War of the Worlds, a review
#1
I just came back from the new "War of the Worlds" movie.

I'm thinking. . . . wow.

The movie was. . . . different, difficult to describe, sometimes difficult to watch.

You ever see "Saving Private Ryan"? Remember the Omaha Beach landing scene? Where people kept streaming out of the landing craft and drowning or getting shot and dying? Well, imagine about 100 minutes straight of that. Scenes of people dying -- playing over and over and over in endless variation. Crushed to death. Vaporized. Impaled and the blood sucked out of them. Like the aliens, the movie itself was relentless in this respect, and you actually got emotionally drained watching practically every single person introduced in the movie get killed -- sometimes by aliens, sometimes by desperate humans.

I pretty much knew what to expect having seen the 1953 version -- knew the beginning, knew the end -- so I really didn't have high hopes for this work. But what this movie lacked in surprises it made up for in atmospheres. There were two main ones at work here: the desperation of the humans, and the absolute implaccable and unstoppable aliens. I'm reminded of some historian's comment that when two cultures (human, he was speaking of) collide, that there are only five outcomes: assimilation, accomodation, isolation, subjugation, or extermination. And in this movie, it's us versus the aliens, and the aliens are intent upon erradicating us.

So in that respect, the movie was absolutely terrifying -- there was nothing we could do to stop these invaders, and they had no moral qualm about slaughtering us like cattle. It was watching people get incinerated to the left and right of a fleeing Tom Cruise to the point where a patina of vaporized human remains coated him and his clothes like flour. It was watching the aliens mowing down hundreds (thousands?) of people outside the ferry landing as they fled on foot. It was watching Tom Cruise and daughter run through a woods while a heavy snowfall of bits and pieces of clothing (from incinerated humans) drifts down about them. The movie drove this point home over and over and over -- about 100 minutes of a 117 minute movie. It was an enormous weight on your heart to watch everyone and everything you cared about get destroyed. Nothing is spared. Not buildings, not homes, not animals, and certainly not people. Not even the environment, which the Martians attempt to Arieform (as opposed to Terraform).

So in that respect, the movie both impressed me and depressed me. Dunno exactly if I can recommend it, but damned if it wasn't different.

That said, some nits/spoilers......

*****

In the movie the aliens have already seeded the Earth with their "tripods", their death machines. And they did this prior to humanity ever existing on the Earth (i.e., several million years prior to humanity's appearance). So, why did they wait so long? If they wanted to conquer the Earth, why not do it THEN before humans -- and the germs that would kill the Martians -- even existed? Afterwards just let the Earth sit until the Martians need it a million years later. Seems odd that so advanced a science would have no concept of evolution, mutation, and germ theory. [Yes, I know that Spielberg was using the "Martians-are-here-among-us-already" device as an allusion to certain terrorist/religious groups. It's just that it does open a gaping plot hole you could drop a Martian tripod through.]

When the Martians start Arieforming the Earth, they use human bodies and human blood as a component in this process. Again, very odd. How did the Martians know millions of years ago that humans would develop and that our biologies would be so similar to that of the Martians that human corpses and blood could be used to nurture a Martian ecology? Wouldn't it be much more likely that some odd bacteria, virus, or prion would be toxic to Martian biology? How could they plan to use something that wasn't even in existance when they made their plans?

If the Martians buried these death machines on Earth nearly a million years ago, then in the million intervening years, shouldn't their science have advanced to the point where they could have found a more efficient way of exterminating the human race and Arieforming the Earth? They should have at least(!) watched the StarTrek movie where there was that "Genesis Project" (Star Trek II?) wherein a single capsule with nanobots injected into a planet would completely Terraform the entire thing in a matter of hours, regardless of the planet's pre-existing biota. I mean, in the million intervening years the most efficient means you've devised of wiping out a species is a tripod-mounted death ray??? Come on! (And of course the tripods themselves clank about like so much WWI armor; again, this is the best your advanced science could come up with?)

So the movie is a bit of a disappointing anachronism in that and other respects. We as humans already know much more efficient ways of exterminating races (including our own) compared to this "advanced" alien species.

