War of the Worlds

[Jon P. Inghram]

Didn't get to watch the sneak last night, so watching it from the booth had to suffice for now. It's not bad, the martians look pretty good and their weapons vaporize people quite well.

Oh, and a "spoiler" : in an unexpected plot twist, they get killed by paramecium instead of bacteria! Or perhaps the people doing the special effects just thought parameciums looked better.

[Dr Mordrid]

Several reviewers said the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the movie sank like a rock in terms of plot, but then who listens to them?

Dr. Mordrid

[Fat Tone]

Is it really close enough to the book to deserve the title?

I noted with interest that the movie trailers and the TV promo progs barely show the alien machines.

[az]

...and they forbade critics to review the movie before release!

AZ

[Dr Mordrid]

That's usually the sign of a stinker. basically so they can get all they can before the word of mouth gets out. Even if the movie is good it also virtually guarantees at least a bad review.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jammrock]

However, WotW has gotten mostly favorable reviews:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_of_the_worlds/

About what you would expect for a summer blockbuster SciFi movie.

Jammrock

[Gurm]

The last time it was made into a movie it wasn't all that great, either, from a "cinema" point of view. Still an awesome movie. And c'mon - Orson Welles and the Grovers Mill radio gag/panic? CLASSIC.

[Gurm]

Interesting link:

http://www.transparencynow.com/welles.htm

[Jon P. Inghram]

It follows the book quite closely! There are aliens running around in three legged machines killing people, and they die from microrganisms at the end... Ok, that's about all that's similar actually.

It's kinda hard to get a accurate impression of a movie when I had to step away occasionally to thread up and start other movies, but it seemed to be ok for a standard formula "aliens invade Earth, kill lots of people, and then get their butts handed to them in an unlikely manner" style movie.

Here's the Project Gutenberg link for WotW: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/36

[GT98]

Thing I dont get is that with SciFi movies with Aliens dying of something stupid (water for one moive with mel gibson and bateria/Paramecums for WotW) is didnt they do any advance recon of Earth to see if they would find something unexpected? Come on now....any good military campain has good recon/intel

[Helevitia]

Gonna see it Saturday, can't wait.

[Gurm]

Thing I dont get is that with SciFi movies with Aliens dying of something stupid (water for one moive with mel gibson and bateria/Paramecums for WotW) is didnt they do any advance recon of Earth to see if they would find something unexpected? Come on now....any good military campain has good recon/intel

Exactly! Y'know, like Independence Day... where we defeat them with the superior hacking capabilities of MACINTOSH LAPTOPS! BOOYAH!

[spadnos]

Thing I dont get is that with SciFi movies with Aliens dying of something stupid (water for one moive with mel gibson and bateria/Paramecums for WotW) is didnt they do any advance recon of Earth to see if they would find something unexpected? Come on now....any good military campain has good recon/intel

"Signs" - what a waste of a good movie.

I liked it until they showed the aliens. After that, it was just silly. And then the whole water thing - you'd think the sweat on the people they "ate" would have hurt them, or humidity, or that there would be some rain somewhere on the planet.

Oh, and let's not forget the fact that any reasonably intelligent spacefaring race probably has SPACESUITS - geez.

/rant mode off

What a stupid movie that turned into.

- Steve

[Rakido]

i was in the premiere yesterday, i absolutely recommend to watch the movie.

Waaay better than i expected it to be; couple of well placed shocking moments, parts of the movie are absolutely thrilling, first class special effects, really everything you need for a blockbuster.

The only not-so-good thing was the end, the last five minutes are not so good compared to the rest. It was like they had extreme fun making the movie and were caught suddenly by the fact that only four or five minutes are left for the ending.


Definitely worth watching.


R.

[VJ]

Thing I dont get is that with SciFi movies with Aliens dying of something stupid (water for one moive with mel gibson and bateria/Paramecums for WotW) is didnt they do any advance recon of Earth to see if they would find something unexpected? Come on now....any good military campain has good recon/intel

This was kind of ridiculed in Mars Attacks, where the aliens head exploded due to a specific music...


But yes: the aliens virtually never seem to wear space suits: ET, Close Encouters of the 3rd Kind, Signs, ...

It would be fun to see something more realistic: an unmanned craft landing on earth (similar to the stuff we sent to mars) to explore it and take back samples, .... Skip a couple of years, then something similar but with a more advanced craft (perhaps even one orbiting the earth)...



Jörg