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 Post subject: DVD Review: War Of The Worlds (2005)
PostPosted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:17 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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FROM: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/01/161536.php

War of the Worlds is a one-note movie. And that note is a 30 Hz rumble tone. I have never had a film drive my big, bad subwoofer so hard for so long. For the first time since I have owned the thing, I heard it bottom out on a long cone excursion. That's a major push.

In my listening room with the DTS digital sound cranked up to "enjoyable" levels, the movie vibrated my internal organs quite noticeably and at times literally shook the house (Debbie, sewing in another room, confirmed this). This movie is the modern version of 1974's Earthquake, where the gimmick was that they mounted big bass speakers on the floor in select theaters and announced the new effect: "Sensurround!"

So much for the fun part. The rest of the movie is sadly one-note as well. Alien machines kill humanity for an hour and a half while Tom Cruise runs from them with his two annoying children. The internal logic gaps are enough to make you cry, while the palpable sense of impersonality sucks any sense of concern out of you.

The story line is a remake of the 1953 classic "alien invasion" movie that served as a touchstone for science fiction action pics for many years. And of course, they both derive from H.G. Wells' 1898 novel. The movie opens and closes with voice over narration largely taken from the 1953 movie (and a weird musical interpretation that was released on record featuring Richard Burton's silky tones as the narrator). It's an updating of the (now rather florid) language that Wells used in his story. Naturally, voice over duties now go to Morgan Freeman, who seems to have a rock-solid arrangement in Hollywood giving him first right of refusal on any voice over narration work (and he seldom refuses).

We are introduced to stock stereotyped characters in the first 15 minutes of over-familiar setup. Tom Cruise plays Ray, a self-absorbed lousy father with partial custody of his kids from an earlier marriage. Mom is pregnant and happily involved with a new great-guy boyfriend/husband (?), but still finds time to meddle disapprovingly around Ray's house and act like a martyr. Dakota Fanning is the precocious little girl who has taken on the role of serious practical one (she orders takeout hummus from the neighborhood natural foods store, because that's what most American 9-year-olds would naturally gravitate to by choice, right?). Justin Chatwin plays the surly and rebellious teenage son, who resents his dad's inattention.

Soon enough, though, things start rumbling and the aliens show up to wreak arbitrary havoc. Ray grabs his kids and attempts to avoid the aliens while journeying to find his ex. That's about it. Naturally, Ray will come to understand his children a bit more along the way. But mostly it's just lots of scenes of running away from alien death rays.

The key fault of the movie is that all the characters are unsympathetic and are passive participants in something that doesn't really involve them personally. Ray is made out to be something of a jerk from early on. His daughter turns out to be a screaming, whimpering, hyperventilating panicky kid - but not in a way that makes her seem vulnerable and in need of protection. She is too calm, cool, and precocious for that, so that the screaming feels like a spoiled brat's tantrum. The son is an obnoxious teen with no common sense. And the aliens are arbitrary killing machines that sometimes hit and sometimes miss in their wide, sweeping attacks. You don't get the sense of personal menace and directed chase that made The Terminator so effectively suspenseful.

Spielberg must have realized this somewhere along the way, as he throws in a hide-in-the-cellar cat and mouse game with an alien probe and the family. The scene goes on WAY too long and defies logic, as the aliens have been covering massive amounts of ground and wiping out humans en masse and then suddenly take all kinds of time to stop and carry out an extended, detailed examination of an old farmhouse cellar. They also have some of the worst detection gear you can imagine on an incredibly sophisticated machine probe.

The film is shot in a strangely grainy and washed out style. Everything feels cold and lifeless, including the initial "normal" city life of the characters. John Williams' score reflects and contributes to the monotonous, repetitive feel of the movie. It never develops the sweep and grandeur of a typical Williams soundtrack piece.

I can't recommend this movie unless you have a serious sound system and want to impress friends and neighbors with a bass demonstration disk. I may have to pick up a copy for that purpose when they start showing up in discount bins at Wal-Mart (which shouldn't take long).