*****

So overall it's hard to say.... I mean, this work was really different, absolutely terrifying, the special effects were awesome, and the acting and dialogue were fine and all.... but the movie itself was just such a downer! Kind of a Schindler's List for the new millenium, only there isn't any Oscar Schindler in this story. Everyone and everything's getting killed -- vaporized or planted -- and there's nothing we can do to stop it. True to the original book (and the idea of a war between worlds) and certainly brought home with a vengence, but it's like watching a two hour movie about death, dying, and suffering. Somewhat tough to sit through.

I'm impressed with the storytelling, just depressed by the story being told.

Anyone else see it? Thoughts?




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#2
Attika,Jul 1 2005, 03:54 AM Wrote:Anyone else see it?  Thoughts?

I saw it last night. Overall I enjoyed it a lot, and I didn't feel the movie ever dragged.

Personally, I'd disagree that it was anything like Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan was knee deep in real history with real people killed by real people. The Aliens vaporizing people in War of the Worlds is at most a vocal "ouch" provoking moment.

You're entirely correct about the people factor, I think this was perhaps one of the best parts of the film; they captured human nature wonderfully. When Tom Cruise can't get enough of looking at the first Tripod, peoples reactions, and the way everyone panics and flees.

***Slight Spoiler***

It wasn't covered in the movie but was in the original book; the aliens rely on the blood of others to survive. They don't produce blood, but rather steal it from other beings. I realize there was a twist to this in the movie, since they sprayed it on the blood weed. But assuming they sprayed it and took it into themselves, the ending seems very fitting.

Just look at human immune systems, if I went to Europe (I'm from the US) and drank the tap water, I'd spend a few nights feeling like hell (Speaking from experience :whistling: ).

Perhaps more on this later, but its time to run to work.

You nailed everything else right on the head Attika. It's worth the money to go see!

Cheers,

Munk
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#3
Munkay,Jul 1 2005, 01:16 PM Wrote:Just look at human immune systems, if I went to Europe (I'm from the US) and drank the tap water, I'd spend a few nights feeling like hell (Speaking from experience  :whistling: ).

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That's probably not your immune system but chlorine withdrawal acting up there :P

With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince...
With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D. ...
and still keep the frog you started with.
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#4
Hey ... I'm in New Hampshire and my water comes from Poland Springs ....isn't that in Europe ? :whistling:
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#5
**Adds alien invasion to long list of things to prepare for**

Come and get me you limp wristed sissified bunch of Nancy boys! :shuriken:
All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.

"Isn't this where...."
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#6
TaMeOlta,Jul 1 2005, 10:33 AM Wrote:Hey ... I'm in New Hampshire and my water comes from Poland Springs ....isn't that in Europe ?  :whistling:
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I grew up in NH and my parents still have a house there, my water always did and still does come from... New Hampshire! Poland Springs comes from "Maine" but they also happen to have a huge bottling plant on the Quabbin Reservoir, but swear that they only use the water to "wash the bottles out" (Quabbin water is rated amongst the best in the country, despite popular opinion MA opinion). So whether its maine or mass, bottled water is still horrible tasting water!

Cheers,

Munk
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#7
Doc,Jul 2 2005, 04:49 AM Wrote:**Adds alien invasion to long list of things to prepare for**
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They're here

Oh wait, where did that movie quotes thread go? :P
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#8
Doc,Jul 1 2005, 10:49 AM Wrote:**Adds alien invasion to long list of things to prepare for**

Come and get me you limp wristed sissified bunch of Nancy boys!  :shuriken:
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What if we're invaded by kilt wearing dwarves that take a fancy to dreadlocks?
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#9
Drasca,Jul 4 2005, 04:32 PM Wrote:What if we're invaded by kilt wearing dwarves that take a fancy to dreadlocks?
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That's not an invasion silly... That's a rescue squad!
All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.

"Isn't this where...."
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#10
Drasca,Jul 4 2005, 03:32 PM Wrote:What if we're invaded by kilt wearing dwarves that take a fancy to dreadlocks?
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Those would be "Stoneclan bashers", a medium level monster found in warcraft 4. (Blizzard, and the guils wars people, have a wierd way with mix and match monster parts.)
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#11
Attika,Jul 1 2005, 12:54 AM Wrote:...  I mean, in the million intervening years the most efficient means you've devised of wiping out a species is a tripod-mounted death ray???  Come on!  (And of course the tripods themselves clank about like so much WWI armor; again, this is the best your advanced science could come up with?)

