War of the worlds!

[craig]

I thought it was a great film over all, but a few things bugged me.

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1. If the lightning was also an EMP apparently... why did every piece of technology die except one video camera?

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2. When the first Tripod comes up from the ground everone dies except Cruise... imo this would have been a great film if Spielberg had made out Cruise was in the whole movie, but had gone all Alfred Hitchcock and killed him in that attack, then followed a lesser known group of actors around.

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3. The son. Man, what a stupid charachter... totally un-needed and annoying.

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The ending... way too quick... way too contrived.

 

[AzzMan]

I was thinking they created humans to begin with, then decide to attack when the population grew out of control, or when they decided there was enough to harvest?

 

[Sulkdodds]

I think the idea was that they depleted all the natural resources of their planet, so they seeded Earth with the beginnings of life, planted their machines and lay their entire species down for a good long nap...to be woken only when Earth's volume of usable biomass had reached certain thresholds.

 

[Pauly]

I believe the the reasons the tripods began to malfunction at the end was becasue the aliens driving them were hallucinating from bacteria in our atmosphere and just they were getting confused and couldn't drive and just the aliens were sick out of their mind. Why the forceshields came down? That was spielbergs idea to do that for a BANG BOOM killing ending. In the original 1952 movie(closer to the book) the alien tripods just slowely stopped and fell to the ground and the aliens fell out weezing from our atmosphere and their sickness.

 

[Johnnny49]

Actually in the days after 911 I know that, in Virginia anyway, people were lined up out the doors of gunshops. Not very smart maybe (no invading Taliban army), but there was a will to fight. So the films are actually close to the normal human reaction in, at least in this. :bonce:


"No film I know of have had people freaked out, more just "Hey aliens are killing us, oh well lets get our gun!"

 

[chu]

One thing that kind or ruins it for me (not just this movie either):

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When the director feels the need to show the said alien or creature. It takes the fun right out of the movie. When you leave it up to the viewer to decide what the alien looks like then it is a different experience for everyone. It was kind of like being in math class and the teacher gives you all the solutions to the equation.

Another crit I have, which most of you have as well:

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Robbie. "Oh! Is he dead?" A very weak clincher with such a very weak character. Would of been better of being the scared teenager wrather than trying to be the hero. I don't know how many 15-16 year old kids who seem to hate the world would not be afraid of almost certain death and want to fight an advancing giant alien machine. Would have been better of having him dead.

Otherwise I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was a good display of the struggle of surivial especially in the scene where

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their van get's highjacked.

Here are a couple more crits I have:

 

[Sulkdodds]

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I believe the the reasons the tripods began to malfunction at the end was becasue the aliens driving them were hallucinating from bacteria in our atmosphere

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But that doesn't make any sense - unless they drive by direct mind link, and even then, the shields would have to NOT be automatic, like Edcrab said.

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Yes, Robby should have never appeared again after charging onto a hill that got napalmed

 

[Burn]

I thought it was a great film over all, but a few things bugged me.

Spoiler

1. If the lightning was also an EMP apparently... why did every piece of technology die except one video camera?

It ran on batterys.

 

[Harryz]

It ran on batterys.

Yes and his watch ran on petrol.

 

[Burn]

Yes and his watch ran on petrol.

Gas powered watchs are common nowadays.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I thought it was a great film over all, but a few things bugged me.

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1. If the lightning was also an EMP apparently... why did every piece of technology die except one video camera?

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and what about that minivan they were using to escape?
funny how it was the only vehicle (aside from the military ones) that anyone figured how to get working..

aw well...i guess now im just getting a little picky huh? :|

 

[Direwolf]

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A) The EMP was only felt where the strikes originally happened. Since the army and others seem to retain functioning technology, its effects were not world wide.
B) It feels like a lot of people wanted them to break in the middle of the movie and spend fourty-five minutes explaining the aliens motivations, logic, technology, biology, and strategy. Some things just have to be taken for what they are.