Parents: The film is too intense and scary for young children. There is a lot of death (although nothing gory and gross is shown onscreen, it is strongly suggested). No serious swear words, no nudity, no sex, no drugs (one rock 'n' roll reference though).

SPOILER ALERT! The following paragraphs refer to revealed developments in the story line...

Here are my notes for those who have already seen the film:

1) I hoped against hope that they wouldn't have the son show up safe and sound at the end. Ridiculous, but I suppose it's inevitable for Spielberg. Is there a reason why the son is suddenly so loving and wants to call Ray "Dad?" Nothing magical happened between them. When last seen, the son was scrambling to get out of his father's angry clutches.

2) Grandpa and Grandma standing silently behind the mother in the Boston brownstone at the end are played by the original leads from the 1953 movie. That's why they have that stupid smirk on their face.

3) And while I'm thinking of them, does it seem strange that they are dressed and made up for an evening at the theater when supposedly there has been wild panic and destruction going on for days?

4) And while I'm still thinking of them, why the heck are people streaming INTO Boston from the outlying areas? Wouldn't the aliens (with "minds immeasurably superior to ours" who have been "studying us as we would study bacteria under a microscope") have picked the largest population centers for the bulk of their destruction? Why do they spend so much time stomping around the countryside, terrorizing small towns, and looking in creaky farmhouses?

5) These immeasurably superior beings with technology so advanced we can't even imagine it have been studying our planet and planning their attack for untold centuries (they must have buried their machines before our recorded history and waited for the total Earth population to get big enough to supply all the blood they would need). And in all that time, they never conceived of the risk of bacterial infection? They didn't notice the plague, or smallpox, or other pandemics that have wiped out large portions of humanity from time to time?

6) Isn't it interesting how the electromagnetic pulses fry every electrical circuit for miles (even Ray's wristwatch stops working), but the locals are taking digital pictures and movies of the initial alien machine?

7) Didja notice how the soldier goes up to the alien hatchway at the end, lifts up the one limp alien arm sticking out, and immediately yells back "Clear!" to his buddies? That's some judge. We see in a moment that there is still a live alien inside when he yells that. And apparently, he's never seen any movie where a person uses a dead comrade as a decoy and a lure to trick the enemy. What are they teaching these guys?

8) The much more interesting movie is what happens to humanity after this supposed "happy ending". There is human blood sprayed all over the place. Refugees have been scraped and scratched from all kinds of rubble. The spread of blood-borne pathogens (including HIV) should be rampant. There is massive destruction of infrastructure, transportation, and communications on an international scale. How are people going to eat, get supplies, get medical treatment? Massive planet-wide looting should begin almost immediately.

There are dead bodies floating around in public water supplies, in collapsed buildings, and throughout the countryside and cities. Cholera, dysentery, and other contaminant spread diseases should wipe out huge numbers of additional survivors (where do you think refugees have been going to the bathroom on their long marches?) Specialists needed to repair all those fused electrical circuits are either dead, dealing with their own family survival, or stranded without effective transportation.

And there is no transportation to get replacement parts to where they are needed. Getting any semblance of modern urban society running again should be interesting. And what are people going to use for commerce? They sure aren't going to process credit cards or withdraw money from ATM's. We have the makings of the finest post-apocalypse movie since A Boy And His Dog here.


Lee
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http://www.eveofthewar.co.uk
"The War Of The Worlds Website"

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:10 am 
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Just my opinions on a couple of things here...

Well, I actually liked the film, but I don't wholly disagree with the faults pointed out in this review. I really like the review's extrapolation of the world after the 'happy ending.' Looting and the chaos from destroyed infrastructure are obvious, but the blood-borne pathogens issue, not to mention just the rotting corpses everywhere (and the resulting diseases), were one of those things I smacked my forehead over. Of course! I should have thought of that myself! Clever.

