War Of The Worlds Trailer is OUT! Summer 2005!

[armentage]

Thought the movie was crap.

Started off very strong, but began to tank fairly early.

What I hated most was that it was NOTHING more than a simple remake. Same exact story. There were no surprises at all. A few heroic scenes were added for Curise, but the overall plot was exactly what you expect (bacteria kills super-space aliens).

HG Wells was a man ahead of his time, and back in 1890 that plot was an amazing concept. Today however, it's ridiculous and stupid. Spending $200 mil to re-tell a dumb story is unforgivable.

Even if they had planned on keeping the same ending, they could have at least added more flavor. Seeing everything from Tom's POV got boring very quickly. "Oh I'm powerless, I'm so sad. Oh my kids, I love my kids, please don't kill my kids!" etc etc etc. BLAH.

We get a few scenes of army trucks driving by, but that's it. The original movie had much more in the way excitement. This one was big on suspense - "Will the alien see me? Will the 5 monkey aliens notice the pesky humans hiding in the corners?"

Was there any intellectual stimulation? NO.

Was there anything for Sci-Fi fans to speculate over and analyze to death? NO.

I give the movie a 4/10. Well shot, decent acting, but that's not what you make an alien-invasion movie for.

[Tico0001]

Thought the movie was crap.

Mmmmm... I'm sorry if i come off rude but... did you read the title of the movie? It's War of the Worlds! The story is the story, it's a good story, why change it? We knew it was a remake!! What i liked most about it was that it was 100% true to the book! If you thought the story was stupid to begin with, then it was obvious that you weren't going to like it.

It wasn't the best movie in the world but it was exactly what i expected. The main character of the book was a random person in the world... and Tom Cruise was also a random person in the world too. I thought it was well done.

~Tico

[bsu legato]

Was there anything for Sci-Fi fans to speculate over and analyze to death?  NO.

310046[/snapback]

You say that as if that's a BAD thing. I think one of the worst aspects of SF fandom is its obsession with nitpicking pseudoscience details and fictional statistics. But now that you mention it, fans in fact could speculate on nearly everything about the aliens, since the movie never explicitly tells you anything about them. So yeah...if that's your cup of tea, speculate away.

Oh yeah, good movie btw. Not quite as satisfying as ROTS, but a damn fine flick. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some tunnels to dig.

[Agent ONE]

I liked it.

I also like Tom... So he shoots his mouth off about things he is not qualified to comment on, I mean he is a star, he has no business commenting on medical practice... Kinda like when fukin retarted stars butt in to politics, they aren't qualified, or even smart enough to grasp the issues, but it never keeps them from shooting their mouth off.

I guess what I am saying is, if you don't want to see this movie because you don't like Tom yammering about something he knows nothing about, then don't see anything with Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Chevy Chase, or any other douche bag that quotes factless newspaper articles.

[kalvasflam]

Not a bad movie at all, it followed the 1950s movie in pretty nicely. Nice twist to have the aliens harvesting hummies for food. Kinda neat that way. The alien war machines were actually much more frightening that way than if they were just generic killing machines. They're actually vampire killing machines.

Outside of that, the actors in the movie did a good job, although I did wish the son would've been vaporized, or may be even harvested. Annoying little punk.

[Apollo Leader]

I've seen it twice and so far I've enjoyed it. Liked it more then Independence Day. My favorite scene (though you don't see it) is when Tom Cruise kills that F.A.G Tim Robbins. (But then again, I find myself liking Tom Cruise less and less these days...)

I really liked how the alien walkers/mecha are extremely close in appearance to their alien operators just like how we would build mecha and robots based off of ourselves (bipedal, two arms and two legs, etc.).

One complaint is that the issue of using nuclear weapons, even just small tactical ones, never came up. Considering the havoc these things are wrecking and inability to fight them conventionally, nukes would most definitely be put to use.

I think it would have been cool if this movie was reworked as a sequel to Rain Main or any of Tom's other early movies. More on this later.

