My little brush with Hollywood: The building that the tripod crashed into at the very end, in the “Boston suburbs” is right down the street from my apartment in CT. See? It’s an old Crompton plant that’s been closed for a few years, and the movie crew came in just before Christmas to film for a couple of days. Actually that whole scene was filmed on location, including the tunnel (which goes under Metro North tracks).
And I thought the movie was great. It actually scared me, which very few do.
Actually, from a gut reaction, I am happy it happened the way it did.
How does War of the Worlds suffer by the preexistence of Independence Day?
Maybe my recollection of the relative merits of ID4 is faulty, because at no point in the last decade have I felt even the slightest desire to screen it again. Mostly what I remember about it is feeling alternately bored and insulted.
War of the Worlds, on the other hand, I’m going to see again tonight.
My two bits:
See it - it was worth the $9.50, but not the $4.50 coke.
Dakota did a real good job of looking scared. Maybe she thought TC was going to start talking to her about Scientology and/or Katie Holmes.
The tripod coming over the hill, looking down the street at the ferry was my favorite scene.
The segment in the basement with Tim Robbins as the Artilleryman/Curate was very good (except for too much of TR’s babbling) and a nice upgrade from the earlier movie. But why did Spielberg have to end that segment the way he did? It was not necessary.
Big headed aliens, with big eyes, were part of HG Wells. (His Martians were mostly brains). Wells also gave them tentacles (eight, I believe) to use as legs and feet. I guess Spielberg felt that would look too old fashioned.
If anyone had seen the earlier movie, or had read the book, the images of the protozoa would have been foreshadowing with a sledgehammer.
Speaking of foreshadowing - forget the splinter - what happened to that piece of metal Cruise put in his pocket at the beginning?
Nuking us or using the death rays from space might have been more effective, but the movie would have been over after Morgan Freemans opening narration - quotes from the novel. Those opening lines must be some of the greatest lines ever written in science fiction.
Given the state of communications and the speed with which the Martians hit, how did the Army and National Guard get to deploy so well?
I don’t know about you guys, but I am getting tired with aliens having shields. In the original book, there were a couple of incidents when humans did bring down some of the tripods. We were still going to lose, but at least we got some of them.
A couple of posts mentioned the red menance undercurrents of the earlier movie. I could see that in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but not in the WOTWI. What am I missing?
My suspicion about the buried tripods - Spielberg wanted them to be the size he showed - bringing them to earth would have required an enormous ship too much like ID4 for comfort. So he buried them and sent down the aliens.
In the basket scene? What does the writing of the side of the tripod say? Maximum occupancy 44 adults? Stay clear of exhaust? Next oil change at 33,000 miles?
I noticed that as well, but pretty much forgot when the tripods started moving.
My guess would be that they were put on standby when wierd things started happening on the other side of the world. There was at least a night between the news item on the Ukraine (?) and the storms in the US. Presumably the US govt. knew something was going on.
Given that it took an infanty platoon with some anti-tank weapons to knock out a tripod, without shields all you’d need is a few A-10’s & the invasion would have been over. I would have liked shields, but ones that could be defeated only by massive amounts of firepower. The aliens using ‘black smoke’ would have been good as well.
I’m just shocked that anyone would even ask this question. Do you REALLY doubt this would draw a crowd?
If you don’t believe me, just Google up some tapes of people watching tidal waves or tsunamis, standing there oohing and aahing as waves of crushing death come roaring towards them.
I thought the various scenes of mob behaviour in the film were just brilliant. There was nothing whatsoever unrealistic about the way crowds of people behaved in “War of the Worlds.” Mobs can be amazingly stupid.
What piece of metal? You’re not talking about the gun are you?
Today my wife and I saw the movie today. However, it was too scary for my wife so we left in the middle. Can someone give me a brief synopsis from that point to the ending? We left during the scene when they were hiding in the cellar with Tim Robbins and that tentacle eye thing was looking around down there.
From this thread it sounds like they stuck to the original book about what killed the aliens. I feared that Spielberg would have Tom Cruise somehow figure out their weakness and relay this information to the military to use to defeat them. I’m pleased this is not the case.