I disagree a bit about Rachel (the girl played by Dakota Fanning) and her screaming seeming out of place. I know several children who are intelligent, precocious, generally not 'spoiled,' but who can give in to panic attacks under stress, say during a bad storm where the probability of tornadoes is present. The screaming in the film seemed genuine enough to me, given the circumstances.
To be fair, the initial screaming in the van escape from the city seemed like a tantrum or some sort of habitual 'defense mechanism' used by a spoiled kid, and the standard response to calm Rachel down was just as habitual. But as the movie progress, those habits gave way to genuine terror, and non-standard ways of dealing with it. In other words, Rachel realised that screaming for attention or to get something was no longer necessary, no longer important, and that screaming in genuine terror was something that was new & needed to be dealt with in new ways. That, coupled with everything she knew at her young age being torn assunder, led to her getting a little unhinged & slipping into catatonia when she got chased & ultimately captured.

As for point number 5 with the aliens being so observant & yet not knowing about diseases, I could take the easy route and say "if the Martians in the original novel hadn't figured out the disease problem, why should we quibble about the aliens in the 2005 movie?" But actually, I'd like to offer a more in-depth possibility...
There are two schools of thought regarding cross-contamination of two different worlds coming into contact with each other. One is that there would be little to no adverse effects, because each world developed independently of each other, and diseases that are adapted to effect one world's life aren't adapted to effect the others. The other school of thought is that one world's diseases could effectively wipe out the other's life forms, because those life forms haven't developed immunity to said diseases.
My guess is that the aliens in the movie (and the Martians in the book) were of that first school of thought, and grossly underestimated the second possibility.
Of course, realistically, one could imagine that the aliens were carrying some of their own diseases, and Earth could be affected by them...

What else? Oh, yeah, the 'visual with some motion detection' sensor pod the aliens used. Yep, does seem a bit 'old school' compared to the rest of the alien tech, doesn't it? No infrared/heat detectors? Good thing it either didn't have them, or it did but they were malfunctioning!
I don't know how to explain this one away other than assuming that the aliens just didn't think it useful to use IR/thermal imaging. OK, that's pretty weak, until we consider that sometimes we humans just use visual cameras instead of a full sensor battery to look at things.
I guess one could go back to the original book, and be glad that the Martian tentacle exploring the coal celar only had tactile 'sense' instead of visual. (For that matter, how could it 'feel' things in the coal celar? :-k )
In any event, it was a creepy scene, for me anyway, so I didn't think too hard about the detection gear being wholly inadequate while I first watched it. I just got caught up in the moment, and had fun getting tense!

Again, these are just my opinions; I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers nor start any confrontations!
I should also point out that I didn't see the movie until just a couple of months ago, so I did so from a 'clean slate' perspective, and had no preconceptions going in. I'd ignored all the hype & most of the previews about the film when it first came out & left. I avoided reviews & even photos, because I didn't want to spoil any surprises when I got around to seeing it on dvd. Little did I realise that it would be two years before I would actually see the thing! :shock:
Anyway, I was pleased overall, and surprised that it roughly paralleled the book in many scenes, at least more than the 1953 version did. (I liked that film, too, by the way.) And I loved that we only saw the invasion through Ray's POV, rather like the original book being told from the Narrator's perspective. (Except, of course, for the scenes with his brother... those are OK, though, since they include one of my favourites: the Thunder Child! But that's a different thread/topic.) I've seen posts & heard comments about how people wanted to see the 'battle over the hill' when Ray lets Rob go, but then that would be a scene for War of the Worlds: Rob's Story. I liked that the writers kept the POV focused on Ray, making us live the experience of the invasion through him. For some viewers, that was the wrong move, but I actually liked it.

Well, that's about all I have to say for now. I don't know if anyone will even read or have any interest in these comments, as this film is 'old news' for most of you by now, but what the heck. I just wanted to throw my two cents out there. Thanks for reading!