[JKeats]

Not Spielberg's best. I got flamed on another forum for saying this but the action was just so poorly handled. Well, I may have gotten flamed because I compared it to Independence Day but that was because I had just gotten back from watching WOTW and I was a little miffed.

The good: The acting was well done and the film stuck to the original story, in a good way. I never cared about Tom Cruise being wacko as long as he did a fine job in the film and he does this here.

The bad: I understand what Armentage is saying. Yes, the aliens dying because of their inability to develop natural immunities is an interesting part of the original story BUT in my opinion, it could have been handled a lot better in this remake. The film does a fine job of portraying a sense of terror until the end, when a few military dudes with small arms follows Cruise's advice and huzzah, everybody lives, everybody is happy. Cue Morgan Freeman's voice a la James Earl Jones in the Lord of the Flies episode of the Simpsons, where he says, "And the children were rescued by...oh, I don't know...Moe" and there you have it, roll credits. It felt rushed and poorly executed, especially in comparison to the first 3/4 of the film. Oh and it turns out that if the world is being taken over by aliens, all you have to do is hide out in Boston and you're cool, no worries.

[Tico0001]

Oh and it turns out that if the world is being taken over by aliens, all you have to do is hide out in Boston and you're cool, no worries.

LOL LOL That part WAS hilarious! I liked the movie overall but i agree with you that the ending felt rushed.

Oh and in the book the aliens did use the humans as fuel for their machines. I also like the fact that the aliens where not from Mars like in the book... that idea wouldn't fly in this century. What i did not like was the how the aliens got to earth through lightning (makes no sense) instead of meteorites

~Tico

[kalvasflam]

Agree about the ending, it was a little too simplified, and of course the son surviving was a big minus. But overall, the story was alright being told from the presepective of an ordinary joe.

Nukes should've been used, and for all you know, they could've been used, it was never very explicit anywhere. In all the scenes we saw, nukes made no sense because the army/air force was trying to buy time for the civvies to escape, nuking the aliens would've meant killing the civvies.

[Ladic]

70% Signs + 30% ID4 = Great movie

[Seven]

Oh and in the book the aliens did use the humans as fuel for their machines. I also like the fact that the aliens where not from Mars like in the book... that idea wouldn't fly in this century. What i did not like was the how the aliens got to earth through lightning (makes no sense) instead of meteorites 

~Tico

310221[/snapback]

Actually, they didn't just literally ride the lightning down. The lightning was a sort of distractor while some sort of torpedo-like craft carrying an alien shot down into the ground. Hence the hole in the ground.

As for not using nukes, we don't know if they did or not. Its just not shown. It would have been great but Spielberg looked at Independence Day and some other alien invasion movies and gathered an idea of what he did NOT want to do, namely following the military/political mechanisms during a crisis like this. He felt that's been done too many times. So he decided to do a very personal story and in my opinion, it works much better. Close Encounters was kind of the same way. If you wanted Emmerich or Bay style fireworks, you won't get them from Spielberg, at least not without some sort of personal human element to the story.

Edited July 13, 2005 by Seven

[GobotFool]

I liked it. While not a perfect adapation of the book it certainly captured the spirit of the book well. My only major complaint is that his son survived. It would have enhanced the sense of loss at the end if he remained dead.

For those who complain about it not being original enough, I don't know what you want. I mean there are only so many things you can change in a WOTW adaptation before it stops being a WOTWs adaptation and becomes either Signs or some crap like ID4.

[mikeszekely]

I liked it too, although I wish it could have been a little MORE like the book.

My only real gripe was, if the aliens had been here before, and buried their tripods then, why didn't they just conquer the earth then?

[GobotFool]

My only real gripe was, if the aliens had been here before, and buried their tripods then, why didn't they just conquer the earth then?

310371[/snapback]

I agree, if they buried them millions of years ago, why not take over the earth when all they would have had to fight were a few silly dinosaurs.

Edited July 14, 2005 by GobotFool

[mikeszekely]

My only real gripe was, if the aliens had been here before, and buried their tripods then, why didn't they just conquer the earth then?