Also being a Spielberg film, I suspect that in the end
They make it to Boston and find the ex-wife and her family unharmed. There is some sort of celebration/reconciliation with Cruise and the ex-family. Oh, and it turns out the son survived after all.
Which sounds like that’s exactly what happened. Am I correct?
Jet Jaguar, you nailed it exactly. A bit exasperating, really, but at least the director didn’t drag that part of it out for twenty minutes.
Jet Jag [SPOILER]After the eye goes away some aliens come down into the basement. There is a terriffic scene where Tim want’s to use the shotgun and Tom doesn’t want him two. They have a silent fight for the gun as the creatures poke around the basement and one even takes a drink of water from a hose. Then a few hours later the machines are making a new noise. Tom looks out and he sees a tripod hold a man on the ground and then harpoons him and you see it suck the blood up and then Tom notices a fine red mist. This mist has something to do with these red vines coming into the basement. Tim Robbins sees this and freaks. He goes to the deepart of the celler and whiler screaming “Not MY BLOOD” over and over he tries to start to tunnel to NYC, Tom tried to get him to calm down but it doesn’t work. Then he puts a blindfold on Dakota and tells her to sing Hushabye mountain and not to do anything no matter what she hears. She does this and the camera stays on her as Tom goes in tht room with Tim. We hear a fight but then a little latter, Tom comes out and Dakota goes and sits on his lap.
Suddenly another camera appears and as Dakota panics and runs, Tom hacks this one up with an ax. Then he reailzes that Rachel is gone and he runs up to find her. He has to step through many of the red vines witch are everywhere. A Tripod sees him and tries to capture him. He jumps in vehicials and ends up in a Hummer. Then Rachel gets picked up by a tripod. Tom finds a belt with gernades on it and he goes out and gets himself pickedup. The tripods deposit people into two large baskets. Then some icky anus? Vagina? opens up and a tentacle comes out and grabs someone in the basket and sucks them inside. Kind of like watching one of those miracle of birth movies running backwards.
The try to grab Tom but suddenly people in the basket decide to fight back The grab hold of Tom and have tug-a-war and pull Tom out. Tom comes out with the grenade pins but no grenades. Kablooie! the tripod comes down and the people escape.
Tom and Dakota/Rachel get to Boston finally. There is a strong military presance in Boston and they are being guied as to where to go. They then see a tripod leaning against a building and it is obviously deactivated. Tom asks and a soldier explanes that it was just acing funny and walking in circles and then it fell. Another tripod appears and it looks drunk. Tom notices that crows are sitting on the top of the tripod. He points out how the shields must be down so the army pulls up some guys with Anti-tank weapons and after several shots the bring it down.
Then Tom and Dakota walk down a street that other than the fact that there are no people her it seems untouched by the war.Then at the end of the street Mirando Otto steps out on ehr poarch followed by her parents. (played by the main stars of the '50s movie) Miranda mouths the words 'Thank you" and then the son appears out of the house and comes out and gives his dad a big hug.
The End[/SPOILER]
If I was Tom, I’d be like, Ummmm Thank You, isn’t going to cut it. I didn’t get anal probed because I WAS THE ANAL PROBE! So, you’re coming out here to the street and giving me head.
I am pretty surprised by the postive reviews and the seemingly positive consensus of the Doper thread.
I have walked out of better films than this!
This has to be in the “Bottom Ten” films I’ve seen at the theater! (Joining The Avengers, Spawn, and Spielberg’s Jurassic Park 2.)
The next day, TNT was offering an unedited version of Saving Private Ryan and I was just amazed that the same man did both pictures.
At no time was I enthralled, drawn to the characters, or otherwise compelled.
I wasn’t even wowed by the effects!
Ironically, it wasn’t Cruise that bothered me. Despite his recent behavior, he was still acceptable as the typical Tom Cruise character (though I did notice his height more).
Dakota Fanning again proved that she is an incredible little actress. The one bright spot in an otherwise unwatchable film.