Edited for typos... my favourite was "...I didn't see the movie until just a couple of moths ago..." Moths? Not butterflies? :-s


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:44 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Moths?! :lol:

A good review on 'eveofthewar's' review =D>

Just one point though, you said;
"Of course, realistically, one could imagine that the aliens were carrying some of their own diseases, and Earth could be affected by them..."
Wells did say "On examining the Martians remains, no bacteria other than terrestrial ones were found" and he concluded from this "that there were no bacterias on Mars".


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:48 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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True. I recall that the Martians had eliminated the bacteria beforehand on their planet...


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:43 am 
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Martians had no bacteria... I completely forgot about that; it's been several years since I last read the book. For the record, though, I was referring to the aliens in the Spielberg 2005 film.

Thanks, though for the compliments. I enjoy trying to make 'nitpicks' work within the context of the stories being told. I don't live just to find nits in a film, mind you; that's something akin to Mystery Science Theater 3000 or the current online incarnation thereof, Rifftrax. (Some movies are bad enough that I can't help but give them that kind of treatment, but I digress...) But it's fun to try to justify nits if they aren't too glaringly out of place. I've had years of practice doing so with Space: 1999 episodes. (Well, the first season, anyway. The second season's rather difficult to fix. Again, I digress...)

I should point out part of my reasoning by comparing the WotW book with the 2005 film... I do view them both as separate entities. My point in comparing them in these posts was more to illustrate how some people have little problem with the way the book killed off the invaders, but seemed to balk at the fact the film did so in the same way. (This is based upon conversations I've had with people, not to any specific post here.) I, of course, enlighten them and give them a brief synopsis of the book, with the encouragement that they read the original, or at least listen to an audio version of it.

Oh, one more thing about the book, since I brought it up myself in my last post... I questioned how the Martian tripod tentacles could feel things in the coal celar, but I was wondering if I was 'mis-remembering' the scene. Was it a tripod (or handling machine) tentacle, or one of the actual Martian's appendages? My only copy of the book is still packed away from a recent move, so I can't check myself.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:11 am 
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Martian War Lord

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It was a handling-machine, here's the text taken from angelfire.com's online copy 'Suddenly I heard a noise without, the run and smash of slipping plaster, and the triangular aperture in the wall was darkened. I looked up and saw the lower surface of a handling-machine coming slowly across the hole. One of its gripping limbs curled amid the debris; another limb appeared, feeling its way over the fallen beams. I stood petrified, staring. Then I saw through a sort of glass plate near the edge of the body the face, as we may call it, and the large dark eyes of a Martian, peering, and then a long metallic snake of tentacle came feeling slowly through the hole.'


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:15 pm 
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Right, it was a metallic tentacle! Thanks! :)
So, how could it feel, then? :-k
OK, I realise this is a different topic for another thread. But I guess it does raise the point that the book is rife with questionable science if we start to analyse it, just as the 2005 film is. Hence the fiction part of sci-fi, and the requirement to suspend disbelief.
Now I realise that suspension can only be taken so far before it's strained, and that point is going to vary from person to person. I'll just state that for myself, I was able to go along with most of what happened in the film.
Even the "they're already here" tagline (which I still hate; the whole ad campaign in the US seemed based around it, which I think did a terrible disservice to the film) wasn't as awful as I'd anticipated, once I'd seen it in context.
No, the tripods weren't buried for 'millions of years' as the deranged character Harlan Ogilvy asserted. But they were there for at least several hundred years, or even a thousand or so. Time enough (and deep enough) for towns to be built up over them, for rivers to change course over some of them, and so on. It still seems an unlikely way to invade a planet to our human sensibilities, and in my opinion is one of the film's biggest problems, but I was able to accept it as presented and move on.
I also realise it was a conscious decision on the part of the writers, to do something different than the usual 'they came from outer space/watch the skies' thing. True, 'they' did come from 'out there', but they'd been here before and were coming back. That's actually rather creepy, when you think about it.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:22 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Yes creepy but totally unnecessary, why did they wait until mankind had reached a militarily technical level to become a threat to them? (OK, I know we weren't a threat to them, but...) if they had attacked fifty or a hundred years earlier we would have been completely unprepared. if they were here thousands of years ago to plant their tripods why didn't they take the planet then? and whilst they were here last time, didn't they notice there friends dropping down dead for no apparent reason? and put two and two together. :lol:


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:05 am 
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Umm...
The advance party that planted the tripods was automated?
No? How about this...
The aliens' government is as messed up as several of our human ones? (ALIEN LEADER: "So what if we didn't here from the advanced team? We're colonising that planet!"
ALIEN SCIENTIST: "But we fear they may have been incapacitated by disease, for which we might have no defence..."
ALIEN LEADER: "You have no proof of that. We're going!")