310371[/snapback]

I agree, if they buried them millions of years ago, why not take over the earth when all they would have had to fight were a few silly dinosaurs.

310373[/snapback]

Yeah, and if they were buried all that time, how the hell did no one notice them before? I mean, we can find little dinosaur teeth, but we missed alien mecha... in a city where we know, at some point, they had to dig out a subway system.

[zeo-mare]

My only real gripe was, if the aliens had been here before, and buried their tripods then, why didn't they just conquer the earth then?

310371[/snapback]

I agree, if they buried them millions of years ago, why not take over the earth when all they would have had to fight were a few silly dinosaurs.

310373[/snapback]

Yeah, and if they were buried all that time, how the hell did no one notice them before? I mean, we can find little dinosaur teeth, but we missed alien mecha... in a city where we know, at some point, they had to dig out a subway system.

310376[/snapback]

i thought about the same thing i wonder why no one ever found them.

chris

[bsu legato]

Is it so unreasonable to assume that aliens might think, reason, and behave in a manner that we'd find bizarre? Why'd they wait so long? Who knows...they're freakin aliens!

[HWR MKII]

Just finished watching it again. I may watch a few parts over again before bed. Not as good as on the big screen but it will tide me over until DVD release. Great film. I was hesitant about seeing it but after seeing the crap that pendragon made and reading the book this movie hit all the high pionts. Had my wife pulling the arm rests off the seat in the theatre.

The only letdown i saw was that it didnt show enough of the futility of combat against them like the 53 movie. Would it really have hurt to add 3 to 5 minutes of battle footage to it. sure we saw the bridge go bye bye but seeing an army beat would have added the human element a little more.

[mikeszekely]

Is it so unreasonable to assume that aliens might think, reason, and behave in a manner that we'd find bizarre? Why'd they wait so long? Who knows...they're freakin aliens!

310389[/snapback]

Behave in a way we find irrational... sure. But sometimes they just strike me as stupid.

I mean... SPOILERS...

If the aliens had researched life on our planet enough to know that our atmosphere was breathable to them, and that human blood had the kind of nutrients conducive to growing their plant-things, how'd they miss that there might be viral or bacterial microbes that might be fatal to them?

Edited July 14, 2005 by mikeszekely

[Seven]

Yeah, and if they were buried all that time, how the hell did no one notice them before?  I mean, we can find little dinosaur teeth, but we missed alien mecha... in a city where we know, at some point, they had to dig out a subway system.

310376[/snapback]

I'd like to think that the alien devices were buried pretty deep. If an alien race can travel across intergalactic space, I think they can bury their devices deeper than we can dig with a bulldozer or drill.

[Loner]

It would have been better had the tripods arrive in cylinders like in the novel and the 50's movie.

[GobotFool]

Is it so unreasonable to assume that aliens might think, reason, and behave in a manner that we'd find bizarre? Why'd they wait so long? Who knows...they're freakin aliens!

310389[/snapback]

alien reasoning is fine for the buried for millions of years why not attack then. Still I do agree we probably should have in our excavations found at least one walker. Still this WOTWs is probably the best adaptation of HG Wells vision. I loved it, despite what I consider to be a few holes.

[mikeszekely]

Is it so unreasonable to assume that aliens might think, reason, and behave in a manner that we'd find bizarre? Why'd they wait so long? Who knows...they're freakin aliens!

310389[/snapback]

alien reasoning is fine for the buried for millions of years why not attack then. Still I do agree we probably should have in our excavations found at least one walker. Still this WOTWs is probably the best adaptation of HG Wells vision. I loved it, despite what I consider to be a few holes.

310535[/snapback]

I think that about says it best. Under closer scrutiny, there were more holes than Pebble Beach, but the sheer presentation of it still leaves me thinking that it was the best movie I've seen this summer.

Still, I really do wish that they could have used the cylinders. And I wish that the aliens could have been the bear-sized, sluggish, tentacled creatures that they were in the novel.

