# "War of the Worlds" trailer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998 "2005-05-09T02:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/21 "2005-05-09T23:15:51Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Even worse, _Alien Nation:_ “Oxygen-breathing carbon-based aliens dissolve in seawater.” Gerry Anderson’s [UFO](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_%28TV_series%29) isn’t quite so bad, IIRC it was only their ships that disintegrated in an oxygen atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/22 "2005-05-10T03:12:53Z")
I’m rather disappointed that they didn’t keep the setting the same as the novel. I think it would have worked on the basis that London is one of the few cities that hasn’t seen a giant monster attack or UFO invasion in the past 50 years. Why would the aliens go after New York? They’d have to compete with King Kong’s clone/distant relative, CHUD’s, evil leprechauns, etc. The place is tapped out. They should have kept it nineteenth-century London like in the book. Frankly, the scene with the British battleships exchanging blows with the walkers was my favorite part of the book. ---
**Author:** ![MackoUr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MackoUr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MackoUr)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/23 "2005-05-10T10:08:26Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I’m rather disappointed that they didn’t keep the setting the same as the novel. > > I think it would have worked on the basis that London is one of the few cities that hasn’t seen a giant monster attack or UFO invasion in the past 50 years. How quickly you forget _Gorgo_! [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054938/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054938/) Not to mention the destruction wrought in _Quatermass and the Pit_ ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/)). ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/24 "2005-05-10T10:59:06Z")
Or the regular pasting it seems to receive from [The Daleks](http://www.pghifi.demon.co.uk/dalek6388/dalek%20invasion%20of%20earth/inv5.jpg)🙂 ---
**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:** [May 10, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/25 "2005-05-10T14:14:32Z")
God, Quicktime is such a horrible format. Why doesn’t it just go away? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/26 "2005-05-10T14:53:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by rjung > Don’t talk to me about Signs. “Alien invaders afraid of water” is only marginally dumber than V’s “alien invaders need our water” schtick. > > Even worse, Alien Nation: “Oxygen-breathing carbon-based aliens dissolve in seawater.” Actually, I could buy the premise in **Alien Nation** , since they were _supposed_ to be a genetically engineered slave race. They weren’t supposed to be a naturally-occurring biiological species. What better control mechanism than making saline deadly to them? Where the hell would they escape to? (They’ve just been damned lucky on Earth). Woulda been a bitch to engineer, though. Saline is too common an too useful. [quote] Quote: Originally Posted by Incubus I’m rather disappointed that they didn’t keep the setting the same as the novel. I think it would have worked on the basis that London is one of the few cities that hasn’t seen a giant monster attack or UFO invasion in the past 50 years. How quickly you forget Gorgo! [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054938/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054938/) Not to mention the destruction wrought in Quatermass and the Pit ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062168/)).[/quote Not to mention **The Giant Behemoth The Quatermass Xperiment**(AKA**The Crawling Unknown**) with its giant bubbling whatsis in Westminster Abbey. Not to mention the **Mars Attacks!** cards, which featured “Chaos in Parliament!” (I don’t recall if that was in the Tim Burton film.) ---
**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:** [May 10, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/27 "2005-05-10T15:30:20Z")
I think a WotW film set in 1890 London would be a snoozefest. “Whatever happens we have got The Maxim gun and they have… oh, shit!” Bunch of people running around, dying, unable to fight back, until the machines die mysteriously. Boring! ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/28 "2005-05-10T16:25:01Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I think a WotW film set in 1890 London would be a snoozefest. > > “Whatever happens we have got > The Maxim gun and they have… oh, shit!” > > Bunch of people running around, dying, unable to fight back, until the machines die mysteriously. > > Boring! Not true! Artillery batteries, and as I said, battleships, were both able to fight back. The main problem the British had, IMO was that the invasion caused so much confusion and widespread panic they weren’t really able to mount an effective counterattack. Plus the Martians had some pretty bitchin’ WMD’s (Black Smoke, anyone?) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/29 "2005-05-10T17:20:41Z")
