board77

Went to see it an THE DAMN ALIENS STILL CAN'T OPEN DOORS...COME ON PEOPLE THEY CAN FLY THOUSANDS OF LIGHTYEARS AND CAN'T OPEN A DAMN DOOR?

Just once I want the aliens to be smart enough to open doors, of course it would be cool if they looked like hot Elf men, I'd be up for some probin' then.

True . . . but sometimes it's the simplest, most obvious technology that can stump the most technologically advanced. It's too easy, they think, there's gotta be something more to it. But there isn't.

Then again maybe they can't twist their wrists.

S_O wrote:

Dakota Fanning definitely made the movie, she was totally and utterly engrossing.

Yeah she's really good at screaming and yelling DADDY!!! But then again so am I, do you find me engrossing? I'm not sure what there is to be engrossed with I know you think she's the coolest (in fact I knew you'd be mentioning her mwhahahaha), I don't mean to rain on your parade but the most engrossing thing about her in WOTW was her outfit. I'd take her performance in I am Sam over WOTW anyday.

*possible spoiler*Let's talk some more about fire retardant Robbie and his miraculous map, now that is talent. *end of possible spoiler*
And most importantly why did Tim Robbins have the One Ring around his neck?

War of the Worlds was entertaining if not a bit far fetched at points *coughRobbiecough*. At least we didn't have to hear Cruise babble on about Scientology or Katie Holmes. I give it Woopers out of 4.

I love the wooper index for movies! But can you do half-woopers?

SPOILERS



Estel and I saw it and loved it. Nice to feel tense during a movie - it's been a long while. Nice to see mob mentality shown realistically - everyone for themselves and everyone else just as much of a threat as the aliens. Dakota Fanning - wow.

Biggest jump - resurfacing right next to the ferry's propellor.

Nice correlation re the bacteria - how they view us, and ultimately what caused their downfall.

However....

Yes, the ending. Not only was the son back, but the family they visit are completely untouched and freshly washed and manicured. Crap, crap, crap.

Personally I would have preferred for them to turn up and only have the mother there, complete with new-born son (the step-father having been killed) - a new beginning of both life itself and for the family.

Didn't need the aliens coming into the basement - just a retread of the earlier scene. I would have preferred the alien to be seen at the very end - and even then just the hand. Less is more - something Hollywood has forgotten in the main, but beautifully demonstrated in the murder to Tim Robbins' character, and the lack of bloodshed throughout the movie.

And why does the tripod's defensive shields go on the fritz just because the aliens have a runny nose?

I thought this was an utterly forgettable movie. I usually love anything sci fi, but this one just left me feeling blah.

My son asked for my opinion afterwards, and after a little while all I could say was this, "The moral of the story is: if you are ever in control of the last working auto, be prepared to defend it."

The rest of the movie had already blurred into a "who cares?" indifference by the time we got out to the car.

Great post, TheMary. Especially loved this part:

TheMary wrote:

*possible spoiler*Let's talk some more about fire retardant Robbie and his miraculous map, now that is talent. *end of possible spoiler*

The Amazing Flame Retardant Robbie!11

TheLidlessEyes wrote:

And why does the tripod's defensive shields go on the fritz just because the aliens have a runny nose?

Lidless, I would assume that the defense shields are like any human immune system: infected with bacteria, our immunity breaks down. I found it was like AIDS in that respect. The bacteria made the aliens sick, which screwed with their immune system/defense shields, therefore opening them up to bigger invaders: human artillery.




*E*

Just because a fighter pilot has a cold doesn't mean his radar isn't working. Nor will it, too, catch a cold.

I think you're mixing virus and computer viruses.

I just got home from seeing it with a co-worker.



SPOILERS IF ANYONE STILL CARES A WEEK AFTER OPENING

Wow. The first two-thirds of the movie were terrifying. Others have mentioned the 9/11 parallels before, and maybe I'm just jittery because of the recent London explosions, but this film tapped into just about every September 11th anxiety I have. From the first lingering shot of the downtown NYC skyline minus the towers, to the hysteria and confusion of people running as the first tripod rises out of the ground, and the DUST. The dust of human bodies covering Tom Cruise after that sequence horrified me because it reminded me of that chalky pinky-grey dust that covered all of downtown after the buildings came down. It was more disturbing than the blood sprinklers (and those were pretty disturbing). Also, the way the camera jerked around in those early scenes made it feel like we were watching hand-held video cam footage of an actual event.

My coworker and I walked out of the theater, and immediately started regurgitating our September 11th memories (neither of us experienced anything as horrible as the many New Yorkers who were downtown that day). She was visibly shaking though.

The movie felt a little less real after the Tim Robbins appearance (the dialogue was a bit contrived, and Tim really needed some mustard with that ham ), and the son living was a bit of a cop-out. And the pro-military rah-rah-rah was more obvious than the Go Army! recruitment commercial during the previews. But, wow, what a film.

No, no, I'm just suggesting that maybe the aliens are more tied into their machines than humans. We don't know how they operate, we just know that the tripods are designed to look like the aliens. Perhaps they're a vain species, perhaps there is another reasoning behind it. The same bacteria that killed the aliens could ruin the tripods (we don't know what they run on or how they're powered).




*E*

I see what you're saying, *E*. I figured that a species so advanced would have forsaken manual controls, and would instead be "plugged in" to the tripods and controlling them by thought. So if the creature controlling it starts to get sick, he can't keep all of the tripods systems functioning correctly anymore. This of course isn't explicitly stated in the film, but it's the most likely explanation.

