I just got back from seeing War of the Worlds. I had a mixed reaction–like most Spielberg films, it has some truly harrowing, extraordinary visual moments, unlike anything I have ever seen before, some really tense parts, and then, some totally bogus corny Disney-like crap tossed in to ruin it all.
Worth seeing for the visuals–the first part is unbelievable, truly visceral and horrific on the level of the 1st half hour of Saving Private Ryan–then after about 3/4ths of the way in it gets…well, I won’t ruin it.
i worked on the movie fro 1 day, although they didn’t use me and I just sat in holding (an empty soundstage) all day dressed like this:
along iwth all the kdis that also didn’t work, but supposedly Spielberg likes to have kids on call jsut in case he decides he wants some.
Anyway I doubt I’ll go see the movie since it was made so quickly. It was only greenlit in November, and shooting wrapped March 3rd. So to be released already is sucha quick turnover, they obviously didn’t spend too much thought or effort on it. It’s proably still dazzling and fun, but not worth a second thought.
Also it’s based on teh H.G. Wells book, not the Orson Welles radio (and later film) adaptation of it.
Wait! I saw you! You ARE in the film–the scene with the soldier on the unicycle…
Actually, if you ended up in the film, you would have been in one of the films better scenes–the fighting bits were astonishing.
I like the bit where the giant green bats come out of the manhole covers and peck the eyes out of the children to the tune of the American national anthem disco version.
dude that movie was breathe taking… literally i found myself holding my breath in some parts… that was neat…but there didnt seem to be a plot… just kind of a movie where all you did was go wow, holy crap… etc etc. but there wasnt really a plot… the special effects were insanely sick…but how at the end robbie made it through… i meean what the hell… even thought it was like that i still would highly recomend seeing this movie…
i just saw it last night. i liked it. i was more satisfied then i had expected. but how the hell did the brother make it home? he was walking into death and fire and flames and destruction. if a hummer and a tank cant stand the fire…how did that one brother make it home?
Simple–Spielberg wanted a nauseatingly happy ending. I thought it was a cheap shot. Especially after that whole incredible scene when Tom Cruise is doing everything possible to keep his son from running off to help the army in the middle of the battle–the way his son slips away from him was truly heartbreaking (I couldn’t help but be moved by that scene because I’m a father myself)–but to bring him back at the end like that cheapens the hole experience. I mean, of course I was happy the son survives because he was a likeable charactor, but still it also appeared to be so fake.
In the real world, if such a thing were to happen, he would get to his ex-wife’s house and find only his in-laws. The ending made you feel that this disaster was not so bad after all, and that’s not good enough.
Oh yea, that was great. Don’t get me wrong, the film was definitly way cool, despite some reservations I mentioned earlier. My favorite parts were the lightening storms in the beginning, the part when the tripod ships first broke out of the ground and that part when they appeared at the town with the ferry.
I’m sure I’ll go see it again, simply because of the visual eye candy of those horrific scenes. (I know, that’s a really wierd sentence, calling horrific scenes eye candy, but then again, my favorite painter is Hieronymus Bosch, and there are a number of true painterly Bosch scenes in this film…)