> [@](#): > > I think a WotW film set in 1890 London would be a snoozefest. > > “Whatever happens we have got > The Maxim gun and they have… oh, shit!” > > Bunch of people running around, dying, unable to fight back, until the machines die mysteriously. > > Boring! Yeah, the second series of the graphic novel **The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen** was such a drag :rolleyes: Ray Harryhausen wanted to do TWOTW as a period piece, and even made some test footage of it. It looks pretty good. If he’d done the tripods in his dimensional animation, they’d have looked like the AT-AT walkers from **The Empire Strikes Back** , and gthe natural “strobing” would’ve worked perfectly to convey a sense of mechanical malice. I think a period WOTW could be wonderful. Have you read the book? It’s not just “waiting till the Martians die” – there’s some superb suspense in that period. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/30 "2005-05-10T19:54:13Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I think it would have worked on the basis that London is one of the few cities that hasn’t seen a giant monster attack or UFO invasion in the past 50 years. Sure, but then we’d have to sit through Tom Cruise doing a bad British accent for two hours… > [@JohnT](#): > > God, Quicktime is such a horrible format. Why doesn’t it just go away? Because then we’d be stuck with Windows Media, which is far worse. 😃 ---
**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:** [May 10, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/31 "2005-05-10T21:07:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Have you read the book? It’s not just “waiting till the Martians die” – there’s some superb suspense in that period. Yes, but it still would make for a boring _movie_, especially for modern audiences who are sitting there thinking “why didn’t they make this in modern times where, even though I know how this ends, at least I could try to believe that there will be some means of _effective_ resistance by the humans?” And I have read the book and I agree that there are some suspenseful sequences, but the fact remains that modern audiences are not going to suspend belief to the point where they accept a species with interplanetary flight but with the sort of “advanced” armaments that Wells gave the Martians (except, perhaps, the Black Smoke.) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/32 "2005-05-11T02:08:50Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > London is one of the few cities that hasn’t seen a giant monster attack or UFO invasion in the past 50 years Adding to the list of exceptions: _Reign of Fire_, which had London as the center of the dragon, um, invasion, or whatever it was. > [@Tuckerfan](#): > > IIRC, **Cervaise** has met the director before and could say a few things about him. Yes, I had dinner with Mr. Hines five or six years ago. This project was definitely a gleam in his eye; he was asking me about stunt people in the area. He’s a good guy, with good intentions, but I got the definite impression he was, metaphorically speaking, trying to build a skyscraper out of popsicle sticks. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/33 "2005-05-11T03:01:12Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Yes, but it still would make for a boring _movie_, especially for modern audiences who are sitting there thinking “why didn’t they make this in modern times where, even though I know how this ends, at least I could try to believe that there will be some means of _effective_ resistance by the humans?” > > And I have read the book and I agree that there are some suspenseful sequences, but the fact remains that modern audiences are not going to suspend belief to the point where they accept a species with interplanetary flight but with the sort of “advanced” armaments that Wells gave the Martians (except, perhaps, the Black Smoke.) The 1898 martians landing in modern day wouldn’t be fun to watch at all. Once the Government(as in, anything NATO class) figured out what was happened, those martians would be less a threat and more like big moving targets that bleed green. The martians in the book were using the same kind of Tactics the Germans pioneered in the 1930’s. What would happen to a WW2 style military againest a modern military? Granted, it would be interesting have the martians land in 3rd world countries only where the miltaries may not have have the same tech and organization, but even then I suspect a tripod wouldn’t fare well againest Cold-war era RPG-7’s. ---
**Author:** ![Abe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@Abe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/34 "2005-05-11T06:48:13Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Yes, but it still would make for a boring _movie_, especially for modern audiences who are sitting there thinking “why didn’t they make this in modern times where, even though I know how this ends, at least I could try to believe that there will be some means of _effective_ resistance by the humans?” There _was_ effective resistance by the humans in the original novel, it’s just that the Martians were so much more powerful. The artillery guns, the _Thunder Child_… these are far more interesting and gripping scenes than the usual nonsense about firing a nuke at the invaders and discovering they are immune to everything (a concept Tim Burton spoofed justly and admirably in _Mars Attacks_). > [@](#): > > And I have read the book and I agree that there are some suspenseful sequences, but the fact remains that modern audiences are not going to suspend belief to the point where they accept a species with interplanetary flight but with the sort of “advanced” armaments that Wells gave the Martians (except, perhaps, the Black Smoke.) Well, you have a 19th century Earth invaded, razed, and subjugated by beings who look like black, glistening, leathery, tentacled bulks, yet you are worried about suspending [dis]belief because their weapons are not what you would expect today? Surely the “heat ray” is not that inflexible a concept, seeing as how it remains a staple in science fiction (the laser gun, beam weapons and blasters, etc.). And it’s within any film maker’s licence to include modern updates such as bombs and missiles, if necessary. In fact, resistance in the face of such overwhelming odds would be even more noteworthy. This is _War of the Worlds_ we are talking about, not _Independence Day_. