First off, the [R] in the title of this thread means "anything goes." Spoilers included. So stop reading right now if you want to be surprised. But then, what can Spielberg do to surprise us anymore. The Spielberg of Duel, Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind is history. To be frank, I'd rather sit through the greatly flawed Independence Day again than this thing. I've seen ID4 several times since it opened, in fact. I won't be checking this out again unless it's DVD incarnation contains an extra half-hour of added footage or something. The 1953 classic is colorful and brisk. This has the muted colors that are in vogue in pictures today (being passed off as a realistic look) and, of course, Spielberg just has to kill us with Cruise and the kids and all the maudlin family crap. This stupidity stops the movie dead in its tracks several times. The screaming and yelling between Cruise, his son and his daughter can almost drive one out of the theater. Does Spielberg really think that garbage is entertaining? The over-emphasis on Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters almost ruined that picture. Knock it off already, Steve. The effects look fine and are often great, but every movie can boast that nowadays. The aliens are rip-offs of those in ID4 but without the dreads. The only eerie and somewhat original part is when Cruise comes across Tim Robbins playing a kind of survivalist nutcase. When the both of them are struggling noiselessly over a gun as the aliens are foolishly and uselessly wasting time checking out a destroyed basement is supposed to be full of tension. This is where you know Spielberg has lost it, because you sit there feeling nothing. Jaws--where are you when we need you?
Franc Debont, the director of Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, makes it a point to include graveyard scenes where one of the tombstones has "Story" on it, the point being that the story is dead in Hollywood.
I dunno. Kenneth Turan actually liked this one, and he generally hates everything. A.O. Scott, my favorite reviewer, liked it as well.
Actually I've glossed through at least five reviews -- and so far every single one has said it is a visual stunner with Spielberg pulling out various low-tech terrifying tricks as well. Some of the reviews have been grudging, others have been raving, but they pretty much all say it's a great ride with a crappy ending. I'm a sucker for a spectacle.
Saw it today - it was definitely a spectacle. The little girl screaming got old fast, and did anyone find it completely unoriginal that entire cities were destroyed and yet every single one of Tom Cruise's family survived? Even the old people! C'mon! Other than that, it was entertaining. And yeah, the ending sucked.
I've noticed the complaining about the ending also. Is it the way the aliens were defeated or the closing "family" scene we're talking about? Concerning The War of the Worlds, it only has one ending. The one H.G. Wells gave it. I would have been shocked if Spielberg had dared to change it. The 1953 version certainly gave the ending more overt religious overtones, but it was the same. Perhaps what's bothering people is the way Spielberg handled it. I can see some thinking it was rushed. That was the least of my problems, though. If it's the Cruise wrap-up, well...everyone's right. But the picture was obviously heading in that direction all along.
I just saw it and found it entertaining. I thought it was a really good movie until the Tim Robbins part, then the movie just came to a screeching halt, and didn't really recover. I really felt that they did a good job of portraying the sense of sheer terror everyone was feeling, more so than any other alien invasion film. A big part of films for me is the sound. The sound in this film was fantastic!
meh... it was entertaining (and i liked the alien ending and not the family ending), but it was hardly something that we'll still be talking about come august
well, it's pleasing to come here and see Bigsoccer as the voice of reason, as I'm about to give WotW one of its few less than sparkling reviews. It really is an empty video game, if a somewhat exciting one. I might still give it a mild positive, but certainly not an enthusiastic review. The reviews that really mystify me are the ones that call it emotional. Yeah right. I agree with a lot of what's been said here. Here's another. Spielberg is the "master" of the easy escape. But at least his easy escapes used to be kind of inventive. Now, how does the family survive when they're out in the water after the ferry capsizes and the tripods are close by? Well, they swim to shore. Dull as crap. It's the same with the ending. The aliens just suddenly die, and they die because they're aliens and for no other reason. Well, thank goodness, they were about to kill everyone. I don't care if it is the original ending. It's a lousy one.
Just saw it. The movie was great, right up to Tim Robbins entrance, then everything falls apart. I'm still unclear exactly how the aliens died. Was it because of bacteria? If so, these must be the stupidest aliens this side of 'Signs'. We were told that the aliens had studied Earth for millenia, waiting for the right time to strike. If they had really done their homework, they'd notice the most abundant life form on the planet (bacteria).
Unfortunately not, so I went into the movie completely blind. In both of Morgan Freeman's narrations, they focused on the bacteria in the water, and in the end, Freeman said that it was Earth's tinest life forms that saved us. If so, that is a terrible ending, given that the first half of the movie showed so much promise.
The "common cold" shouldn't be a huge problem, but Spielberg's likeliness to throw a bunch of hugs, kisses, and teddybears to smooth everything over at the end would. From what I've read, that is what happens at the end and successfully ruins another of his films that include his recent sci-fi missteps A.I. and Minority Report. Not every movie has to have a happy ending. Indiana Jones, ET, The Terminal, these are movies that should have a happy ending. AI, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, not so much. Every director has his flaws, but this one is huge and gaping and keeps him from being great.
I saw this last night on shrooms, so take my critiques with a grain of salt. The movie at 1st was very exciting and to me like a ride at universal studios. The screaming was annoying, but I didnt focus on it. The 1st half, up to the tim robbins (or whatever his name is part) was good, but then my trip changed and realized how unrealistic the movie was. 1) At 1st the aliens kill everything in site. The lasers would disenegrate the humans and leave ashes 2) Later the aliens capture humans and eat them. Why waste thousands, if nto millions of humans at 1st then? 3) These aliens obviously have immence technological knowledge, yet to find humans they have to send in these little robots who inspect. These robots can only see and hear as well as a normal human it seems. You could hide right behind them, while making noise, but they couldnt hear you. I would expect at least infared, extreme hearing, etc. Also this snake investigating robot was very careful I would say. He respected walls and went around them, opposed to just destroying everything as before. 4) The actual aliens coming in to investigate (same scene as #3) was dumb. Especially the looking at pictures of the humans. Why would they care? No sense... 5) These aliens planned this obviously for at least the last 2-3 thousand years (probably a lot more), but they arent smart enough to realize the bacteria would be a problem? Obviously they would have ran tests to at least make vaccines or just wear a gas mask. Also it seems unlikely that the whole race of aliens was on Earth at that time. I am sure I have more flaws, but I need to get to class. I am just glad that I was smarter than the movie, even though I was tripping
Eh. What a pointless story/movie. I didn't have a problem with the ending of how the aliens lost. My problem was the happy Spielberg ending with Tom and his daughter showing up at his ex's parent's home and the ex, her hubby, her parents and the 16 year old son all just walk out of the house that looks like it has barely been touched by war. The aliens were attacking and supposedly destroying major cities and they didn't go for Boston??? And the whole son showing up was ridiculous. I almost expected the voice over to say, "But the story on how he got to Boston is for another time...". And what a ************ actor that kid was. Every time he tried to be serious he started smirking like he was about to bust out with a laugh.
I have no interest in seeing this movie even though I like Cruise in certain moves like "Last Samari" that was a good movie, and I liked him in an old movie "All the right moves."