Don’t wait for video, and don’t let your misgivings about Tom Cruise or Speilberg get in the way of experiencing this film. It’s a pretty amazing movie. My first impressions are usually over the top, so I’m going to see it again in a couple of hours, but right now, my feeling is that it could very well be one of the best movies ever made…EVER MADE I tell you! :eek:
For those of you that have already seen it…wasn’t that scene with the train just tremendously eerie and haunting?
Saw it last night – I’ll just add to the chorus. Awesome. (I took Guin’s suggestion from one of the Tom Cruise is a Prat threads and bought a ticket to Bewitched to get in the door.)
Much better than I’d hoped. “Invaders from Mars” is usually a pretty remote theme. Somehow, they managed to make it immediate, engaging, and real.
The jaw-dropping spectacle was pretty fantastic, but it was the acting that really sold the movie, and everyone did a bang-up job. Dakota Fanning was astonishing as always. I have to admit that Tom Cruise did good work, too. (I still hope he’s sent to Coventry, though – but it was easy to forget about that for a couple of hours.)
The thing with Tim Robbins’ character was really, really, gut-wrenching. Eeeesh.
I don’t recall Bucky making great use of the tripod, so I’m curious just what made you think of him.
Oh, Bucky all the way. He’ll stand there mumbling to himself for a while. Then, when Ebert charges, Bucky will poke him in just the right place in just the right way and his spine will snap. “Yes, I thought that would be the weak point. This is the 21st century! Why are we still using the same spines cavemen used?” As Ebert is carried away by paramedics, Bucky will use the ring ropes and some folding chairs to make a model of the Dyymaxion Tensegrity Spine.
Oddly, in some uses a tripod is the most stable. As a stool, for example. Since 3 points uniquely identify a plane, a 3-legged stool is physically incapable of wobbling.
Just thought I’d share…I haven’t seen the movie.
No way! Seriously? Awesome!
Now, after a second screening in less than 24 hours, I have to say that I am just as enthused about this film as ever. It’s really, REALLY good.
I loved it! It was scary! I want to see it again. I think the audio special effects are going to haunt me for a while. Especially the sound of the tripods stomping around during the cellar scenes. :eek:
Absolutely outstanding. More than once I muttered to myself, “it’s a nightmare.” Truly terrifying in all the best ways a scary movie should be; not by startling the audience or grossing us out, but by putting us in the actors’ shoes, and making us wonder what it would be like to be faced with an unspeakable horror.
The two scenes that struck me the most were:
The mob attacking Ray and his kids in the van. The ferry scene too for that matter. A mob of people scared to violence can be just as frightening as any alien monster.
and
The people huddled in the holding cages under the tripods waiting to be sucked into that giant red sphincter one by one. Good god, I almost had to look away.
Little Bird, yup, 'tis true. I confirmed it on the IMDB.
Hmm, well I wasn’t gonna go see it, but I think everyone has me convinced. 
I’ll have to check out that indie version - I’ve been chafing for a period piece as well.
Randy Thom is the sound designer and he’s incedible! Matter of fact, he won an Oscar for the Incredibles. I heard him on NPR the other day and it made me want to see this film all the more. He also won an Oscar for The Right Stuff and has been nominated quite a few times.
OK, I thought it was just me. That was the scene that actually made it hard for me to get to sleep last night.
I’m wondering also if that wasn’t some kind of backhanded reference to the scene with the cows near the beginning of Mars Attacks!
BTW, ya want some world-class pointless nitpicking? Here ya go. The train had the correct Amtrak Northeast livery, but the characters who witnessed its passage were on the west bank of the Hudson. The passenger line is on the east bank, however; the west bank line is freight only. Sacrilege!
OK, so maybe it was an emergency reroute. I’ll shut up now.
That was an amazing scene, and so out of the blue. Another director might have shown the set up…tripod…train…tripod…train…uh oh, we know what’s going to happen next! The way Spielberg put it in there, almost as a random afterthought, made it all the more chilling. You experience it as the people there experience it: bell dings, gate comes down, train’s coming, ok. And then, the train races past. OH MY GOD!
I have a question that I will keep as vague as possible. The birds at the end. I get what was going on there, but what was SAID about them?
Anyone get what I mean? THanks
My husband first thought Tom Cruise’s character was saying “The bird shit is killing them!” But we think what he was actually saying wasTheir shields are down.
I agree, that exchange was almost impossible to understand.
I don’t think this is too much of a spoiler but again I’ll keep this observation rather vague…but did anyone else find it interesting that a movie featuring narration from Morgan Freeman also featured Tim Robbins…um…doing what he’s doing in that basement?
By the way, thank you Archergal for that explanation. I figured it was something like that.
A friend of mine was leaving the theatre and he overheard a woman saying “So it was the BIRDS that killed them” and he somehow resisted the urge to smack her.
Oh it was done, all right! THREE FREAKING HOURS OF FLAT ACTING AND BAD CGI WITH LONG BORING STRETCHES OF INACTION BETWEEN!!! THE HORROR! THE HORROR!
On DVD for about $9- faithful to the book, probably to the letter, and dead in spirit.
I saw the Spielberg-Cruise movie yesterday- YOWZA! Loved it! Was basically faithful to the story with some interesting twists. And while Tom was good- Dakota Fanning was the star.
Robbins fills the role but his character isn’t a preacher.
Btw, he is quite good also!
Btw- another awesome & awful scene- Dakota by the river.
And I join the Chorus- DO NOT WAIT FOR THE DVD! YA GOTTA SEE THIS ON THE BIG SCREEN!
I saw it last night, and all I have to say is “ditto.”