War Of The Worlds

[Swoop109]

I've heard really bad things about the Pendragon version from people in Great Britain who have already seen it. The special effects are apparently pretty amateurish, and they had so few extras they kept re-using the same people in crowd scenes, wearing the same costumes, so that someone you recognize as having been killed earlier in the movie suddenly shows up again in a later scene.

The Pendragon film is now in the US. I found a copy in the local Wal-Mart for less then $10.00. It is a horrid peice of filmmaking. The effects are worse then a Sci-fi Channel production. The dialogue wanders between stupid and just foolish. The worst part is that the aliens actually made me laugh when they first appeared.
This film commits the single worst crime against Wells in the history of film. It made the story boring.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I just saw the one that came out today and I liked it.

 

[Templetroll]

I'd say see the older one after you see this one. Spoiler follows

This version was good; better than I thought it would be. The sound and music made the few silences eeerie. The guy they hide out with in the cellar was flat out creepy. My wife noted that it seemed more politically correct in that there were no scenes in a church. No one stop to pray, everyone either ran or died. They did cut a charch in half, however. I only saw it once but

Spoiler

I think the last line was the same about the "...smallest of God's creatures..."

Can someone verify that?

 

[DonTadow]

I'd say see the older one after you see this one. Spoiler follows

This version was good; better than I thought it would be. The sound and music made the few silences eeerie. The guy they hide out with in the cellar was flat out creepy. My wife noted that it seemed more politically correct in that there were no scenes in a church. No one stop to pray, everyone either ran or died. They did cut a charch in half, however. I only saw it once but

Spoiler

I think the last line was the same about the "...smallest of God's creatures..."

Can someone verify that?

HOrrid movie, but yes the church was cut in half. Just too many inconsistencies for me to enjoy myself. I tried, I suspended my believe through most of it, and I was on the border right up until the boy ran out and we found out that bacteria again defeated the aliens.

 

[Templetroll]

HOrrid movie, but yes the church was cut in half. Just too many inconsistencies for me to enjoy myself. I tried, I suspended my believe through most of it, and I was on the border right up until the boy ran out and we found out that bacteria again defeated the aliens.

The boy showing up was a surprise, but I fully expected that it would be bacteria again. Main things humanity has going for it against aliens is perverse stubbornness and biology.

 

[DonTadow]

The boy showing up was a surprise, but I fully expected that it would be bacteria again. Main things humanity has going for it against aliens is perverse stubbornness and biology.

The reason why I Didn't expect bacteria this time ( and why it shoudnt have been) is because, in the 1898 when wells wrote it it was a new thing, bacteria. but now its been done to death. Plus these aliens appear to be smarter. In 1898 there was no such thing as hazmat suits. But now even our spacemen are smart enough to always wear one of these things.

For these aliens to have planned this attack for millions of years i can't believe they did not think ofsomething that our scientists did. It felt like mars attacks with great special effects.

 

[Morrus]

I've never liked the ending. Dramatically, I find it anti-climactic. Logically, I find it absurd: the martians wouldn't be that stupid!

 

[DonTadow]

I've never liked the ending. Dramatically, I find it anti-climactic. Logically, I find it absurd: the martians wouldn't be that stupid!

I liked the ending in an historic literature sense. For the 1900s this was a new thing, and Wells didn't know at the time that we would have the techonlogy we have now. Of course, in the 50s we knew this and in the 21st century it would be crazy for an advanced alien culture to not know about bacteria and alien environments.

 

[sniffles]

If I'm not mistaken the original movie follows the book fairly well, which Spielburg clearly does not (no friggin highways in Well's time, duh).

I do, however, recommend reading the book, if you're into that kind of thing, as it might provide some insight while watching the movie. Then again, if you don't know how the aliens are defeated in the book, you may want to *not* read it, because the movie may be spoiled (I don't know what Spielburg is doing; in his movie, they may end up killing all the humans).

As others have already pointed out, the 1953 film does not follow the book, and IMHO is even further from the novella than the new film. The older film leaves out the Martian walkers and the red weed, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other items that were omitted. Plus the introduction of a strong Christian theme would probably have offended Wells. Still, I really enjoy the older film. It's not as cheesy as one might expect from a film of that age.

I actually found the new film quite terrifying; I suppose I'm more afraid of that type of scenario than any other - not aliens invading per se, but just being desperate and helpless and in constant flight. I didn't really mind the ending - I don't think our scientific knowledge prepares us for every eventuality, and it's perfectly reasonable to me that aliens might be so superior in their technological skill that they would overlook something as tiny as alien (to them) bacteria.

 

[DonTadow]

As others have already pointed out, the 1953 film does not follow the book, and IMHO is even further from the novella than the new film. The older film leaves out the Martian walkers and the red weed, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other items that were omitted. Plus the introduction of a strong Christian theme would probably have offended Wells. Still, I really enjoy the older film. It's not as cheesy as one might expect from a film of that age.

I actually found the new film quite terrifying; I suppose I'm more afraid of that type of scenario than any other - not aliens invading per se, but just being desperate and helpless and in constant flight. I didn't really mind the ending - I don't think our scientific knowledge prepares us for every eventuality, and it's perfectly reasonable to me that aliens might be so superior in their technological skill that they would overlook something as tiny as alien (to them) bacteria.

I just don't think that a superior alien culture would do that. We are smart enough, again, to create space suits to protect us from a harsh environment. These aliens built these pods specifically for this take over. They covered all their bases. It just seems that space suits is a no brainer. Not just for the bacteria, but in case the air was not breathable. Speilbergo had to make his aliens smarter to handle the threats that our advanced culture produced to an alien take over. These aliens were so smart they put these tripods in places that would bepopular cities before they became popular. They knew they'd use the humans as fertilizer for there plants, and they knew that we'd use propelling weaponry.

What I had a problem with is Speilburg tricked me into thinking this was a smarter movie, and in some respects I had already been spoiled by this crop of intelligent action movies. Land of the Dead, Batman, and SW3. All great movies that were intelligent and action packed. So seeing this movie, I was disappointed that I couldn't get a smarter villian. If he had went campy with it I would have probably enjoyed it more, or even if he set it in the 50s or 19th century.