[Jolly Rogers]

How come the cars were neatly parked on the freeway after the EMP struck - shouldn't there be massive pileups and wreckage to a point where even if you had a running car, it wouldn't be able to get thru the mess?

Edited July 14, 2005 by Jolly Rogers

[Max Jenius]

I thought it was entertaining. I had fun. I don't see what the big deal is about Dakota Fanning though, everyone alway sloves the "wise beyond their years" flavor of the month/year. When she grows up, we'll see how she does. In this movie I was actually suprised that she was actually a believeable little girl.

I'd give this movie a 3.5/5. If Arnold was the main character instead of Cruise, it woulda been almost perfect.

[Guest Bromgrev]

... Kinda like when fukin retarted stars butt in to politics, they aren't qualified, or even smart enough to grasp the issues, but it never keeps them from shooting their mouth off.

Blasphemy!! Arnold, retarded?!

[Agent ONE]

... Kinda like when fukin retarted stars butt in to politics, they aren't qualified, or even smart enough to grasp the issues, but it never keeps them from shooting their mouth off.

Blasphemy!! Arnold, retarded?!

310613[/snapback]

Arnold IS qualified... He is the most succesful politician of our time. Come on, he got ellected in California and he is a Republican. Thats like ellecting Pam Anderson head Nun at a convent.

[bsu legato]

MmmmMMmm....Pam Anderson as a nun.

Hey, wasn't that an episode of V.I.P?

[daeudi]

Did anyone else notice the very strong resemblence between the tripods and the Invid mecha? the whole shape of the front, and the eye sensor just screams "stage 4 Invid" to me. Just replace the legs with 3 tentacles, and remove the shoulder-mount heat cannons....

[reddsun1]

Did anyone else notice the very strong resemblence between the tripods and the Invid mecha? the whole shape of the front, and the eye sensor just screams "stage 4 Invid" to me. Just replace the legs with 3 tentacles, and remove the shoulder-mount heat cannons....

313929[/snapback]

Hey, you're right--there is a strong resemblance in the head/torso section of the Invid and that of the War Machines. Pretty neat. But then again, there are a LOT of resemblances in this movie w/scenes and some objects from a lot of other movies. This certainly won't be acclaimed as one of Speilberg's most original films, but I don't think that's what he was aiming for anyway. Considering how serious and/or complex a lot of his recent works have been, I think he took this project as an opportunity to ease up a bit, and just have a bit of fun with the storytelling/moviemaking process. Moviegoers should consider this film as "Speilberg Lite," and not go in expecting an Oscar winning tour-de-force; this is a popcorn flick, plain and simple.

I enjoyed War of The Worlds [i finally read the book, just before seeing this new movie; I like the book better]. I only had a couple of problems with WOTW: the already mentioned little plot-hole about the already buried machines [good lord, how deep would they have had to be to go undiscovered for so many eons?]. Another was that annoying sh-t that was the son. Now, Cruise's character was meant to be seen as a much-less-than-perfect dad, but even he was right when he called his own boy a dick. The pretentious little snot had a death wish, and I spent most of the film wishing the Martians would oblige his silly ass. But the aliens should have had to take a number and get in line; I kept thinking his dad should have been stomping a mud-hole in his arse for stealing that "Hertz" Mustang while he slept.

All in all, I liked the movie for what it was; a pretty good way to kill a couple hours' time. I still think H.G. Wells' Martians were better. The book's "heat ray" was much more frightening, IMHO; I guess there's something about that primordeal fear of fire. The thought of something so terrible, and only heard, not seen, as they made those huge scythe-like sweeps with the rays--much more terrifying to anyone who'd witness that, I'd think. I guess Speilberg could only make his version so scary, in order to keep it PG-13. Wouldn't want another backlash like he got with the 2nd Indiana Jones movie way back when.

[bob joe mac]

My theory on the burried tri-pods sorta takes the whole they had a dead planet and needed ours to survive theories. Ya know when the dinosaurs roamed the earth maybe their planet was ok and just nowish it went to hell and they realized they needed earth.

So I mean aside from the whole why didn't we notice them when we dug subways and crap I dunno:P.

