# I know it's an old-ish release, but damn, that movie (War of the Worlds) sucks! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 1, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862 "2005-11-01T04:52:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/41 "2005-11-04T03:26:29Z")
Well. I _loved_ this movie. Saw it five times, actually. After reading this thread, it is apparent that I am to _War of the Worlds_ what other people are to _AI_ or to _Showgirls_ - a lonely voice crying “But you don’t understand!” That’s a lot of work though - not too sure if I care to get into a pissing match against _this_ crowd, especially as it won’t accomplish anything and can go on for days. But I would like to make a few comments about some common complaints: “It Doesn’t Have A Plot!” Of course not, silly. As opposed to nearly every other movie on the planet, WOTW has a main character who does nothing but _react_. He’s not drving the plot, he’s not going to solve the problem, he’s not going to meet exposition guy who will Explain Everything, he’s just some shmoe whose world suddenly, without warning or explanation, goes all to hell. Unlike Jeff Goldblum, _this_ guy isn’t going to drive to the White House to Demand an Explanation. He’s going to run like hell and see if he can get anything on the radio dial. The “plotlessness” of WOTW ties in with common complaint #2: “The Invasion Plan Made No Sense!” What invasion plan? Where did we hear details about the aliens actual invasion plans? I must have missed that scene. All we know is this: 1. There were no aliens or machines in the ground when the sewers were planted. 2. Lightning strikes the same place repeatedly (19 times?) 3. About 15 minutes to a half-hour later, terrible machines rise up to raise hell. That’s it. That’s all we know. And for most of the movie, it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that 19 lightning strikes transported advanced alien nanotechnology that formed the machines. Or that the machines, buried 50,000 feet down, moved into place just hours, days before the invasion. But what happens is that a character who knows no more than Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, myself, or floating body #27 speculates that the machines have been sitting under the streets for a million years… _and the audience takes it as Gospel truth._ :rolleyes: The point is _you don’t know_. That’s why it “makes no sense”, because you’re not given any information that clarifies what is happening. Aliens come down, destroy everything they look at, and they never bothered to tell you why: and that’s purposeful, to make the audience feel the confusion that Ray is feeling. “His son lives! No way!” Really? Why shouldn’t he have lived? Because he was in a battlefield? Other people were on the same battlefield and lived - why not the kid? Yeah, the odds were against him but they weren’t 1:1 for his death, not even close. But the thing that really bothers people is that they feel that Spielberg is, again, pulling his punches for the happy ending. Killing his characters to tug hearts is not what Spielberg is about, the moral crisis’ of his movies don’t deal with basic, easy to understand “awww, somebody died. Just like Bambi’s mom” issues, but with the consequences of his characters _decisions_. In War of the Worlds, the moment in which Ray’s life and perception of himself shifts is when he _chooses_ to murder Harlan (Tim Robbins). He lost his son, he was about to lose his daughter when he realized that she could not safely co-exist with Harlan. So he purposefully kills him, an action Ray would’ve considered himself incapable of just days earlier. Not “in the heat of the moment, to protect the kid”: he weighed his odds, realized what he had to do, warned Harlan, and then did it when Harlan ignored the warning. Murdered him. With his 12 year-old daughter in the next room, fully knowing what Daddy is doing. After that, he was a different Ray. _This_ Ray, had he been around a few weeks earlier, would not have lost his son. Robby might as well lived - whether or not he died wasn’t the issue. (There’s another argument that states that Robby _had_ to live, to show Ray that proactively dealing with the aliens is as effective than running away, but that’s another post). I don’t think the message was as strong as that in SPR (another movie bizarrely bashed for “pulling punches”), where Private Ryan lived his life knowing that men died so that he could go home and comfort his mother. The burden that he carried through the decades weighed heavily - to make _his_ life worth the multiple lives expended to save him. This isn’t a theme often explored in film, and it makes SPR a far more subtle war movie than one that focuses solely upon the individual deaths of the “group” (which SPR does too, of course). WOTW largely follows the same blueprint. It’s not about who lives and who dies, it’s about life and death decisions. “There are bizarre coincidences! The car can drive down the highway at 100mph, missing the perfectly-aligned “stalls”! The plane can crash into the garage with no damage to the van! Her parents went through the same crap 50+ years ago - why didn’t they tell anybody! ( Actually, that’s my explanation as to why they look so fresh - alien invasions are old hat to them and they know how to dress accordingly\*. 