 

[JellyWorld]

Actually in the days after 911 I know that, in Virginia anyway, people were lined up out the doors of gunshops. Not very smart maybe (no invading Taliban army), but there was a will to fight. So the films are actually close to the normal human reaction in, at least in this. :bonce:


"No film I know of have had people freaked out, more just "Hey aliens are killing us, oh well lets get our gun!"

Well the Taliban weren't pwning the Americans. When it's completely hopeless people flee.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

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and what about that minivan they were using to escape?
funny how it was the only vehicle (aside from the military ones)

Did you even paid a freakin attention to the movie? The guy at the auto-service fixed the van by replacing some parts that has been fried during the lightening.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Yes. And don't bother trying to say that the replacement part would be burnt out too - EMP only affects things with an electrical current I believe, so since there was no current in the replacement part before they stuck it in the van, it would have been okay.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Did you even paid a freakin attention to the movie? The guy at the auto-service fixed the van by replacing some parts that has been fried during the lightening.

right...and that one mechanic was the only one that entire area (of NY was it that the movie took place in?) who had working parts or knew how to fix it?
man...whatever...u win.

it sounds phony to me.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

right...and that one mechanic was the only one that entire area (of NY was it that the movie took place in?) who had working parts or knew how to fix it?
man...whatever...u win.

it sounds phony to me.

Rey told him to fix something and he did, which it turned out to be working. Next time pay attention to the movie.

 

[evil^milk]

just saw it yesterday, best film i've seen in a long time. very suspenseful, hl2-like movie.

 

[mortiz]

Did you even paid a freakin attention to the movie? The guy at the auto-service fixed the van by replacing some parts that has been fried during the lightening.

Yes, apparantly Ray was the only person in his entire state who knew that you had to change the part.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Rey told him to fix something and he did, which it turned out to be working. Next time pay attention to the movie.

perhaps if u paid attention to my post, u would just maybe understand what i was trying to say when i replied for the second time.. but maybe thats also wishful thinking seeing as u can't understand my point, and yet tell me to pay attention?..

 

[Razor]

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I think the machines actually ran off some kind of biomass and used it to fuel them. On their own planet, they used the red weeds to fuel their ships and walking machines. So 1 million years ago, they knew what was happening and knew that the only way to survive was to go into hiding until humans and the animals on Earth had created enough of them to start again i.e. have a enough biomass to fuel not only their ships but also fuel the growth of their original biomass source, the weeds. When the strider gets knocked down at the end and you see the gunk spewing out, that must be the biomass that comes from the humans.

 

[Foxtrot]

Oh no I'm releasing spoilers from a series that's been around for how many years now?

Drop the asshole attitude, how many people do you think read LOTR before the movies were announced?

 

[Ennui]

Drop the asshole attitude, how many people do you think read LOTR before the movies were announced?

Sadly not a lot. I'm fairly unique in that I read them all when I was nine.

War of the Worlds kicked ass, there were a few Hollywood moments but it was damn good all the same.

 

[Burn]

NEWS JUST IN, PLEASE READ!

Its just a god damn film. You people are getting pissy over a freaking FILM. So only one car was fixed during the emp? SO WHAT. Its just a film, only one car was fixed (And there was nothing about other cars not being fixed. But if you where under attack by aliens would your first action be take your car down to the local garage?) which leads the car being taken later, which is an awesome bit of the film.

Dr. Freeman sorry to rant, but your post just pissed me off. Your acting like this film was ment to be 100% fact.

 

[Ennui]

Agreed, don't be nitpicky, lest I start complaining about how stupidly unbelievable ALL of Star Wars is.

 

[Glirk Dient]

right...and that one mechanic was the only one that entire area (of NY was it that the movie took place in?) who had working parts or knew how to fix it?
man...whatever...u win.

it sounds phony to me.

The news people had their van working. The military had working vehicles.

 

[KagePrototype]

NEWS JUST IN, PLEASE READ!

