War of the Worlds

Did i see a Signs-bash here? I did, i did see a Signs-bash here. Cool!

There is no filmer more overrated than M. Night Shamalayan (sp). Absolutely horrible: take a kindergarten-level basic idea (“a kid who sees dead people”, “a superhero vs. a superfrail man”, “non-waterproof aliens defeated by a thirsty kid”), add a massive overdose of mass-produced New Age philosophicy/religion/spirituality, and construct an expanded but oh-so obvious plot only to fall together in the last two scenes. I think the only way he manages to make it passable to the masses is that he does know how to visualise his dribble, and he makes good use of a (type-) casting agency.
The Sixth Sense was so incredibly obvious, i really was amazed people didn’t get Bruce Willis was a goner himself.

Back to WotW – anyone who thinks the film was a drag, get out your record player(you know, vinyl) and play Jeff Wayne’s WotW opera. THAT is a drag.
In fact i think Spielberg did a reasonable job in adapting the book to a current-day movie. Even though i think Tim Robbins’ part as the madman was a bit over the top, almost like an easy shot at the most oblivious nationalist moron. I did like the way he transformed a story about colonialism (as Wells wrote it) into a story about refugees.

It was definately a far better Welles’ adaption than that horrible Time Machine-flick from a couple of years ago.

I didn’t realize that the book-martians used foghorn sounds to signal that they found food…. makes the movie’s sounds more scary…

I know! that horn really did send shivers through me. Did sound very creepy……

So as a correction (though I still think this is a Grey Area 🙂

Ouch! 😉

I think you’re confusing me with someone else, Garry. The quotes in your posting were all from pluto77189.

Quite right, sorry. I didn’t scroll right up to the top of the post I was replying to and just used the

Last edited by Grey Area : 12th July 2005 at 20:15. Reason: Language!

…bit at the bottom to identify who wrote the post.

So as a correction (though I still think this is a Grey Area 🙂 :

If you want to continue discussing this Grey Area, pluto77189 I suggest we either start a new thread or you PM me.

I’d say it’s worth it to see it in a theatre – the audio is great. I didn’t realize that the book-martians used foghorn sounds to signal that they found food…. makes the movie’s sounds more scary…

I completely agree. I strongly recomend people NOT to wait to watch it at home.

If you want to continue discussing this Grey Area, Grey Area I suggest we either start a new thread or you PM me.

:confused:

I think you’re confusing me with someone else, Garry. The quotes in your posting were all from pluto77189.

The aliens in the movie and the tripods had three fingered, sucker
toes. It’s the same hands that the aliens had in the 53 version – a cool
homage, especially to get that last scene with the dying alien.

They looked nothing like the ones in the book. the closest thign to the
book aliens was in invaders from mars, with the brain alien.

The aliens in the book were large blobs. They were round, 4 feet in
diameter. they had two big, dark eyes, and a large “eardrum” on their
back. They mouth was a simple v-shaped flap with no teeth. Around
the sides of the mouth were 16 thin tentacles, in two pairs of 8. They
tried to walk on them, but were too heavy on Earth. Instead, they
used 5 legged machines to move about in, and 3 legged machines to
fight in.

They “ate” by transfusing the blood of living people into their own
circulatory systems.

They brought several skinny, bipedal aliens with them for food on the
trip to earth. They were descried as thin, 6 foot tall, with big heads
and big round eyes – Wells came up with the “greys” before speilberg
did. None of these were alive.

I’d say it’s worth it to see it in a theatre – the audio is great. I didn’t
realize that the book-martians used foghorn sounds to signal that they
found food…. makes the movie’s sounds more scary…

I said:
************
I really hate that “it is all part of gods plan” bullsht some religious
nutters expouse.
*********8
You said:
so I guess anyone that isn’t an atheist is a “nutter”?

I thought I was clear, but to make it clearer, some religious nutters try to explain the bad things that happen as being part of some big complicated all powerful plan that is so big and so complicated that we cant understand, but if we could then whatever had happened happened for a very good reason. In other words… hey kid, your parents are dead and you have to get out of your house so we can sell it and squander the money… go and live with your aunty and uncle you have never seen before… don’t cry… its all part of gods plan that is big and complicated but we dont understand it either so dont ask us any hard questions about it.

Atheisim is unprovable, as is belief in God.

