be fried by the EMP. Probably would have kept on running. Why was it so easy for Tom and the lovely family to drive a clear path down the freeway? When building a subway or a building foundation, the workers never ran into a tripod?

How could you have developed the characters any less? You have no emotion if other characters live or die. Not even the main characters.

The movie is derivative of the following films: Independence Day, Signs and Minority Report (also Starring Tom Cruise!!!) It’s derivative of movies already featuring the main actor! (Scene with the “eye” in the basement) Why not have him wearing his white undies or driving a racecar as well?

Who were the people at the Ferry, the mom and the kid? Oh who care, they miss the boat anyhow. Not like they had any previous introduction. Why does the military guy decide that after all those other people are sucked out of the basket that Tom Cruise is THE ONE, he’s going to rally the basketeers around saving? Tom goes into a room to fight/kill a man – a man that is holding the only weapon!?!

Tom has to point out to the military guy directing the crowd (probably the lowest ranking guy) that the tripod shields are down. Doesn’t the military have ANYONE else that was watching for this?

The movie offers no explanation as to whey the aliens were even there! They were jealous? Thanks Morgan for the handy tell-all, solve-all voiceover.

[Flatbutt1]

This was one of the worst remakes ever. At least the original made some sense. In the original Cruises role was a scientist called to investigate a strange meteor(turned out to be the Martians). Why they made it iinto a dock worker is beyond me. And whats with the marital strife? It had no place in the original.

Nope, this new one sucks on many levels.

Sticking Gene Barry and Ann Robinson in at the end was also very derivative and formulaic.

[ubiquity0]

I just watched it the other night as well... and was about as dissapointed.

I noted the working camcorder. Also the mechanic gets the car running after taking Tom Cruise's advice to replace the coil. er... so I guess every coil installed in a car was fried, but those on the parts shelf were all unaffected? And how come the other electrical systems in the early 90's minivan seemed to be fine after that?

Also wasn't the Mustang the same damn car he drove in Vanilla Sky? And the minivan-width clear path amidst all the destruction always led in the exact direction they wanted to go??!

The aliens must have been a huge Tom Cruise fan- why else would they zap every single person in his vicinity but leave him untouched?

[Paul K]

I have to agree. I watched the first 1/2 hour on a flight from Manchester to Philadelphia. It was so bad I turned it off and listened to babies crying. Lack of plot, weak characters, yet phenomenal effects. I have seen this in many movies- 'The Day After Tomorrow', 'Dante's Peak', etc.
Good for you posting a review to Netflix!

[VaSteve]

I wouldn't even consider it great effects. When you look at the scenes where they are in hills of NY/MA (?). The background looks increadibly fake.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie, but instead I got nothing! No wonder Tom went all nutty this summer.

[1967 R50/2]

A better (derivative) remake of War of the Worlds was Independence day, although not many people realized that's what it was.

1. Aliens invade. Easily brush aside the military.

2. We try to nuke 'em. Doesn't work thanks to their sheilds.

3. People have given up and begin to pray. In in the orginal WOW film they show people in the church while the city is being destroyed outside. In IE, this is reduced to Judd Hirsh praying with the kids.

4. Almost destroy civilization only to be wiped out by a virus. In ID, of course it was a computer virus, and not a biological one.

Throw some special effects in, some actions scenes and Will Smith wise-cracks and Voi-La! A better movie than Tom Cruize could hope to put out.

[VaSteve]

Yes, ok good point on ID being derived from the first WotW. At least in ID, you could actually CARE about the characters. Hell, they were characters. In this POS, you could care less about the people and almost wish for their demise. 1. The screaming girl 2. The idiot PITA son 3. The lead (Tom) - you couldn't even develop a shred of emotion for him.

[Hugh R]

Yeah, they spent waaay to much time in that basement. I'd have taken a shovel to Tim Robbins and Cruise's head after about 2 minutes in there. Coming from Spielberg, I was very disappointed. BTW, Spielberg get 25% of first dollar box office sales on all his movies. That an awful lot of money. So for a movie that eventually grosses $400 million world wide, he gets $100 million! Sweet huh?

[DonDavis]

I just read in Newsweek that this was Cruise's highest grossing movie at $589 Million worldwide. That's just crazy.