Its just a god damn film. You people are getting pissy over a freaking FILM. So only one car was fixed during the emp? SO WHAT. Its just a film, only one car was fixed (And there was nothing about other cars not being fixed. But if you where under attack by aliens would your first action be take your car down to the local garage?) which leads the car being taken later, which is an awesome bit of the film.

Dr. Freeman sorry to rant, but your post just pissed me off. Your acting like this film was ment to be 100% fact.

Some people can suspend their disbelief more-so than others, please try to understand this before getting so defensive.

 

[Fuse Kazuki]

Looks good. I think I'll get it :thumbs:

 

[bam23]

Agreed, don't be nitpicky, lest I start complaining about how stupidly unbelievable ALL of Star Wars is.

And everyone on this thread just got owned.

It's just like when Halflife 2 came out. It wasn't a perfect game, but a damn good one (not counting steam-related problems). You guys were anal about that too.

 

[Phat-t]

although it had a few plotholes, i thought the film was genious. Especially with the way it portrayed human reactions (maybe excluding robbie, the son).

It seemed like what half-life 2 would've been like during the portal storms and the invasion. Actually, if a HL2 film came out right now, based on the combine invasion period, people would probably acuse it of ripping off Spielburg's film. You know, with the Tripods (striders) and the storms at the start (portal storms).

But anyway, the movie made my top ten list. Great directing, camera shots, acting, and everything else.

 

[WARLORD]

The acting works really well! Especially Dakota Fanning is ****ing brilliant! She's gonna be the new hot chick from Hollywood who everybody wants to have in their movies - even though she's only 10 or 11 years old! ...she's probably gonna be really hot! wub.gif

she remided me of drew barrimore in E.T (and now drew barrimore IS hot lol ^^ )

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Tom Cruise did a decent job aswell, but Robbie (Justin Chatwin) was the problem! I know he was suppose to play the angry young American who wants to fight for his country to slaughter these *terrorists*, but suffered from the same shit as Hayden Christensen did in Episode III.

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"ooh please dad! let me join the army so i can go in iraq and fight for "freedom" i'll come back alive and well!"

oh COME ON!! i cant believe steven spielberg put that kind of message in that movie..

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The same goes for the effects! Nothing much to say about them...
The sound design was awesome! The big kinda sirene sound the tripods made was fantastic! I loved it! It really reminded me of Half-Life2 and the striders! Loved it!
Overall it's rather hard to rate because I was entertained for 2 hours straight, but the last 10 minutes kinda ruined the fun... sad.gif Really an anti-climax for sure!

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man when i saw it i was like.. "STRIDEEEEEEEER!!!" ^^
i wish striders were that big and powerfull in halflife2, now they seems so weak compared to thoses :/
(cant even crush a building with it's "feets", tss ^^)

maybe someone will make a "war of the worlds" mod for halflife2 ;p (i hope)

sooo about the tripods (because that's the thing that interest me the most here ^^ )

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everyone says it's powered by biomass, if that's the case.. what powers it up at the begining? there's no biomass.

my guess is that it's powered by the lightnings while the pilot(s) is transfered inside.

i was thinking they use the human blood to grow thoses plants so that earth become like their planet, maybe they even eat thoses plants, maybe they can transform them to power their tripods like we can use plants to make fuel for cars.

meaning that if they cant grow thoses plants because of the bacterias they cant power their tripods, meaning they need to deactivate the shields to save power

also i thought that they actually lived in blood (seeing that a lot of blood comes out when the alien open his tripod) but maybe that's just because the rockets ruptured some blood containers

and there was something weird, when the alien see the little girl in the basement, why he ignore her?? he thought she was a doll? or dead or something?

 

[MilkMan12]

she remided me of drew barrimore in E.T (and now drew barrimore IS hot lol ^^ )

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"ooh please dad! let me join the army so i can go in iraq and fight for "freedom" i'll come back alive and well!"

oh COME ON!! i cant believe steven spielberg put that kind of message in that movie..