Nothing is provable strictly speaking. Athieism is the antithesis of any religion and requires only faith in yourself rather than a crutch or higher power to get you out of trouble. Funny how every army has god on their side but god only ever seems to help the side that wins. Such assistance is not really tangible except to priests and those with a vested interest in religion.

Both require a degree of
faith to be believed, therefore, atheisim is a form of religion.

You are confusing faith with religion. They are not the same thing. Athiesm is a rejection of religion and a rejection of faith in an all powerful controlling power. One can have faith that the laws of Physics as we know them will not suddenly fail, that doesn’t mean we believe it is because some higher power ensures this or creates this state of being.

There is
no indesputable, scientific evidence to prove the existance or
non-existence of God.

So if it you can’t prove you have a god, what is the point of having one? What is the point of sucking up to something every sunday or more often in some religions if there is no tangible return?
It is all a bit unfair really. What about children brought up in say a Jewish family, and we find out the Christians had it right all along. Eternal damnation because you listened to your parents? Sounds a bit harsh to me. If god is everywhere and everything, would it really be that hard to just say hello, I’m god, be nice to each other or you go to hell… Byeee. But no. We have to have faith… based on what? The word of other humans. I guess the vatican and other religious groups have no interest in getting people to believe what they believe… I mean all the cash the churches have came from God right?

and be able to say to yourself that “this could all
occur without any intelligent, deliberate actions.”

From what I have read all life on this planet is based on one set of DNA with minor variations to create the different life forms. Considering the billions of years it took to actually happen, why does it need a helping hand? And if it had a helping hand why did it take so long?

To me, the idea that a supreme
being/power had a hand in it all makes more sense than if it just all
sorta “happened” out of nowhere.

But the supreme being solution creates more questions than it answers… where did this supreme being come from. How was it created? I think the slow evolutionary creation of everything from very little to what we see now makes more sense that the appearance of an all powerful sentient being able to create life presumably from atoms who then performed a minor tweek that led to life on this planet… I mean how could that sentient being have known the results of creating whatever beginning you might suggest they created. I mean how would they know single cell organisms could evolve into something like us, unless they were us or had been at the top of an evloutionary chain like us. In which case do you really think the hung around for a couple of billion years to see the result.
I think it is possible something might have helped to get something started but I think the bar has been left untended for quite some time and pining after the old barkeep is a bit of a waste of time even if they used to serve booze.

Anyway this is hardly the thread to discuss this.

If you want to continue discussing this Grey Area, Grey Area I suggest we either start a new thread or you PM me.

Back on topic, so should I go to see war of the worlds or just play Half Life 2 and blow up some tripods there? Not a huge fan of show pony, but Liked Minority Report… though it was a little long.

I thought the movie was pretty good. The main flaw was that it tried to be a mix of Independance Day and Signs (which I hated as well…that guy has done one movie I thought was remotely decent, and that was the I See Dead People one). I think it would have been better had it taken one approach or the other. All in all though, it wasn’t a bad film. Tom Cruise was pretty good in the role I thought. he’s definitely a little off his rocker off-screen, but I don’t find him to be too bad of an actor personally.

What a film, loved every min of it, although ending was crap and short. Still its one of the best ive seen!

Summed up perfectly, I loved the film completley although the ending was a little off……….not crap I would say but it did give the impression they hadn’t really got a good ending in mind so they did what they did but it wasn’t a big dissapointment.

If that makes any sense….:D

but those tripods… they were perfect.

I noticed that the legs were very similar to those little tripod search robots in the previous Spielberg/Cruise movie Minority Report.

Isn’t that more or less how Wells described the Martians in the book though, Pluto?

I liked the alien design idea – but not the execution. The idea is that if
we made giant robots, they’d have two legs, two arms, and stand erect
– like us. The aliens did the same. However, why the hell did they
have to have such generic heads? Big black eyes, bit heads. they
totally looked like ID4 alien – heads, only with mouths.

The three legged idea, with the three suckered toes was a great idea.
they took a great alien body shape, and stuck “generic alien head #3”
on the body. too bad.

but those tripods… they were perfect.

What a film, loved every min of it, although ending was crap and short. Still its one of the best ive seen!

Nobody mentions it because it’s obvious. Wells wrote it as a sort of
joke on colonialism. the way people looked down on africans andd
asians, etc. as if they were “lesser.” He took that, put us (ALL of us)
in the shoes of the colonized, and well, made history.

