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Xtreme 3D Mark Team Staff
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Juneau Alaska
Posts: 8,027
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My little review of "War of the Worlds" - Beware Spoilers Inside.
tonight I went to see war of the worlds...
I have seen the original one made in the 1950's and it never really was very interesting to me. the acting always seemed kinda hoaky, and the story, was kinda "blah", even for a 1950's movie...
so why see the remake??
well, I can't say I have an answer really.
guess I just wanted to see if they could add something new to it, and make it alittle more interesting, then the original was.
honestly, I would have to say, I had my hopes way too high, to think that.
cause this version, was pretty much scene for scene, the same as the original...
except this one, does that some rather large liberties, and strays from the original in the details, and thats a big problem as I will try to explain...
in the original, its just a story of the earth being invaded. if I remember right (which I am not sure of on this part) in the original, the ships from space, arrive like meteors hitting the earth, and then the story begins.
in this one, the ships have been underground for a million years, and are reactivated, when the aliens come back to take over our world... thats where the story kinda forces you to take some huge leaps of faith, and blind assumptions, ignoring questions like...
"so, theres thousands upon, thousands of alien ships, buried under the ground, below every city, and ever corner of the earth, for the last million years... only so they can come back a million years later, to take over the earth... yeah.... ok..... so they fly half way across the universe, to reactivate some antique machines they buried here a million years ago... how could they have possibly assumed, we wouldn't have passed thier technology, if they left 1 million year old technology here, and we had a million years to evolve, and possibly develope our own super machines in that time.... thats a awfully HUGE leap of faith on thier part"
"ok, so granted, they leave tens of thousands of thier spaceships buried under ground for a million years, on our planet... and we still failed to surpass thier technology, in that amount of time, ok, so were dumb... but honestly, whats the chances, you can bury a thousands upon thousands of alien machines under the ground, and we never found one, in the last 200 years that we been excavating the ground, digging deep into the earth, mining mountains, and building foundations to buildings that go hundreds of feet into the ground, and with all this, we never came across anything??"
"ok.... soooo were totally braindead and never found a alien machine buried in the ground within the last few hundred years, with every city on the planet, having dug thousands of holes deep into the earth, and discoverd nothing, ok... gotcha... there was never a canyon that revealed one, or a glacier, that erroded the ground away to reveal one of the thousands of these 500 foot tall machines.... ok... gotcha.... I'll give you that one... so lets see...
that means, for a million years, theres been these aliens, watching us from space, waiting till they could come here, and reactivate thier million year old machines, that are under the ground, that we never found... even with a few centurys of digging and such... ok... so in a million years, they never once, came here, and did a simple, medical test, to see, how our atmosphere, would effect them? never botherd to see if we had some virus, or something that would kill them.... yeah, advanced as they are, and I am suppose to believe that, they been planning to take over the earth, for a million years, and never thought "maybe we should check to see if theres anything there that might kill us, like bugs, food, weather, water, or diseases".... right..."
"lastly, your just kinda left thinking... ok, so they came here, a million years ago, buried thousands of ships, all over each continent.... why didn't they just take over the earth, a million years ago, and avoid all the fighting and such??"
the entire story seems to border on just silly, when you start to really examine, how spielberg changed this one, from the original.
the buried ships, for a million years idea, is just too damn hard to swallow.
the actual idea, of the story is rather clever.
but its so simple, that people will either love it, or hate it.
honestly, in the begining of SCI FI where a idea like this, borderd on genius, it doesn't really float in 2005, cause SCI FI has evolved so much since then...
these days, a story like this, would need a bigger back story, and set up, to make it believable, and much much more details to make you "feel" like this believable.
this movie, fails in that sense.
see, theres really no backstory about the aliens, and why they are invading, and theres no real story to the main charactor either.
tom cruises charactor seems unusually lucky, living when everyone else around him is dying... its hard to believe anyone could have as much luck as his charactor seems to have, so it becomes a stretch, when one close call after another, kinda blend in together, and just becomes repetitive.
the dakota fanning charactor on the other hand, seems to be that of the "screaming cat" role.
she's there to add a sense of drama, and purpose to the main charactor, and I get that. but she's used in such a annoying way, that your kinda wishing she would just get killed early in the movie, so you don't have to listen to her throw another tantrum, cause thats literally what she does...
theres death and destruction going on, and tom cruise is running around trying to keep them alive, and she kicking her arms and legs, screaming "I WANT MY MOMMY, I WANT MY MOMMY, I WANT MY MOMMY"...
dakota fanning is a great young actress, with the highest potential I have seen in a young actor in years. her performance in "I am sam" was just amazing, and she really stole that movie.
shes had good roles since then too.
however, in this, shes more like, the bratty alarm clock, that does everything she can, to almost get everyone killed, more of an annoyance then anything really.
this really isn't a role, that she should be rememberd for...
the son, in this movie is totally forgetable, and by the time, he runs of to get himself killed, your kinda glad he is finally out of the scene, so you don't have to feel like your watching some angry irrational teenager with a brain the size of a pea, try to get everyone killed the fastest possible way he can...
it's like "hmm, theres 500 foot tall machines, mowing down people with crazy lazers, they have force fields, that rockets from helicopters cant get through, lets go fight them"
the kid is a total idiot for most of the movie...
honestly, I am making the movie sound 100 times worse then it really is.
it's not a bad movie.
just, theres so much, that this movie, expect the watcher, to ignore, that it's just hard to swallow... like in the begining...
the aliens, let lose, some EMP things, that destroy all electrical things around the world right?
so why, in the first scene, where the machine burst out of the ground, is there a guy, with a video camera, obviously filming it, when they just established, that everything from watchs, to cars, to telephones, was all just destoryed, with this electrical storm thing, that this one guy, has a videocamera to film it all??
so what good can I say about this movie??
well, I can admit, I was kept in a rather solid state of suspense, waiting for the next thing to happen. they kept the atmosphere of the movie good in that sense.
the visuals, are interesting, and honestly, remind me of half life 2 sometimes.
so in short...
other then some HUGE leaps of faith, and ignoring the obvious.
a high tolerance, for irrational behavior from the kids in the movie.
the movie, does maintain a good level of suspense, and provide alot of eye candy to make the movie interesting.
honestly, I think you will either love this movie, or hate it.
imagine, independance day, the first half hour, where the aliens invade, take over the world, and wipe everyone out, then stop the movie right there...
thats what "war of the worlds" was like.
its independance day, without the quirky charactors, and the big battles, well, the first half hour of it, anyways... kinda.
on a scale of 1-10, I give this movie a 6.
it's good, but the idea wasn't followed through very well, cause theres a huge lack of details in the movie, and some huge obvious flaws with the basic idea of the movie, and honestly, the idea, just doesn't hold up very well these days, I think people just expect more from a movie, then a sudden ending, and a short explanation, that viruses in the air, killed them...
in short, if you seen the original, theres no real reason to see this one.
if you want action, this movie isn't for you.
if you just want something to pass some time, this movies worth looking into.
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