😉 )” 😃 I didn’t say the movie was a perfect exploration of aliens inhumanity to man, just that it’s better than a lot of y’all are saying. \*If this little parenthetical makes no sense, her parents, who were seen only at the very end of the movie, were played by the two leads in the 1953 version). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/42 "2005-11-04T03:31:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Aliens come down, destroy everything they look at, and they never bothered to tell you why Should be “Aliens rise up, destroy everything they look at, and they never bothered to tell us how or why”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/43 "2005-11-04T04:43:25Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Well. > > I _loved_ this movie. I’m with you, **JohnT**! ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/44 "2005-11-04T05:43:32Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > James Agee had nothing on you folks. Who? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/45 "2005-11-04T06:01:31Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Who? > [@Breakdancing Duck](#): > > What the fuck did you expect her to do, just sit there silently? Eh, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/46 "2005-11-04T06:17:06Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Well. > > “The Invasion Plan Made No Sense!” What invasion plan? Where did we hear details about the aliens actual invasion plans? I must have missed that scene. > > All we know is this: > > 1. There were no aliens or machines in the ground when the sewers were planted. > 2. Lightning strikes the same place repeatedly (19 times?) > 3. About 15 minutes to a half-hour later, terrible machines rise up to raise hell. > > That’s it. That’s all we know. And for most of the movie, it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that 19 lightning strikes transported advanced alien nanotechnology that formed the machines. Or that the machines, buried 50,000 feet down, moved into place just hours, days before the invasion. But what happens is that a character who knows no more than Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, myself, or floating body #27 speculates that the machines have been sitting under the streets for a million years… > ). Hey, if I see something jump out from under the street and I didn’t see anything come down, I’m going to assume they were under the street the entire time. Anything else is handwaving to justify a lame idea. > [@JohnT](#): > > “There are bizarre coincidences! The car can drive down the highway at 100mph, missing the perfectly-aligned “stalls”! The plane can crash into the garage with no damage to the van! Her parents went through the same crap 50+ years ago - why didn’t they tell anybody! ( Actually, that’s my explanation as to why they look so fresh - alien invasions are old hat to them and they know how to dress accordingly\*. 😉 )” > > 😃 I didn’t say the movie was a perfect exploration of aliens inhumanity to man, just that it’s better than a lot of y’all are saying. > > \*If this little parenthetical makes no sense, her parents, who were seen only at the very end of the movie, were played by the two leads in the 1953 version). Damnit, I liked this movie too, much better then I expected too and better then the 1950’s version for no other reason then you felt these people were actually threatened. But that still doesn’t excause stupid errors like the plane crash or the highway(which is a pet peeve of mine after sitting in traffic every single fricken morning). ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/47 "2005-11-04T06:19:07Z")
> [@Breakdancing Duck](#): > > **featherlou** , **raz** , **HPL** , > > Re: Cruise’s daughter screaming and complaining. > > What the fuck did you expect her to do, just sit there silently? > > You’ve quite obviously never been around 6-9 year old girls or humans for that matter in your lives. > > Given the horrors and trauma that she went through in the movie, it would be completely and utterly **unrealistic** is she hadn’t done any screaming or complaining at all. > . It’s realistic, I won’t argue with that. It was also damn annoying and I would have appreciated just a token “Shut the \*\*\*\* up, kid!” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/48 "2005-11-04T12:13:46Z")
I saw the original in April, and this one over the summer. The original is teh suck. Many 13-year-old fanfiction writers have more developed skills for dialogue than whoever adapted the story for the movie screenplay; a similarity this movie shares with Spiderman. Yesh. Any interest in the action and special effects (which are pretty damn good considering how old the movie is) are far overshadowed by the fact that I was quiet happy for the aliens to wipe the stupid people in that town off the face of the Earth. The remake isn’t as painful to watch, but still meh. I wanted fewer people to die for being annoying, but the girl was one of them. Maybe they can release a new version with less screaming. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/49 "2005-11-04T13:22:49Z")