Other than that, I couldn’t really find one thing to latch onto and say that this was anything but a terrible waste of time. I simply can’t understand how so many people think this is a worthwhile product; People whose tastes I admire seem to like it. Dopers, who I KNOW I admire, seem to like it. I don’t get it! I’m inclined to ape Tim Robbins over the top performance and suggest it is an alien plot a million years in the hatching! “Not my DVD COLLECTION!” I want to scream as I burrow deeper into the cellar. I just thought that the whole thing was a big waste of time.
In short, I was rooting for a decisive alien victory.
[sub]Sorry to be so negative, but I really hated this movie![/sub]
Why? Never been in the minority on anything before?
Why? Never been in the minority on anything before?
Amended to add: I don’t mean to be flip or in any way offending with this remark, I’m serious…I am in the minority on my views on many artists, songs and movies. It never surprises me, as I don’t even care what the mainstream thinks on most things. In fact, I am more surprised when I am in step with the mainstream than the reverse.
Okay, I saw this last night, and I had a few thoughts on the matter: (some spolier stuff ahead)
I hated, truly good and hated, the son. He ruined much of the movie, and no freakin way does a 15yr old runing into a war zone make it out and back to boston. would have been better if he died a burning a painful death.
Tom Cruise and Dakota are great together, good chemistry I thought.
Scenes with the aliens were well done I thought, and didnt look/feel to cgi to me.
If the aliens buried the “tripods” here thousands of years ago, why didnt they die back then?
I didnt like how the aliens, in the basement, seemed amazed by a mirror and a bike tire. What, they dont have reflective surfaces on the alien planet? They never seen a freakin wheel? the whole thing seemed silly.
Overall I did like the movie, it just wasnt the “oh my God that was great stuff” movie I was hoping for. Still good tho.
I am never surprised when the masses (mainstream) like something that I hate. I was just surprised the critic and Doper consensus differed so strongly from my opinion on the film.
I’m content to be alone on my island on movies. Hell, I think I am the only person in the world who thought Star Trek 5 was a fine film.
I was just surprised that the opinions on this film didn’t slant more towards the negative.
I don’t know about this. I’ve seen plenty of footage of idiots standing around watching monster waves just before they are all swept out to sea. And how 'bout all the New Yorkers who simply stopped and stared up at the WTC in flames (when for all anyone knew the country was under attack), and then ran like crazy when they started collapsing?
I tend to think that seeing a gigantic spaceship emerge from the ground would grab a lot of people’s attention, causing them to simply stare at the thing.
I didn’t take this as amazment at all. These were alien soldiers doing recon, checking out the surroundings. One idly spins a wheel on a human artifact which it’s probably never seen before, which then falls down and startles it – pretty natural reaction. The bit with the mirror was a sensor – and the alien operating it realizes something is off and manoeuvers the sensor to check behind it. All the mirror did was buy them time to hide.
Umm…yes, you are. 
I think it’s a mistake to dismiss this movie as simply a blow-things-up summer popcorn movie. Clearly, the 9-11 terrorist attacks helped shape the movie, and the destruction portrayed in the movie resonates more strongly with us because of what the country has endured.
I won’t go so far as to say it’s a parable (or allegory? I’m not sure of the difference) for 9-11, but the references are there:
If Spielberg had changed the last five minutes, I’d give the movie an A-plus. Even with the cop-out, I thought it was tense, enthralling and emotionally powerful.
Ooh look! A segue!
I went to go see War of the Worlds again last night with a buddy, and afterwards mentioned that I thought it was odd that no-one seems to be mentioning the fairly frequent use of September 11th imagery, (which IMO made the movie much more affecting,) such as folks standing around transfixed, looking up at the first tripod, taking pictures, etc, and only fleeing when the shit hits the fan, covered head-to-toe in grey ash – incongruous items drifting out of the sky, not documents but clothing – endless walls of desperate “missing” posters – cattle-like evacuations of massive crowds down what would ordinarily be heavily trafficked streets, the stunned shock of parents who need to reassure their children and “explain” something that is so enormous and horrifying that they can’t process it themselves, etc… I think all of these things added gravitas and authenticity that has never been present in an “alien invasion” movie before. “I recognize that – that’s a fucking catastrophe.”
Anyway, my buddy says these are all elements you’d expect in any disaster movie. I can’t think of any examples, though.
previews
Aww, crap.