Spielberg's War of the Worlds [R]

Discussion in 'Movies, TV and Music' started by riverplate, Jun 29, 2005.

  1. astabooty

    astabooty Member

    Nov 16, 2002
    China
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States


    god, my trip must have been goign strong at that point, cuz in the movie at 1st i thought it was tom hanks, then when they said its tim robbins, this guy popped into my head John C. Reilly.
    [​IMG]

    opposed to

    [​IMG]
     
  2. TopDogg

    TopDogg Member

    Jan 31, 2000
    Toronto
    Club:
    Toronto FC
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    Canada
    That was another major flaw, how the fvck did the son survive.

    We clearly saw everything get obliterated before Tom Cruise's eyes, in fact, he was the last one out before everything went ablaze.

    Somehow the son made it to Boston, and the rest of the family was untouched (while the rest of Boston was flattened in the backround).

    If just the mother survived, I could have lived with it, but the entire family? And they looked no worse for the wear, either.
     
  3. alliu23

    alliu23 I'm a Yank til I Die

    Jul 28, 2004
    Williamsport, PA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
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    just saw it last night

    as others said.. how the hell did the son survive, also, when they made it there, why was the son still dirty while the rest of his family (mother, grandparents) were perfectly fine, looked like they had been watching tv the whole time?!

    and other thing.. why did the aliens suck the blood out? were they using it as energy or something?

    i thought it was entertaining, but the movie focused more on running away/hiding than the actual story
     
  4. alliu23

    alliu23 I'm a Yank til I Die

    Jul 28, 2004
    Williamsport, PA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
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    yeah.. i probably should have paid attention during that part.. i thougth Tom Cruise saved the day :rolleyes:
     
  5. DutchFootballRulez

    Jul 15, 2003
    Baltimore, MD
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm glad Spielberg didn't change the ending.

    One thing I got from that movie. 1985 Dodge Caravan, is/was the greatest vehicle known to man. The Goddamnmed thing survived an EMP, and drove for hours without running out of gas, and a PLANE fell on it and was still perfectly fine. Nevermind the '85 Caravan is already 21 years old!

    My favorite lines from the movie "Are they the terrorist?" "No, they're not the terrorist, they're from far away." "How far? Europe?"
     
  6. alliu23

    alliu23 I'm a Yank til I Die

    Jul 28, 2004
    Williamsport, PA
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    San Jose Earthquakes
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    LMAO.. that was great
     
  7. jamison

    jamison Member

    Sep 25, 2000
    NYC
    All I have to say is that if a UMiami student high on shrooms can poke holes in your plot, you know you've got problems.



    ;)


    Yeah, the movie was pretty blah. ID4- for all of it's Will Smith "Not in my house" bravado nonsense (punching the alien in the face after the fighter crashed) and the cheesy schlock of it all (entire rest of movie, really)- it was a much better film.

    In WoTW, the humans get killed. And killed. And killed. And, then the things killing them up and die. Bang. Movie's over. Boston Lives. Total Deus ex Machina time.

    Could Spielberg have changed the ending? Well, no, because you have to keep it close to the book. (so that slackers can watch the movie instead of reading the book for english class and still get a B- on the English test). But, he could have made the human retaliation/fight a bit longer when the ships started getting sick. You never saw transport ships that brought the lightning generators to Earth. You saw the Americans fight back, but only them, and all of their fighting back did nothing...until the machines collapsed on their own. Even the one they brought down in the end was being driven by a guy with 4 minutes to live. You never learned what the blood consumption (human recycling) was being used for. Yeah, they sprayed it into some weed/blood network, but why? To create new aliens? To change climate? To grow food? Why?

    Plus, I've driven a '92 era Plymouth voyager, no way that sh!t was making it to Boston on 1 tank of gas anyway. Sheesh. There's science fiction and there's science fiction.

    The effects were decent, but not all that remarkable. Frankly, the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan was a lot more "intense" than anything in WoTW. And those were pretty pedestrian effects.

    (okay, maybe the UMiami thing wasn't all I had to say).
     
