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War of the Worlds — Page 2

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Saw it yesterday and walked away feeling unsatisfied. Lots of plot holes that Klingon_Jedi mentioned so I won't go into that. Funny you guys hate ID4, as I very much liked that movie and have watched it over and over. It's a popcorn flick nothing more, so I don't let stuff like them hooking up the Apple laptop to the alien mothership deter me from enjoying the movie. On a scale of 1-10, I rate it a 5. Liked the Ep III a lot better then that (rate it at a 7.5) and Batman was just awesome (I give it a 9) and will probably be my favorite movie of the summer. Let me put it this way, I liked Ep I better then this movie.
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ID4 wasn't great, but ID4 was better than EP I and EP II. (IMHO) . Gundark, what do you mean by flat?
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i really liked ID4 as well, i found it to be a cool movie. the computer hok up thing oh well sometimes things dont have to make sense to be cool, do lightsabres make sense no are they cool yes.
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OK I've just came back from seeing it, and here are my remarks.


*** SPOILERS ***


War of the Worlds, or: "Signs" meets "Half Life 2" meets "AI" meets "Threads". First, I was expecting a much worse film, and I was quite impressed by it, specially it's first half. Spielberg didn't drag the character development too much as it happens in other disaster movies, so in 10 minutes the whole plot is moving. When the Tripods first atack, there's a sense of catastrophe and bleakness and horror I haven't seen in a movie since "Threads", the whole sequence is very good, I was in awe, BUT... at the same time, it felt like he tried NOT to make it too scary/gory in order to avoid an R rating. I HATE when that happens! I hate when you notice sequences being tamed down for rating reasons! If you're going over the edge, GO over the freaking edge and make it an R movie, make the people explode in gory painful horrible-to-watch ways...!

After Cruise's character meets Tim Robbins' character, the whole thing slows down and gets a "Spielberg summer movie" feeling, a "Jurassic Park" and "AI" feeling... They all hide of the tentacle like the kids from Jurassic Park were hiding from the dinosaurs, Cruise gets captured by the alien spacepod thing that keeps a few humans for "snack" (and he has greandes with him! how convenient!), and the whole Spielbergesque happy-happy-joy-joy ending! If there's one thing I never enjoyed in "War of the Worlds" is the ending. If there's something I don't like about Spielberg is the ending of his movies, with "feel good everyone survives suspension of disbelieaf" kinda ending. I think there was an oportunity to shock the audiences and KILL the main characters, or at least kill the girl by some sort of desease or lack of food or somerthing, at least it would be ironic when the aliens died for that same reason.

All in all, a good movie, I'd rate 6.5 out of 10. Oh, and as I've realized in the worse way possible, it's not really a movie to take a date with.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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hahaha, yeah i made that mistake with sin city. ill never truely like that movie because of that day.

but yeah i really liked the whole people ashifying effects they were so different, every movied has gore and guts, here it was creepy what happened, cause you realize that the ash thats everywhere are human ashes, in effect you'd be breathing dead people, you'd be convered in human remains. and also the way he had the cloths falling it created a sureal effect. like a person explodes and then you have cloths falling to the ground like leaves in the fall.
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What plot holes are you guys talking about?

The onlly scripiting problem I can think of is the fact their car just happened to survive the planecrash when the next three houses down were blown to bits. How convenient.

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There was this guy with a camera filming when he tripods come in, and still everything electronic was not supposed to be working.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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ROFL. I completely forgot about that scene.

Ah, who knows. Perhaps he had the camera in a lead-lined case or something.

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The flashlights still worked, remember? He grabbed all the batteries and junk. So, maybe the camcorder used a special type of battery that survived the EMP. Also, in a real EMP, not literally every single thing would shut off. It's more like 90% of things shut off.

Also, one reason there are so many "plotholes" is because of the brilliant writing, when you think about it.

The writers writes the movie giving us only the information that the character knows. It's as if we're there, and we're living through it. We're confused about how it all happened and why it happened, and we're getting all sorts of crazy theories from random people and stuff like that. It never even says what planet the aliens came from.

This is all brilliant work on the screenplay writers part, because it's as if we're being put in the middle of all this. We're just as lost and worried and confused as the characters are.

Also, the movie really is all about the same thing the book was all about. Well's wrote the book as a way of showing how horrible and terrefying it is to be invaded and attacked by a larger, stronger force. The basic underline of his book is that war is bad.

And this movie really gives off the same feeling. When you're sitting there watching humans stoop as low as to crush a little girl and cut their hands trying to rip through a windshield, it really makes you step back and think about things.
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yeah your right, that was one of the best things aobut the movie. it actually drew me into it. you knwo if you watch the movie you'll notice thatt there is maybe 1 or two shots in the entire movie where there isnt a main character that can see waht you see.
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** SPOILERS REGARDING WAR OF THE WORLDS AND HALF LIFE 2 **


The movie had some plot holes and some weird incosistences - Boston was not even scratched and the people in that house like the mother, the grandfather and grandmother were dressed for x-mas or thanksgiving or something, like they didn't even know what was going on. BUT... the whole grittiness of the film, the realism and the whole setting was quite well done, it reminded of a excelent british film called "Threads", which shows the aftermatch of a nuclear strike in britain (only it's much more disturbing to watch).