True the movie was crappy in many ways but I thought it looked very retro or classic. The footage in the basement and of the tripods walking around at night looked very 'old time' to me. I kind of liked the look. The plot (if you can call it that) was weak. It just felt like what VaSteve said, thin and superficial.

Oh, I think we were to believe the pods were buried very very deep. So deep that humans would never find 'em.

[alf]

Hey, i thought it was pretty good. Then again i watched it on the way to Japan after a big dinner, couple of champanges, some red wine, some sake, some port and i think a scotch or two

[kjb]

Originally posted by 1967 R50/2
4. Almost destroy civilization only to be wiped out by a virus. In ID, of course it was a computer virus, and not a biological one.

Does anyone remember Mars Attacks? The aliens' heads explode when they're exposed to country music. I thought that was frickin' brilliant!

/ J

[Steve Carlton]

Came across this War of the Worlds eComic. It's supposed to be a faithful rendition of H.G. Wells' book, I dunno. Tons of other comics there, too...

http://www.darkhorse.com/zones/wotw/wotw_popup.php?p=0

[Isabo]

I really enjoy the musical version (Justin Hayward?) narrated by Richard Burton and with Julie Covington. I still play it sometimes.
I enjoyed Independence day but I wouldn't have guessed it a derivative of War of the worlds.
Another sci fi derivative was Barbed Wire, from the Bogey classic Casablanca. That one was almost a good film.
I've not seen any of the later war of the worlds movies and now I don't think I want to! Thanks for the heads up.

[onewhippedpuppy]

WOW made Independence Day look like a future classic, what a pile of steaming ****e! We made the mistake of renting it, I insisted on watching it all the way through because I just knew it had to get better. So much random stuff, just thrown in for no obvious reason. Then the aliens just up and die?! No character development, no plot, just crap. At least ID, Dante's Peak, and some of the other special effects blockbusters had characters and a plot, along with a logical beginning, middle, and end. I'm just amazed that it was this bad, like my wife said, it's like they just ran out of film and ended it.

[BeerBurner]

Originally posted by VaSteve
Tom has to point out to the military guy directing the crowd (probably the lowest ranking guy) that the tripod shields are down. Doesn’t the military have ANYONE else that was watching for this?

Ah, so that's what he said, when the bird were landing on it right before he went into that tunnel? We rewound it a couple of times and still couldn't make it out...

Anyway, I won't say I was disappointed with it simply because I wasn't expecting much and therefore, wasn't let down. I agree with the lack of any real plot or development, and since I knew how the story went there really wasn't any suspense, either. But on the flip side, I do enjoy that genre of movie which is probably why I didn't view it as a waste of time.

BB.

[kach22i]

I think War of the Worlds is the best movie I've seen in years. It really scared the crap out of me. I read the book (again) four years ago, the movie does it justice.

As for the car coil and little things like that; when was the last time you read a good book that did not have a few hick-ups? Get over it, suspend disbelief for a moment.

The movie was like a dream, and like a dream not everything made sense right at that moment but continued on it's own.

You could feel it as an event not just a movie.

Highly recommended on a large movie screen with state of the art sound system and stadium seating. You don't play a movie like this on a typical HT system and expect to get the experience that the director intended for you to have.

[Joe Bob]

It would have to improve to just suck......

With the four day holiday I had, the rain and the lack of kids.....it was a DVD weekened.

The Marksman with Wesley Snipes....sucked worse than War, Pukes of Hazard....nice booty....'bout it.....

40 YO Virgin....top of the list....that's how bad Pukes and War was....three other losers that went straight to video and I can't remember the names....

Like I said, rain, long weekend and sex has been banned at my house...vid store was almost sold out....kill me now.

[930addict]

I saw it in the theatre with my family and with the exception of the special effects it still sucked. There was a scene near the beginning where the alien first appeared. It was coming out of the ground and there was a group of people including Tom Cruise standing around the hole. First, why would anyone stand around the hole while everything around them is getting damaged, and two, you can distinctly see Tom Cruise laughing in that scene.

Also, before each attack the alien ships would let out a loud noise followed by dumping something from below - it looked like it was taking a crap. But everytime it made the loud noise everyone would stop and look at it. That movie was just stupid.

[livi]

Just downloaded it. So I guess the general consensus is to just scrap the disc before watching it then ?

[rattlsnak]

>>Does anyone remember Mars Attacks?<<

Now that was a Great movie!