So the movie is a bit of a disappointing anachronism in that and other respects.  We as humans already know much more efficient ways of exterminating races (including our own) compared to  this "advanced" alien species. ...
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This reminds me of the series of Harry Turtledove books surrounding an alternate history of the 20th Century. It kicks off with an alien invasion of Earth during WWII. The alien race was contrived by Turtledove to be notoriously lacking in innovation. Scientific advancement, as far as they had carried it to that point, crept along at a snail's pace of traditionalism and horror at the idea of change. This gave humanity in the story an advantage due to their radical pace of advancement.

Furthering that, the technology this alien race had wasn't that far advanced compared to your stereotypical alien menace. Their fighter planes and battle tanks were turbine-driven, they had automatic cannon and guided missiles, and they possessed nukes— but basically this was all military technology humanity was fated to explore in the next few decades. The only true technological superiority came in by the fact these boys traveled to Earth in spaceships we have not yet seen here in the early 21st Century.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.
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#12
A good imagination doesn't come cheap these days. It's really hard to think of advanced alien technology that makes sense yet sets them apart from humans. I suppose most people would just think of "Terrablaster" and protonoghalohpic energy with the ability to uhh... blow up stuff and process humans for food! :mellow:
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#13
Archon_Wing,Jul 5 2005, 01:40 PM Wrote:A good imagination doesn't come cheap these days. It's really hard to think of advanced  alien technology that makes sense yet sets them apart from humans. I suppose most people would just think of "Terrablaster" and protonoghalohpic energy with the ability to uhh... blow up stuff and process humans for food!  :mellow:
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I know. It took me a while to dream up torp energizers, flash flak, and spatial-shock explosives for some of my own starship-based sci-fi work. But on that grace, those above are the human weapons. With the alien stuff: the funkier, the better.

I did take a page off of Bayblon 5 starship tactics concerning the flak battery and the energized torpedo in that, here, energy shields aren't going to do you a spot of good— the name of the game is to intercept the incoming shots before they get within lethal blast radius (which, given the unusual nature of a spatial-shock warhead, means direct contact when detonated in the vacuum of space). In the struggle between offense and defense: the faster and more advanced the computers controlling the plasma-burst flak guns, the faster the torps have to accelerate to defeat the flak. Faster intercept time means more elaborate flak batteries (with both barrage and phalanx burst patterns) to defeat the incoming.

Point defense missiles? Forget about it. Technology escalates to the point that the torps are being shot out of the tubes with rail guns— the onboard motor now only provides marginal course correction and further acceleration downrange. Too fast for missile intercepts. Only way to go is to throw up a concerted volley of flak shells set to burst either as a traditional barrage pattern, or as a phalanx burst.

Given that an energized torpedo shot has to be accurately aimed prior to launch, the approach vector is more predictable, and a "phalanx" of flak shells looks like a detonating finger of plasma fire burning along the predicted approach path from the defending ship to the attacking ship.

I haven't nailed the heavy capital ship designs down, but I love how the corvette, the fast-attack stealth model, has come along.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.
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#14
I liked this movie a lot. I normally hate Tom Cruise, but I tolerated him in this film. Movies about giant robots wreaking havok and death really agree with me. I really liked how Speilberg was able to combine the macro of the giant robots with the micro of Tom Cruise trying to get his children to safety. I didn't think he could pull it off without seeming awkward, but he did.
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#15
Well, at least you seem to have spent more time and effort making up technologies then your average scifi movie maker. I'm constantly reminded of the weapons in Star Trek where all the weapons used by the various species are basically the same beam but a diffrent color.

Not like I don't appreciate large, oddly shaped starships firing diffrent colored beams of light at each other.

Indeed it can be hard to be creative when it seems that so many ideas have been taken and rehashed, but then most work is generally built on top on others. I never believed in reinventing the wheel. I care much about variety and style.

