Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." Some spoilers.

Jordan

I saw this flick a week ago and I have to say that it didn't sit well with me. It is by no means a terrible movie, but I truthfully did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped. The main reason is that I wasn't prepared for what type of film it was. I expected a fun "Independence Day/Mars Attacks"-like romp but what I got was the "Schindler's List" of alien invasion films.

Anyone who has read the book by H.G. Wells or has seen the original 1953 movie pretty much knows how the story unfolds (and how it ends):

In the book and '53 film, alien invaders from Mars fire "cylinders" at Earth. The main portion of the story takes place in England. Soon the entire world is taken by storm by the martian "tripod" war machines and humanity is nearly useless against them. (It's important to note that the aliens did not have invisible shields around their ships in the book. They instead had other defensive capabilities that were similarly successful. However, a lucky or very well aimed artillery round was able to take down the martian vessels of destruction.) Eventually the martians are defeated but not by man; the aliens are killed by single-celled organisms. It was the common cold, not mankind's weapons, that saved the day.

Anyway, here's what I didn't really like about the film:

1. It's too bleak, dreary, and at times disturbing! We're seeing the extermination of humanity and it's not even close to being a fair fight. The scientific community and the military are completely powerless! There's also a few very disturbing scenes in the film, with the main one belonging to the biggest fight over a mini-van EVER!

2. Tom Cruise is sinking this movie! I swear that most of the people I've talked to about the movie have almost all said the same thing: It would've been better without Tom Cruise! Personally I thought he did ok in the film, but it's not one of his most noteworthy performances.

3. Morgan Freeman's voiceover at the beginning and end just didn't fit with the film.

4. What the hell is Tim Robbin's doing in this movie?! Looks like he's reprising his role from the "Shawshank Redemption" to me! Yet another actor wasted..... blah.

5. My biggest gripe with the movie... WHY THE HELL DID THE ALIENS LEAVE THEIR SPACESHIPS ON EARTH 1,000,000 YEARS PRIOR TO THEIR INVASION?!

Overall, this movie just left a bad taste in my mouth (or maybe the popcorn did), and is definitely NOT the feel good movie of the year. If you want to be depressed and lose faith in humanity's ability to come together in a time of crisis, then this is definitely the movie for you. Say what you will, but I'll take Roland "Asshole Who Ruined Godzilla" Emmerich's ID4 over this film any day.

Now these are just my current feelings and opinion about the movie. I may watch it again when it's released on DVD later this year, but right now, I don't plan on seeing it again.

DAMN YOU SPIELBERG FOR ROBBING FURTHER INNOCENCE FROM THE MASSES! I HOPE E.T. and his buddies from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS beam down and kick your ass! Laughing

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Jordan Garren
Webmaster:The B-Movie Film Vault
Staff Writer: Rogue Cinema

Shadowfyre · Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 7:03 pm Post subject:

They rode the lightning down in small capsules....what was launching those capsules? Why couldn't use that to bomb earth from (low) orbit?
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AlterEgoCinema · Drive-In Junkie Joined: Jun 15, 2005 Posts: 40

I actually quite enjoyed this, much better than most of the summer movies, but just my opinion. Tom Cruise was really good, I forgot all about Katie Holmes, ha. But he was actually quite good in this.