**JohnT** , you summed up my feelings about this movie perfectly. I love this movie, and can’t wait for it to come out on DVD later this month. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/50 "2005-11-04T15:14:12Z")
I just figured out what bugged me so much about that scene in the basement. The one where they’re trying quietly to hide from the eye/probe thats looking for them then hide behind a mirror. The scene was lifted directly from one of Speilbergs own movies. Velocoraptor in a kitchen ring a bell. He even used the same camera angles. And the climax of the scene was identical. Kid hiding behind a stainless steel sliding door where the velocoraptor sees it’s own refection. Family hiding behind a big mirror where the probe sees it’s own reflection. They even had the cliche "eye-probe gets real close to them then gives up and slowly moves away, then ‘suddenly’ does the double take to make you jump out of your seat. Cheap, lazy movie making. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/51 "2005-11-04T15:15:04Z")
You make excellent points, **JohnT** , and if I hadn’t been ripped out of the movie repeatedly by the use of tired Hollywood clichés, I might have been in a position to develop some of those ideas myself. I love science fiction movies; I have no problem with a conscious suspension of disbelief (I loved The Core, for heaven’s sake!), but this movie just didn’t take me there and keep me there. I found the addition of both kids problematic; how realistic a nine year old girl screaming is is a moot point for me, because in my opinion there was no need for either kid to be in the movie. Of course, I hate child actors and think they should be outlawed, so that might be colouring my judgement. My synopsis of the movie: Close-up of Tom Cruise looking heroic. Close-up of Dakota Fanning screaming. Longer shot of Tom Cruise fighting with Robbie. Close-up of Tom Cruise with trembling tear in his eye. Close-up of Tom Cruise looking heroic. Close-up of Dakota Fanning screaming. Longer shot of Tom Cruise fighting with Robbie. Close-up of Tom Cruise with trembling tear in his eye. Close-up of Tom Cruise looking heroic. Close-up of Dakota Fanning screaming. Longer shot of Tom Cruise fighting with Robbie. Close-up of Tom Cruise with trembling tear in his eye. Aliens all fall over dead. Everyone reunites happily. ```auto ``` ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/52 "2005-11-04T15:18:52Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I just figured out what bugged me so much about that scene in the basement. The one where they’re trying quietly to hide from the eye/probe thats looking for them then hide behind a mirror. > The scene was lifted directly from one of Speilbergs own movies. \ Cheap, lazy movie making. That’s what my husband said - he says the movie is completely derivative of Spielberg’s own work. It would be interesting to go through the movie scene by scene and match every scene with a scene from one of his previous movies. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/53 "2005-11-06T04:52:31Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Who? James Agee is a reputed film critic, possibly one of the earliest to turn film criticism into something worthy to read in its own right. The man has one full screenwriting credit to his name: _Night of the Hunter_. ---
**Author:** ![J0hn\_th\_n\_D\_oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@J0hn\_th\_n\_D\_oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J0hn_th_n_D_oh)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/54 "2005-11-06T17:00:23Z")
I think human nature depicted in the film was scarier than the aliens. See the scene with the people fighting to death over the minivan. I think there’s some kind of clever social commentary there. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/55 "2005-11-06T19:03:41Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > James Agee had nothing on you folks. Now that I know who James Agee is - you’re criticisizing how I criticized this film? The film, in my unpaid, amateur opinion, sucked. It sucked many ways, for many reasons. When I see another film that sucks, I might come here and write another OP stating that it, too, sucks. **John D’oh** , I agree with you about how Spielberg showed terrible human nature in that scene, but he has done that in many, many of his other films, and other directors have done similar things in so many other films as well. That was one of the multitude of clichés I was referring to in the film. Yes, humans act badly in crises, but as a premier filmmaker at this point in film history, Spielberg needs to dig a little deeper. There was absolutely no surprise or dramatic tension in that scene - it was completely paint-by-numbers. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862/56 "2005-11-06T20:08:42Z")
> [@J0hn@th@n D'oh](#): > > I think there’s some kind of clever social commentary there. Well, some type of social commentary at least 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-an-old-ish-release-but-damn-that-movie-war-of-the-worlds-sucks/328862.md?page=2)