[reddsun1]

I wouldn't mind seeing WOTW again. Pretty good flick. But the aliens weren't just using people for "fuel." They were draining the captured people and directly ingesting their blood for nourishment [at least, in the book]. I think that--even more than airborne bacteria--was how they were infected by Earth's microorganisms and eventually done in.

Now let's look at these Martians: here are these highly evolved beings, much more so than man. They've evolved far beyond the need for trivial things, like limbs and appendiges as we need/use them. They've mastered interstellar travel, they've mastered engineering machines of war and construction. As Wells so aptly put it, they're superior to us, and look at man in much the same light as we might upon birds or ants. And then I think to myself: here are these super intelligent, all-conquering creatures. Ah, the mighty Martians; you've traversed the stars and swept us aside, made so much short work of every resistance mankind can muster--and you don't even have enough common sense to cook your food before you eat it?

FU--ING.

DUMB.

ASSES.

[Stamen0083]

Another was that annoying sh-t that was the son.  Now, Cruise's character was meant to be seen as a much-less-than-perfect dad, but even he was right when he called his own boy a dick.  The pretentious little snot had a death wish, and I spent most of the film wishing the Martians would oblige his silly ass.  But the aliens should have had to take a number and get in line; I kept thinking his dad should have been stomping a mud-hole in his arse for stealing that "Hertz" Mustang while he slept. 

313982[/snapback]

You disliked the son, I hated the daughter. Goddamn, I hate Dakota Fanning's character. Every time she screeched, I wanted to jump into the screen and shoot the bitch myself.

Totally ruined the movie for me, it did.

[Effect]

Just got back from seeing WOTW. Wow. I really enjoyed this. Honestly before this I've only heard of the original WOTW story and I think I've seen parts of the old film but never the full thing. Acting was great, I like that it was more of a personal story about the father and the kids instead of some big military operation. In fact it's whole presentation made it somewhat more believeable then I had first considered. They didn't go crazy on the special effects, and that actually helped I believe. Coming out of the ex-wife's house after all the noise, sounds, etc and seeing the plane crashed and broken up gives more of an impact then actually seeing it fall I think.

Dakota's character wasn't that bad. Her screaming got annoying at times but I think that's what they were really going for. She seemed believeable as a little girl that was just straight up scared with Tom Crusies character acting accordingly. Tom might be a little off but he's a great actor I feel. Now the son, I really think it might have been better had he stayed dead. I didn't really care for him at all. It actually made me made though in the scenes with him trying to go with the military, the girl trying to keep him there since she thought she needed him more then the father, and the father trying his best not to scare her even worse and doing what he can to keep them alive all the while taking all that crap from the son. True Cruise's character wasn't perfect, which is what I liked, but he seemed like he was ready to do anything to protect his kids.

I really want to see this again.

As for the burying of the alien machines. I think they'd have to be buried really, really deep for them not to have been found. Past the crust area of the planet maybe. It did take them a while to dig themselves out of the ground after all. What I don't get though is the area where the alien pod went into the ground, when Cruise's character and the other people were near it, why the ground was cold. Shouldn't it have been hot?

[zeo-mare]

What I don't get though is the area where the alien pod went into the ground, when Cruise's character and the other people were near it, why the ground was cold. Shouldn't it have been hot?

315290[/snapback]

alien invasion sci fi movie magic, there was probably no real logic behind the ground being cold. it was just done to make it look neat, the people in the film could not figure what was going on, first a lightening storm and then that, very strange events were taken place that they could not figure out, basicly little red flags that they did not understand that something was up . but the movie goers knew what these ominous first signs were all about.

chris

PS I am more interested in why people clothes did not disintergrate from the aliens weapons I know why it was done simply to show there was nothing left but their clothes but it is funny to think about. they can blow up houses and cities, nuke entire armies but are powerless to destroy your Fubu shirt, Levis Jean and Nike's also I wonder, if you are completly covered from head to toes leaving nothing exposed would the alien beam bounce off of you???

Edited July 28, 2005 by zeo-mare