The recent movie isn’t about colonialism, but the writer did make an
effort to try to take a stab at US policy. It’s not too obvious, nor
should it be. Which is good. Had it been a clear critique of US
policy, it would have pissed me off. I didn’t feel ticked off watching it,
so it was cool. On the other hand, I’m sure others will find many
connections between the movie and GWB, etc. Fine with me, it
wasn’t in your face.

************
I really hate that “it is all part of gods plan” bullsht some religious
nutters expouse.
*********8
so I guess anyone that isn’t an atheist is a “nutter”?

*************
Things don’t happen for a reason, there is no all encompassing plan.
Religion is a lie to comfort the old and scare the young and the stupid.
**************
Atheisim is unprovable, as is belief in God. Both require a degree of
faith to be believed, therefore, atheisim is a form of religion. There is
no indesputable, scientific evidence to prove the existance or
non-existence of God. Therefore, the belief in his existence or his
non-existance is one of pure faith.

To be an atheist, you must look at the world around you, the
complexity of life, cellular division, chemical properties, subatomic
interactions, etc. and be able to say to yourself that “this could all
occur without any intelligent, deliberate actions.” As a sceintist, I’ve
looked really hard, and studied lots of biological systems. Science
can’t explain things enough for me. To me, the idea that a supreme
being/power had a hand in it all makes more sense than if it just all
sorta “happened” out of nowhere.

From a cinematographic POV, the one-shot trialogue when driving the minivan through all the dead traffic was absolutely brilliant. Tom Cruise didn’t suck all that bad, IMHO.

I agree, and I enjoyed the movie. There´s one thing people still didn´t mention: HG Wells was a pretty leftist man, and the whole WotW stuff is interpreted by many as a diatribe against colonialism. Why are they so bad? Why don´t they come here, make contact and become our friends? Ahem, 80% of the aztecas were killed… Connect the dots.

HG Wells at Wikipedia

War of the Worlds (the book) at Wikipedia

There´s an interisting section in the Spielberg WotW movie Wikipedia article listing the main differences between the movie and the book.

The point in Signs ws that the aliens were primitive, meat eating, predators, not invading, but raiding for food. The LAST thing we expected “Advanced” aliens to be doing.

The aliens in Signs were invading Earth, but they had to do it in small groups to avoid being nuked.

It’s fiction.
the enjoyment of the movie isn’t dependant on it all making sense to
us.

How can you enjoy something that doesn’t make sense?
Fiction that is not believeable is bad fiction.

The point in Signs ws that the aliens were primitive, meat eating,
predators, not invading, but raiding for food.

If humans did the same thing I doubt we’d bother with a planet covered 2/3rds in Ammonia, to collect an alien species potentially more intelligent than us that was also 2/3rds poisonous. Travelling across the galaxy suggests a requirement for intelligence.

Sounds like a religious attempt as science fiction, which should be a contradiction in terms really.

The faith aspect to it was
great. Everything happens for a reason. It annoyed some people,
sure, but I liked it.

I really hate that “it is all part of gods plan” bullsht some religious nutters expouse.
Things don’t happen for a reason, there is no all encompassing plan. Religion is a lie to comfort the old and scare the young and the stupid.

Claiming there is a “plan” suggests that god intended WWI, WWII and Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot to happen… nice plan… what an a$$hole.
Reality is that Humans have free will. With that comes responsibility. WWI, WWII, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, even Reagan were all our fault… not some plan.

Signs sucked. Period. Methinks M. Night Shyamalan’s halo has slipped slightly with his last couple of efforts.

I enjoyed WotW, and have to say that after a thorough de-brief from a mate of mine who is more versed in the original version, found it was quite close in most aspects to the original story. Tom Cruise didn’t suck too much either, although Dakota Fanning did scream an awful lot more than I would have liked.

On a side note, there are three other versions of War of the Worlds in production: one by Pendragon Pictures, another straight-to-video version, and an adaptation of the Jeff Wayne musical version.

Wow! the war of the worlds by pendragon looks bloody brilliant!

Those were some evil alien ba$tards, weren’t they? I thought the alien designs were too much like stuff we’ve seen before (ID4 alien heads), but the tripods were cool.

I agree, the ID4 alien heads were not alien enough but the Tripods more than made up for it 🙂

I went to this film expecting a cross between Close Encounters, E.T. and Minority Report. Instead I got a Saving Private Ryan with the Nazi’s replaced by relentless, merciless alien killing machines.

Some of the details didn’t make sense and the ending was rushed and the characters were not that likeable, but overall WOTW is a pretty good film.