Or on a more serious note, perhaps they didn't have any more time to wait to build up immunity to terrestrial buggums. "Our world is dying, and we're dead anyway if we wait any longer. We either take Earth now, and have a chance at dying, or we stay home and die for sure."
Why wait so long in the first place, giving humanity a chance to thrive & to possibly defend itself? The defence thing was licked from the get-go: humanity effectively would have none (other than a lucky kill or two that would be well within acceptable parameters). That, coupled with the 'blitzkrieg' style attack, would leave the possibility of humans regrouping and coordinating any counterstrike practically impossible.
As for the human population, well, what a plentiful food source/fertilizer for the terraforming project (the red weed). And what a project that was, obviously to make our world like the aliens' world. But perhaps there was more to it than that: perhaps the accelerated growth of the weed was designed to not only quicken the process, but maybe also to scrub the environment clean of terrestrial bugs. Only through a terrible miscalculation/underestimation, it didn't do a thorough enough job, and in fact became succeptible to the very germs it was supposed to cleanse.

Just musing...


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:34 am 
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I just remembered that I never commented upon the music.
I actually liked the score for this film. I feel that it suits the mood of the story, and I would describe it as 'understated.' The escape/chase sequences are scored at an appropriately frenetic pace, though, so there is some variety in the score.
There are several bits which I find powerful, too, but not entirely because they are loud or fast-paced. The music during the scene when Ray sees the crashed 747 is haunting. (It was originally only intended as a coda to the closing credits, but Spielberg liked it enough to move it into the film.)
I also liked the music during the abduction of Rachel, & Ray's subsequent, deliberate capture. It was this and the 747 piece that moved me to buy the soundtrack cd.
No, it's neither sweeping nor grand, but I guess that's why I like it; it's distinctively not just another John Williams score. But I'm weird that way.
Anyone else like this film's music?
(sounds of crickets chirping)
Hmm...


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:37 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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I know a lot of people get irritated if all the answers are not placed in front of them, I am quite happy not to know all the answers, it's more like real life and also leaves a story open for a possible sequel or two.

The music score? :-k
No offence to John Williams but I can't say I really noticed the music much, which is probably a good thing, the music should complement and enhance a film not dominate it, if you leave the cinema and the only thing you can remember about the film is the music then... [-(
The music should add atmosphere to the film, not the other way round, so I reckon Williams must have done a good job as I can't remember it. :lol: I'll have to watch it again and pay better attention next time.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:12 pm 
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Lonesome Crow wrote:
I know a lot of people get irritated if all the answers are not placed in front of them, I am quite happy not to know all the answers, it's more like real life and also leaves a story open for a possible sequel or two.

The music score? :-k
No offence to John Williams but I can't say I really noticed the music much, which is probably a good thing, the music should complement and enhance a film not dominate it, if you leave the cinema and the only thing you can remember about the film is the music then... [-(
The music should add atmosphere to the film, not the other way round, so I reckon Williams must have done a good job as I can't remember it. :lol: I'll have to watch it again and pay better attention next time.

This is almost a 'yeh, I agree, LOL!' post, but really, I do agree with your last post.
When you watch the film again, see if you notice the 747 music, and let me know what you think of it. As I said, it's haunting, almost like a sad testament to the passing of the human era, but heard from a distance, as though even that testament is already gone. (Man, it's hard to put into words what I mean, but that's as close as I can get to describing the emotion that piece made me feel.)


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