  8. sarabella

    sarabella BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 22, 2004
    UK
    You should have heard the Dutch people in the theater laugh at that line. :D
     
  9. astabooty

    astabooty Member

    Nov 16, 2002
    China
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
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    United States
    True, even worse if it happens to be a 2 time reject of the UF who is actually a community college student :eek:
     
  10. speedcake

    speedcake Member

    Dec 2, 1999
    Tampa
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
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    United States
    Saw it last night and enjoyed it. The alien ending couldn't have really been changed. The family ending, well, didn't affect me one way or the other. Unemotional, so in that regard it was a failure. But otherwise, so what? Don't ask so many friggin' questions. It was an action flick with pretty good special effects. And a remake to boot.

    The movie could have gone on for hours with more military fight scenes, more scenes of devestation, more people running around like chickens, perhaps an hour depicting some sort of human uprising/resistance. and on and on and on.

    But what it was was fun enough. Not so sure anyone, from the top to the bottom, will argue that it was ever meant for best picture status or anything. :) fun fun fun, more please.
     
  11. Alberto

    Alberto Member+

    Feb 28, 2000
    Northern, New Jersey
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
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    I thought it was a very good movie. It paid hommage to both the book and the original 1950's film. I thought the special effects were terrific. It did not look superimposed the way ILM did in the last three Star Wars films.

    It was suspenseful, and certainly for me it made me think what I would do under those circumstances.

    Looks like the Aliens were using human blood as a fertilizer to terraform the earth to their home planet.

    I didn't like that the aliens were a blatant ripoff of the ones in ID4.

    While a good actress, Dakota Fanning gotten to be very annoying with her screaming.

    To those that take issue with the ending. I say again go back and read Wells book. Don't like it too bad.

    I must say I do find it hard to believe the aliens waited until now to invade the earth if they had planted or buried ships in the ground for possibly 10,000 years ago if not longer.
     
  12. emp2b3

    emp2b3 Member

    Apr 24, 2001
    Los Angeles, CA
    Son, grandparents, stepdad and probably even the wife should have died. Looked like they sat around for the past week or whatever eating foie gras.
    Some of the early scenes worked and I thought they were pretty intense. I liked the bodies floating down the river, the mob scene around the car seemed really realistic, the train on fire coming by was cool. I thought the entire basement scene sucked (like Ebert said, it was done better w/ the raptors in Jurassic Park). Why do they always have to make Dakotah Fanning (sp.?) seem so smart for her age? Can't a kid just be normal in the movies? I initially liked the stuff with the Dad and son (baseball through the window), but once he started wanting to run off and join the army it was just stupid.

    On a side rant...I don't go to the movies very often any more, but since when did texting throughout the entire movie, having actual cell phone conversations, giving a running commentary and making obvious guesses about what is going to happen next etc. become ok? Ruined a lot of the experience for me. One phone conversation went on for at least two min. before some guy got up and yelled at her to tell her friend that she would call him back later since she was in a ********ing movie. Her friends and her just giggled. I guess it is just somewhere where teenagers or younger can go hang out now and chat or something.
     
  13. ThreeApples

    ThreeApples Member+

    Jul 28, 1999
    Smurf Village
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just a suggestion for all of the parents out there:

    Yes, I know it's hard to find a sitter so you can get away for a night at the movies, but it's not a good idea to take your 2-year-old to a 10:30 pm show of a movie about aliens that attack Earth and feast on the blood of humanity. Hope this helps.
     
  14. alliu23

    alliu23 I'm a Yank til I Die

    Jul 28, 2004
    Williamsport, PA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
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    United States
    im 19 and i had nightmares about it :|
     
  15. NoodlesMacintosh

    NoodlesMacintosh New Member

    Aug 24, 2004
    Salt Lake City
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
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    What's frustrating is when that happens in Sandy, which is suburban Salt Lake. I refuse to believe that those people could'nt've found a sitter. The town is freaking crawling with preteen babysitter girls, at least seven of whom live next door to you regardless of your locale. Maybe they were just being cheap, but if you can afford tickets and concessions at Jordan Commons, you can afford to pay a gangly brace-toothed pigtailed girl to watch your kid for an evening.
     