Where the **** did you find that message? And Im guessing your not American. Man a lot of foreigners on this board find every reason that america is ruining everything, they even make a far stretch about RObbie joining the army to fight in Iraq? What the ****? Cmon dont let this ruin the movie for you. Spielberg did not put that message at all whatsoever in his movie, your just trying really hard to find something bad. You guys are ****ed up, if a foreign film came out like this would we say the same godamn thing? Do you even read your posts back to yourself and see how much hogwash it is?

 

[Sulkdodds]

Riiight.

Less vehemently: I thought the message Spielberg was giving was that Bobby was stupid and his anger was ultimately futile.

 

[A True Canadian]

I just got back from the theatre and enjoyed it immensly. Very riveting stuff. I thought that this film was absolutely amazing.

Then I come on to these boards and see people complaining and complaning about the small things left unanswered. And to be honest these are the same things that people had a problem with in Half-Life 2.

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They didn't explain this; they didn't explain that; the ending came too quick; how come the aliens are dumb; etc. etc.
YOU people are giving me the headache, lol.

(WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING MOVIES: STAR WARS: EPISODES I & IV, JURASSIC PARK, MATRIX)

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The number one complaint: why did the aliens not research the bacteria problem before invading Earth?

I have not read the book, but I thought the reason for this becomes clear after some simple thought. They planted these Tripods under the Earth many years ago incase they needed something from our planet. A cunning strategist always covers his bets and this is what the aliens did too. If their planet was to ever to become unlivable, they could always come to Earth.

And this is likely what happened. Their home was not suitable for them anymore so they came to Earth to make it their new home. Once they came here they found some pests (humans) that needed to be exterminated. Just like a family moving into a new house and finding that there is a roach problem, they try and get rid of the roaches so that they can live more contently.

These aliens must have been desperate if they needed to invade Earth. This means that it was worth the risk of any bacteria or possible human technology that could have harmed them. I think that these aliens had nothing to lose at that point and were going to have to take Earth or it wold be the end of them.

There's probably other variations that could come from this, but I feel that this is the best reason for the alien's actions.

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The second complaint: Why was Robbie alive at the end?

I'm guessing that it was a script change at the last moment to make the audience happy. Many times in early movie screenings, scenes are added or cut based on what the audience thought. Robbie was just a kid, and I'm sure there'd be many people out there who'd have been up in arms over Robbie's death. If Robbie was to die, would people lash out at Spielberg for being tasteless? You bet.

On the other hand, Spielberg did a good job of making us think that Robbie had kicked the bucket only to bring out the happy ending. His reason for survival wasn't explained, but would any explanation satisfy the audience? Use you imaginations. He could have hid under or in one of the tanks;he could have fallen in a hole; he could have been running away and Cruise didn't see him. It's like in the Matrix when Cypher falls down in the basement of the apartment when the Agents and the armed guards are chasing them. In the next scene he is outside and ok. Or in Star Wars when Han and Chewbacca take a wrong turn in the Death Star and walk into an army of Storm Troopers on guard. We see Han and Chewbacca running away with troopers chasing, but don't see them again until they meet up with Luke and Liea (with no explination on how they lost all those troops).

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The third complaint: Why did the movie end so quickly and with no climax?

There was a climax. Cruise and Dakota getting captured and are nearly eaten before a grenade saves the day. After that point all you see is the Tripods getting destroyed. Is that not a climax? A point where the story reaches its most gripping moments (the two main characters nearly getting eaten), with the falling action after it (the Tripods are going down)? All hope looks lost at that point, but then once they escape things start to turn around.

I liked the fact that the situation kept getting more and more grim as the movie went on. The tension kept mounting and mounting until it was finally over. This is akin to any survival scenario. Things just get to a point where all hope is lost and then a rescue happens. Like in Jurassic Park, the group gets back together in the end and then leaves the island. They escape, but I see no one complaining there. In The Phantom Menace, the robots shut down and the war ends, but I see no one complaining about that situation.

Well that's all for now. This is perhaps the most fun I've had at the cinema ever. This is probably my new favorite movie, and I will likely see it again in a few days.


To anyone who is still reading at this point, I thank you. You've just read one of the best posts of the day.