War of the Worlds

[Mr Jake]

I have been informed that it doesn't go "DUNNN DUNN DUNNNNNNNN". I am most displeased

[Al_Ninio]

Well I doubt Jeff Wayne's too upset about not getting the call for Spielberg's film - I just saw this week's UK album charts and his War Of The Worlds album went in at no. 6. Nice bit of success by osmosis, there.

Also because he is making his own War of the Worlds movie.

In other news, I have just seen this movie and liked it a lot.
It was pirated, so the quality wasn't great, but I WILL go see it in the cinema when it gets here this weekend.

Having pretty much been brought up on the musical (I own the vinyls and CDs), I was not too keen on the narrator.
I was so used to the musical that when the narrator finished talking and there was no "DUN DUN DUNNN", I was sort of confused. But I enjoyed this movie. A lot. The tripods were awesome, and I was rather surprised that they kept original ending.

One thing that did bother me a bit was how Ogilvy, the "well known astronomer" who was one of the first victims of the heat ray in the novel turned out to be a completely different character, whose only similarity to the original is the name. I also expected the ferry scene to be more Thunder Child-ish, but that's nothing bad really.

Can't wait to see it in the cinema.

[LGM]

If your cinema has a decent sound system, the Tripod noise will most likely induce pants-crapping.

[Darth Mandarb]

If your cinema has a decent sound system, the Tripod noise will most likely induce pants-crapping.

Yes indeed!  I am still creeped out by that sound.

I was not too keen on the narrator.

Eek!  How can you not like Morgan Freeman??

I know you just mean the difference between old and new;)

I was into War of the Worlds BIG time when I was a kid.  We had a teacher in elementary school who played the radio drama for us one time.  It's been years and years since I've had anything to do with it and when I heard this one was coming out I intentionally stayed away from re-familiarizing myself just so it'd be something new.

[Al_Ninio]

I was not too keen on the narrator.

Eek!  How can you not like Morgan Freeman??

I know you just mean the difference between old and new;)

It's so easy not to like him when you compare him to Richard Burton.
I uploaded a sample of the intro, and left a bit of the fabled "DUN DUN DUNNN" in.
http://al.xylot.com/burton.mp3
You can't POSSIBLY tell me Morgan Freeman is better than this.

[Darth Mandarb]

It's so easy not to like him when you compare him to Richard Burton.
I uploaded a sample of the intro, and left a bit of the fabled "DUN DUN DUNNN" in.
http://al.xylot.com/burton.mp3
You can't POSSIBLY tell me Morgan Freeman is better than this.

Indeed!  I remember that now ... I had all but forgotten.  Thanks for that!

I would definitely have to admit that in Richard Burton vs. Morgan Freeman the victory goes to Mr. Burton.

[Kinoko]

I remember first stealing the CD out of my brothers room and sticking it in my own CD player in my room. It was all twilight-ey outside and the song was great, then came the unscrewing... starting to get a little on edge there. The hairs on the back of my neck positively stood on end when I heard that piece of music that plays as the aliens leave the pod. Doomdoomdoom doom doomdoom. Suddenly I was looking out of my window imagining the tripods coming to get me.

Great, great memories. The only bad part on the whole CD is the awful song that plays when his wife leaves...always skipped than one.

The "ULA" though is the most fantastic noise ever created for an alien.

[monkey0506]

I haven't taken the time to read the thread, but I did read the first post the other day, so excuse me if this is on topic:

One word about the movie (which I just saw today):  No.  I liked the movie, don't get me wrong, it was a good movie.  However, I think the title should be changed.  Basically what happened here is this:

--------------------
|        War         |
| of the Worlds |
|                       |
|   H. G. Wells   |
|                       |
|                       |
|                       |
--------------------
         |
         |
         V
[extracted Alien machines]
         |
         |
         V
---------------------------------------------
|                                                      |
|                                                      |
|                  War of the                   |
|                     Worlds                      |
|                                                      |
|              Spielburg Edition             |
|                                                      |
---------------------------------------------

In case you missed it, I'm implying that the alien machines were taken from H.G. Wells' (sp?) story, and brought from late 19th century England to early 21st century America.  Like I said, I liked the movie, but I just don't really think that it was the same story, whereas I think that H.G. Wells' version would have made a decent enough movie.  Also, I haven't read the entire book, but the machines weren't even right.  One thing that I disliked, the people did NOT just turn to ash in the book, and their clothes go flying up in the air.  In the book, the machines had a Heat-Ray, which incinerated anything in its path (including human clothing).  Not just an Ash-Ray which turned human flesh into ashes...