Yes, this post was pointless. I just wanted to bring up that thing about Star Trek.
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#16
Archon_Wing,Jul 5 2005, 01:40 PM Wrote:A good imagination doesn't come cheap these days. It's really hard to think of advanced  alien technology that makes sense yet sets them apart from humans. I suppose most people would just think of "Terrablaster" and protonoghalohpic energy with the ability to uhh... blow up stuff and process humans for food!  :mellow:
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Bah. The field of bio-technological weapons is rather limited in sci-fi. How about exploring the idea of missles that are not "guided", but are alive, adapt to defense systems like AIDS adapts to human immune systems, and chooses their targets wisely, because it's literally that living missile's life's mission to take the life of others? How about biogenetic space cruisers that are propelled by their waste (umm... well, tell me a speedy #$%& scenario couldn't apply!), that feed of intergalactic dust? I dunno, anything that hasn't been hammered down by 435234523 sci-fi books would be good.

Oh, and while I haven't seen it yet, this review of War of the Worlds actually makes me want to go see it. I think I will. Tomorrow.
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#17
SetBuilder,Jul 9 2005, 03:05 AM Wrote:The field of bio-technological weapons is rather limited in sci-fi. How about exploring the idea of missles that are not "guided", but are alive, adapt to defense systems like AIDS adapts to human immune systems, and chooses their targets wisely, because it's literally that living missile's life's mission to take the life of others? How about biogenetic space cruisers that are propelled by their waste (umm... well, tell me a speedy #$%& scenario couldn't apply!), that feed of intergalactic dust?
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Not so unexplored. Remember pidgeon bombs and dolphin torpedoes? May be rumour, but at one point pidgeons were trained to guide bombs and dolphins to minesweep - - or strapped explosives on them. One or the other.

Lots of bio ships out there. What? Want a ramscoop space-whale? Giant creatures that feed off energy sources in space (i.e. ST:TNG creature mistaking Enterprise-D for its momma)
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#18
Drasca,Jul 10 2005, 03:26 AM Wrote:Not so unexplored. Remember pidgeon bombs and dolphin torpedoes? May be rumour, but at one point pidgeons were trained to guide bombs and dolphins to minesweep - - or strapped explosives on them. One or the other.

Lots of bio ships out there. What? Want a ramscoop space-whale? Giant creatures that feed off energy sources in space (i.e. ST:TNG creature mistaking Enterprise-D for its momma)
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The Shadows and Vorlons of Babylon 5 utilized organic warships, though the Vorlons seem to have mated such entites with manufactured technology whilst the Shadow's "battlecrabs" were much more organic.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.
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#19
Just saw this last night. I'm a military sci-fi reader, so the anachronisms and inconsistencies in the plot and in the aliens' technology were so jarring to me that I couldn't enjoy the movie.

There are pretty obvious plot holes - how didn't we discover those things before, for one thing, and why would any invader with that level of technology (we're talking inserting the "pilots" at near-relativistic speed from total stealth) want our planet anyway, but there's tons of tiny stuff.

Their energy weapon, which clearly transfers enough energy to vaporize humans, set trees afire and blow up houses, apparently doesn't radiate enough heat or create a large enough thermal bloom on impact to do anything to Tom Cruise who dodges one just in front of him, or to the victims' clothes, of all things. Also, having designed advanced cybernetics and with sensors good enough to have been watching us and planning against us (from total stealth, mind, so no active emissions), they revert to the relatively primitive method of using giant spotlights to see their human targets. Their probe, which they send into basements, also uses the giant-spotlight method. Not only does it apparently carry far less sensitive audio sensors than the tripods, but the field of vision is pointlessly fixed forward. We know they have to have better tech than that.

Their kill-all-the-harmless-civilians-first battle plan isn't exactly a stroke of genius, either. Especially when their attitude appeared to be, vaporize first, harvest later. Either they need the blood or they don't; if they do, why not harvest immediately? If they don't, why do it at all? Their tripods make way too much noise and light; they're dead in any recon war with any enemy with a similar tech base. And who sends their organic pilots in to search a room that their presumably better sensor probe has already searched, and why send them in lacking enviro suits, battle armour, or personal weaponry of any sort?

Little things, like I said, but things that really got to annoying me after a while.
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#20
Pfft. You'd think aliens would scan the planet for incompatible pathogens before invading. This was just as lame as the aliens in Signs who were allergic to water (gee, what's all that blue stuff we see from orbit? naw, it can't be water.)
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