Yeah, but the ending still had some of that schmaltz.
The son survives? And he gets to mom’s house first? Hell no, that pissed me off.
I liked it overall though, much more than I thought I would. The sound effects were awesome at creating a totally weirdass and unnerving mood, and a lot of the things that happened were made more horrifying precisely because the gory details were obscured from view.
I can understand the complaint, but I don’t think that was “schmaltz” and was in fact necessary for a couple of reasons:
[spoiler]First, after all that destruction and death, the movie needed something positive to happen. At that point, I would’ve been fine if Lassie and E.T. had shown up at the doorstep.
Second, it just makes sense as a story. If the ending to your movie is just “Germs have killed the aliens! Go on about your business.” then there’s no real point to the story except to see people getting zapped and stuff blowing up. Why follow this one guy’s story at all; he was just an average guy who didn’t really do anything exceptional except kill Tim Robbins. Unless he comes out of it learning something – that it takes more than just being complacent to be a father – then there’s no reason to pay attention to him instead of any of the other millions of victims of the invasion.
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I don’t think it’s schmaltzy that Robby lived, for the simple reason that his actions compare favorably to Cruise’s. Cruise was about running and hiding, and if that meant killing people along the way, so be it. As long as he and his kids were safe, then who cares?
Robby though saw the issue as bigger, recognized that his father really had no idea what he was doing, and Robby wanted to do whatever he could to help. He was also a "hero"as well as Tom Cruise. When they were on the hill at the battle he wanted to off and help - not one specific person, but all of humanity. If he just died immediately it would send the message of “don’t stick your neck out, just take care of yourself, don’t be a hero”, which probably isn’t the best moral.
Though, in this situation, probably the most easily-followed.
Robby was also more heroic on the boat.
I think Robby’s survival was, while still a bit of a cop-out, still essential from one storytelling perspective:
[spoiler]If Cruise comes to Boston w/o Robbie, do you think Miranda Otto’s going to be grateful that at least one kid is alive? No, she’s going to tear her ex a new one and writhe in anguish over the loss of her son. She didn’t seem like somebody who had a lot of faith in her ex, so it would’ve been wholly in character based on what we’ve seen thus far. So even though the aliens are dead, we end on an incredibly bitter note–certainly more of a downer than I think anyone wants to walk out on.
Also, by Robbie getting to Boston first, we can assume that he’s told his mom and grandparents about Cruise’s heroic efforts to save them, so when she sees them both finally arrive, the reunion is more credible because she has already adjusted to seeing her ex-husband in a new light.
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And certainly, this ending isn’t nearly as bad, gratuitous, schmaltzy, or unnecessary as Saving Private Ryan’s.
I don’t know… a bunch of people die so you can go home to mother and you spend the rest of your life wondering if the life you lived was worthy of their sacrifice? I don’t see anything shmaltzy about that.
For WOTW, my fave ending would’ve been
Robby goes off. Dakota later dies. Tom, in a last desparate attempt to reclaim his sense of manhood, takes responsibility for losing both kids and goes to Boston to tell his wife. He tells her. Then… Robby shows up at the door, goes to his crying mother, takes her by the shoulders and walks her back inside the house, never looking back at Dad, with the last shot reminiscent of The Godfather - the door shutting on Tom Cruise’s shattered expression as he realizes how badly he failed, that his kids were safer without him than with him.
Robby was stupid. Ray told him to stay away from populated areas, so he drives right into a crowd and they lose their wheels and almost get trampled to death. Then he feels like he has to be a hero by attempting to jump in with a combat unit right in the middle of a battle, rather than trying to stay with his little sister, who incidentally nearly got hauled off by a well-meaning family while he argued with his dad. Shortly afterwards the entire battle line goes up in flames, tanks and Humvees roll downhill ablaze, and the aliens emerge triumphant. So tell me again how he was supposed to survive? Yeah, Ray dodged a bunch of death rays earlier in the movie, but he wasn’t the only survivor either. The way this scene was presented, it didn’t seem possible for anyone on the battle line to survive.
Robby could have been picked up by the Tripods as ‘meat fuel’, and was lucky to last through till the point when all the Tripods start dying off from natural sickness. And again, it seems possible he find a nice hidey-hole like his dad.
Like everyone else, I found the film very intense. And yeah, scary. More scary then a lot of “horror” films I’ve seen. My heart was racing a lot throughout the film. Great film, as long as you choose to ignore the ending.
Intense yes, but to me the scariest/creepiest part was when the spider crawling on Dakota. Three legs? No problem. Eight legs? EEEK!