  16. sch2383

    sch2383 New Member

    Feb 14, 2003
    Northern Virginia
    It was a good summer movie, nothing more. Now I am more interested in Spielberg's next film, about the Israeli retaliation after Munich 1972, screenplay to be written by Tony kushnier (sp?). There was already an article in the Times about the contraversy it is generating on both sides.
     
  17. jamison

    jamison Member

    Sep 25, 2000
    NYC
    Careful, you'll get us all moving to your neighborhood. :D
     
  18. NoodlesMacintosh

    NoodlesMacintosh New Member

    Aug 24, 2004
    Salt Lake City
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hey, maybe a change in demographics will force some businesses to stay open past 10 PM.
     
  19. Garcia

    Garcia Member

    Dec 14, 1999
    Castro Castro
    If we have any G-Force/ Battle of the Planets fans, this was the idea used in the 1990s remake miniseries. If you think about it, 10,000 years to these guys could have been like 2 year to them in terms of how they measured time.
     
  20. obie

    obie New Member

    Nov 18, 1998
    NY, NY
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
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    United States
    I know I'm in the minority here, but I thought it was laughably bad -- the CGI looked good, but that's about it. Mad Hot Ballroom was made for about 1% of the cost and had infinitely more suspense.
     
  21. slidingtackleCOM

    slidingtackleCOM New Member

    Jul 3, 2005
    I have not seen this movie yet but i cannot wait, am going this week. There was a scene that i saw on TV where 3 fighter jets went right above Cruise's head, i imagine that will look amazing on the big screen. I also went to see batman begins last week, it was absolutely fantastic.
     
  22. Supernaut

    Supernaut Member

    Feb 28, 1999
    Hop, Vinland
    Club:
    Tromso IL
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    United States
    Saw it this weekend. While I liked it, I was really disappointed that it was adapted to our time period. In that respect, it does not work for me. The HG Wells novel of Martians overrunning Victorian England is brilliant and terrifying, and it really covers all of the bases in terms of plot. In the book, we know where the aliens come from (Mars), why they came (their planet is dying and they need to feed off the blood of living animals), and how they got to Earth (in cylinders shot from an enormous gun).

    The film, while entertaining (I thought the Martian tripods were a very close depiction of the machines in the novel) has too many plot holes and the usual annoying feel-good moments that Spielberg puts in his films.

    There have already been two modernized adaptations to the novel (Orson Welle's 1938 radio broadcast and the 1953 George Pal film). Spielberg had the opportunity to make a classic, and instead made a darker version of Independence Day.
     
  23. Garcia

    Garcia Member

    Dec 14, 1999
    Castro Castro
    I remember some story about the radio broadcast being played on Halloween without commercials or commentary, just straight and people listening actually thought that everything was true and actually happening. Is that a true account?
     
  24. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    It was presented as a radio drama in which the entire broadcast was made up of mock "news reports." At the start of the show, they were featuring music by a dance band and that "program" was interrupted by the first reports of saucers landing in New Jersey, eventually with reports and sound effects of the saucers opening, people getting blasted, etc.

    Apparently some folks tuning in late thought it was legit.
     
  25. MLS SupaStr3

    MLS SupaStr3 New Member

    Jul 2, 2003
    NJ
    i saw it and thought it was pretty good. i mean, i wish they explained so much more. here's some questions i have from seeing the movie:

    why did they switch from frying people to sucking the blood out of people? wouldnt it make more sense to grab everyone to suck the blood out of them when everyone's all in one place?
    what were those veins growing all over the place?
    doesn't blood have bacteria in it?
    how the ******** did cruise's kid survive?
    how come we didn't try nuking the tripods?
    why did the aliens turn off their shields when they got sick?
    if the aliens were planning this attack for millions of years, why not just attack it before before anything would be able to fight back?
    when cruise got taken by the alien tripod and put into the cage...why? there was no other tripod that did that. one took all those people up and killed them right away and another tripod had an arm that came down and sucked the blood out of people.
     

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