Now, has anyone noticed similarities between this film and "Half Life 2"? The main character dosen't knwo what's going on, and we only see what he is seeing, what he is experiencing. There's a bizarre alien invasion and humans are slaved and/or used as a source of energy, there are gigantic Tripod things that beam up a powerful lightining weapon and you might destroy it with a rocket launcher, the army and people are organizing a militia to fight the aliens... And the whole look of the film reminded of Half Life 2...
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Well, War of the Worlds technically came long before half life two, so perhaps Valve is the theif here.

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I'm not saying one stole from the other, I'm just saying it's a coincidence.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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yeah i know what your saying. and you right.
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I saw it last night. I usually try to defend a movie and pick out the good bits, but my fierst words as the credits rolled were 'that was shit'. I didn't enjoy it, I didn't get into it. I agree with every single point (positive and negative) made by MeBeJedi. One other thing though that he missed - they made this huge deal out of nothing electrical working, even Super-Tom's cell phone, then in the next scene there is a guy filming the tripod on his video camera!!! Maybe he got the Super-Mecahnic who fixed the car that Tom steals to fix the camera too.
And I personally found Dakota Fanning to be irritating. I was hoping she would get zapped by an alien, but obviously that was never going to happen. Spielberg - I am very disappointed in you. Everybody disses George Lucas but his last film was better than yours.
Signs told the same story much better. If Signs had included a few shots of tripods and the bacteria ending, it could have been called War of the worlds and would have been a far better take on the story.

War does not make one great.

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Quote

Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
I saw it last night. I usually try to defend a movie and pick out the good bits, but my fierst words as the credits rolled were 'that was shit'. I didn't enjoy it, I didn't get into it. I agree with every single point (positive and negative) made by MeBeJedi. One other thing though that he missed - they made this huge deal out of nothing electrical working, even Super-Tom's cell phone, then in the next scene there is a guy filming the tripod on his video camera!!! Maybe he got the Super-Mecahnic who fixed the car that Tom steals to fix the camera too.
And I personally found Dakota Fanning to be irritating. I was hoping she would get zapped by an alien, but obviously that was never going to happen. Spielberg - I am very disappointed in you. Everybody disses George Lucas but his last film was better than yours.
Signs told the same story much better. If Signs had included a few shots of tripods and the bacteria ending, it could have been called War of the worlds and would have been a far better take on the story.


i agree with your last point about signs, its still one of the best first 45 mins i have ever seen in a movie.
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Personally, I found Signs to be boring. It's easily Shyamalan's worst movie, with Unbreakable being the best.
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I didn't dig signs that much either, and I thought the ending (with the baseball bat and the evrything happens for a reason message) was pretty crappy, but as an aliens taking over the world movie, and the sense of worry/tension/fear it put across, it was better than WOTW, IMO. They were essentially the same movie (an alien invasion from the point of view of one man and his kids).

War does not make one great.

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"Signs" was a brilliantly directed film with a crappy script, which is remarkable.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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wow is all i can say abotu how signs ended, i could have come up with a better ending in my toilet after i shit in it.
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When we were leaving the theatre, I said to my father: So, [War of the Worlds] was like Signs with less stupid aliens.

Seriously: If they were allergic to water, why were the aliens RUNNING AROUND ON EARTH NAKED?!

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Yeah, the water and moisture in the air would have eaten away at their skin.
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lets not get into why Signs was bad or we'll be here all day.
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I know this gramatical error is easy to make but it really irritates me...like a mosquito bite...and I have to itch it...ARGGHHH!

You're = short for "You are"

Your = possessive article. EXAMPLE: Your car, your spacepod, your analprobe.



But back to the topic at hand: the film wasn't god awful. Shimraa can back me up on how I tend to hate these kind of film, but there was definitely a mood of desperation and helplessness that I haven't felt during a film in a long time. That was the film's strong point. I felt the kids' interactions with their Father was decently played out, kinda reminding me of my own experiences with my parents' divorce. The little girl was wonderful, but Spielberg could have controlled her just a teeny bit.

The obvious plot holes were pretty bad like the camcorder working, the idea that these ships were buried and awaiting their captains (which creates a whole list of plotholes in itself). While I could have suspended these mistakes for the sake of summer blockbuster fun, the son surviving was absolutely tacked on, pointless and cheap.

Did anyone else think the stepdad was going to be dead and then TC and his ex-wife would get back together and raise their daugter together? I know I was. It may sound "too good to be true" but it would have been a happy ending that wouldn't have been as tacky.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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Oh and about Signs: that part when Joaquin Phoenix is watching the homevideo of the birthday party in South America on the news...and you wait...you wait...are you going to see something? And right as your heart is pounding, wondering, waiting, this strange creature just walks by ever so delicately and the kids scream.

Freakiest part of the whole thing.

The rest was blah.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.