Other than that, it was a good movie.

[LGM]

I think turning them to ash mirrors stuff like Hiroshima and atom bombs and the whole nuclear possibilites in modern day. Plus it just looks cooler!

[Potch]

I haven't personnally seen the movie yet, but it's funny, those that have in my little corner of the world have had totally different opinions of it.Ã,  My boyfriend's brother and cousin saw it, and they really didn't like it.Ã,  They said that the special effects were good, but that's all it was.Ã,  They said the only character they really cared about was Dakota Fanning.Ã,  Now, these two are EXTREMELY picky about movies, and the cousin especially picks apart every movie he sees, so I rarely listen to his opinion anyway.Ã,  Ã, But then a co-worker saw it, and also said that it wasn't good.Ã,  He also said that the special effects were good, but there was nothing else to it.

Guess I'll have to see it for myself, when I came rustle up some funds.Ã,  :-)

[m0ds]

Aye, the best critic is yourself - so don't rely on what your friends have said! I managed to catch it whilst at Brittens this year, and "intense" seems to be a good word for it. I haven't read the book, though I've seen the older movie - so I can't really make many comparisons apart from to the older movie.

None the less, this new version was awesome - it doesn't stop! Not just the action but also Tom Cruise - he's constantly running and things are constantly getting blown up and what not beside him. The camera work they used when he's driving down the motorway with his kids was pretty damn cool.

As you say there were a lot of plot holes and things that didn't get a particularly good explanation, but at 155 minutes or so I suppose there is only so much you can show, and I think Spielberg opted for working with what looked best on screen rather than what was told on screen. Things like Robbie surviving etc weren't particularly believeable and perhaps 100% Spielberg as Matt says.

I found it quite morbid in places and I'm surprised it was rated 12A here too, I certainly wasn't expecting vapourising people but it was kind of nice on screen.

I'd give it 8/10.

The Jack Black King Kong film looks like fun, too

[Matt Goble]

There was a quote in the Metro today along the lines of "Ignore the 12A rating, I'm 32 and it scared the shit out of me".

Of course the films was extra-intense for M0Ds as they showed an anti-smoking ad before hand where a guy's "ash" falls off - bet that one is still giving yer nightmares 

[LGM]

I actually thought showing the dead people in the plane was rather morbid..

[Esseb]

As opposed to all the other dead people?

[jetxl]

I though the film was good. However I didn't care about the people who died at all. And the Happy "Spielburgian" Ending left the film with no impact.

Fun to see the tripods again.

[LGM]

Well, seeing someone blow up in ash isn't as gross as seeing their carcass slumped over in a crashed airplane. Maybe it's just me. Usually movies sugarcoat that stuff.

[Pumaman]

I really enjoyed it as a film, it was intense and kept pace without too many "speilburg sentimental moments". However, the one thing that ruined it for me was the oh-so-predictable Spielburg ending.

Spoiler

I mean, the fact that his son and entire family survive

[close]

Pity he couldn't resist that, but never mind.

[monkey0506]

Pumaman...Yes, that was very predictable.  I kind of was surprised when that ending seemed to become so unlikely, but then at the end, I somehow knew in the back of my mind that it would happen (somehow...completely unexplainable, but yet it happened anyway o_0).  Like you said, it was a good movie though.

[Scummbuddy]

I was actually looking for bodies in the airplane, and I couldn't find a single one. I assumed it was "censored' but I guess I just missed them. Hmm.

[LGM]

Yes, they're in clear site when the guy is dragging the food cart through the aisle.