Handwaving, Wingy—in the great SF film tradition.

I just got back from seeing it, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I even bought Tim Robbins, but more surprising to me was that I bought Tom Cruise—dirty, desperate, and despairing. Always until now he's been a bit too glossy to disappear into his roles. And Dakota Fanning is eerily good.

What I most loved, as a geek, was the nicely judged effects, which went just far enough that I believed what I was seeing, and no farther, even for the sake of kewlness. Very nice indeed. Compare this to ID4 or whatever they marketed it as—wild excess in the size and scale of everything. ID4 is a film I consider one of my guilty pleasures; I think War of the Worlds was an honest one.

Okay, I would have killed the son. On screen, so there was no doubt—with Cruise watching. But that's just the writer in me.

Other than that, though, I thought it was very well done.

Axordil wrote:

I love the wooper index for movies! But can you do half-woopers?

I saw it this weekend and really liked it a lot. It's the first film I got so involved in in a long time.... I thought the beginning was absolutely fantastic -- so was the part with the ferry. The first time I saw the "thing" I just said "wow!"

SPOILERS

I liked the aliens down in the basement looking at photos though. I almost got to thinking there they were kinda cute and they'd give a &$#@ before we looked out the window and saw all the red stuff & what was going on with that.....what a startling dichotomy and chilling that was!! I don't know what I think about Tim Robbins' part, but the bit about Cruise going behind the door was really good.

I agree with all the rest about the son, too....him showing up at the end was definitely a big yuck. Think of how the film would have changed if he had not. And yeah, the in-laws coming to the door all freshly scrubbed and the mother-in-law looking like a poster girl for AARP with her lipstick on was nuts.

Those are small gripes though, really. I gotta say that this is definitely one I'll see again and buy on DVD.

Saw it a second time this weekend and my assestment remains unchanged. The first 2/3s are absolutely brilliant. It is one of the most tense films I've ever seen. The scene in the van is absolutely terrifying. The final third with the basement and the dying off is still good, but not great and I feel the basement bit loses some of the stories momentum. However, the scene with the girl singing blindfolded might be the best scene in the movie.

***SPOILERS***


Changes I would have made: Don't show the aliens faces at all, in the basement just show silouettes and shadows; don't bring back the son; the mom and family should be in much more desperate shape; and a liiiiitle bit of the aftermath coulda been nice.

Something else I was thinking of last night - further proving that we don't know what the aliens and their ships run on, one of them of course appears out of the Hudson River, so it can't be electricity or we would have seen some kewl alien sketch comedy where they all got zapped real gud.

I agree with yova's suggetion about the silhouettes. I could live with seeing one's dying face, but if our only glimpses were silhouettes, I would have been happy. It just would have worked better than what's actually there, E.T. bicycle joke aside. SPOILERS Everyone came out of the theatre saying they looked like the aliens from INDEPENDANCE DAY, and as I said before, there were two chase sequences right in a row, which was kind of obnoxious. END SPOILERS




*E*

I thought the same thing about Independence Day.
What two chases do you mean?

The tentacle, and then the aliens themselves. It felt way too redundant.




*E*

Finally saw this.

Surprise surprise I agree completely with everything Wingy has said about it.

*SPOILERS*

I have not been so scared in ages. The sense of dread Spielberg creates in New York with the colour scheme and atmosphere is amazing.. infact it was too good, because I struggled to watch the first 10 minutes of the tripods appearing, it just felt too real and frightening. I felt like I wasn't watching a movie but was really there. The cinematography was superb and the CGI perfectly judged. Some of the images (and sounds! ) will stay with me for a long time. My god, that unearthly tripod horn shaking the cinema, truly chilling. The screaming sound of, I assume, the crashing plane was horrible too. And the burning train, what a hellish vision. Wow.

I also agree with others on how the film could have been better - not seeing the aliens in the basement, make the basement part a little shorter and use that time in Boston (the Tripod threat ended too fast for me), and DO NOT have Robbie survive!! Apart from Robbie surviving I didn't think the ending was "too happy".

Another problem I have is that, like Signs, the aliens were ill-prepared for the conditions of the planet they were invading. I mean these guys are intelligent enough for space travel etc and yet they aren't intelligent enough to think "hmmm, perhaps we'd better check if this planet is habitable for our species before we start to invade". I mean, it's not as blatantly silly as water being harmful, but it still doesn't make sense.

So, I absolutely buy what it would feel like to have alien machines rampaging across the planet, but I don't really buy the alien's demise. But overall an amazingly effective and nightmarish film. 9/10

Definately not a good movie, doenst reallly make sense to me.

SPOILERS

First of all, why didnt they check if the planet was hospitable?

Second howd they get all the machinery there if they cant survive on the planet?

One thing thats really of no meaning but right after the first tripod showed up, why was that camcorder still working when ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE WORKED?

The stupidity of other worldy creatures will never cease to amaze me, OH look its me in that mirror, but ill check every other nook and cranny in this place.

Another irksome detail, no matter how high and mighty Mr Cruise and his sciencetology stuff is, he is not going to take out that guy ARMED with a shovel in a little closet.

The ending, come on the boy, just grow some balls and kill him off damnit Spielberg. It also amazes me that the whole town was practically in rubble yet the whole block mrs mom lived on was perfect.

It still had the independence day setup, aliens come, take out big cities then move to kill the rest.

I dont see what the point of the blood sucking was, as they had no blood to run off of when they first got to the planet.

The whole germ ending was at best OK, it would have been better if it happened more subtly and not just all at once.


Borry