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/35 "2005-05-11T07:39:24Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > If you watch the second trailer there is a very brief shot near the end of a ferry boat being tipped over by ‘something’ coming out of the water. I think that is an alien ship. That reminds me of something that I’d _really_ like to see: John Wyndham’s _The Kraken Wakes_, faithfully adapted and set in the 1940s/early 1950s. Such great suspense as the aliens dispense with that whole “Britannia rule the waves” bit (and the Americans, and the Canadians, and the Russians, off-screen) without ever being clearly seen – and then the shock and awe when they start making spectacular beachheads and terrorising holiday resorts. Everybody knows _War of the Worlds_ inside out and backwards already (although I’m enough of a nerd to plunk down my cash for both new versions, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.) _Kraken Wakes_ needs to be up on the screen, and soon. It’s so wonderfully paranoiac. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/36 "2005-05-11T20:30:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, you have a 19th century Earth invaded, razed, and subjugated by beings who look like black, glistening, leathery, tentacled bulks, yet you are worried about suspending [dis]belief because their weapons are not what you would expect today? “Worried” wouldn’t exactly be the word to use as it indicates a level of concern far beyond what I’m experiencing here. 😉 However, we have an idea as to the level of technology a civilization needs to cross interplanetary distances and if the aliens came out blasting with top-notch 1930s tech the audience would just _laugh_. I’m not saying it didn’t “work” in 1890, just that the same idea, applied the exact same way, wouldn’t work for modern audiences. We just know too much. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/37 "2005-05-11T20:32:08Z")
Forgot this quote: > [@](#): > > And it’s within any film maker’s licence to include modern updates such as bombs and missiles, if necessary. Not if you’re making a movie that’s supposed to be just like the book you can’t! ---
**Author:** ![Abe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@Abe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/38 "2005-05-13T07:11:55Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Forgot this quote: > Not if you’re making a movie that’s supposed to be just like the book you can’t! But no such movie has ever been made, from _any_ book. In addition to facing the challenge of visualizing the printed word, a director always makes choices regarding what to cut, what to include, and what to modify for the screen version of any narrative. Changing the setting of WotW to the 21st century is a substantial alteration to the very essence and character of Well’s novel. So is abandoning the suspenseful first person point of view of the narrator, which leaves us with little more than the regular alien invasion film and a showcase of earthly and alien weaponry matched against each other (i.e., _Independence Day_). Updating the weaponry of the Martians who invade a 19th century Earth is hardly spitting in Wells’s eye, it is simply a fairly minor revision to make Wells’s tale more commestible for a modern audience. And, as I mentioned, the heat ray could be made to work relatively easily even by today’s standards. The heat ray is no more ridiculous than the laser gun or beam weapon, which have been staples of science fiction for longer than you or I have been alive. Adding missiles or rotating blades on the alien Machines hardly seems that big a deal. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/39 "2005-05-13T13:12:02Z")
> [@](#): > > But no such movie has ever been made, from any book. Yes, but the major complaint I’m hearing in re: to the new film (not just here, but other places) is “Why don’t they ever do a version like the book, set in 1890’s London?” Adding/updating the aliens weaponry is not what the complainants desire - they want a version _just like the book_. And to make myself clear: my point isn’t about the aliens weaponry, it’s about what mankind had in _its_ arsenal in 1890. To the modern audience there will be no means of _seemingly_ effective resistance on mankinds part - no tanks, no gas weapons, no nukes, no aircraft, no missles, just Maxim guns and dreadnaughts with 12-inch shells. What you’ll end up with is a scenario just like Turtledoves _WorldWar_ series of books, where interplanetary traveling aliens invade in the middle of WW2. Turtledove solution was to handicap his aliens so badly that the books really became a farce (though a great, albeit cheesy, read.) Essentially he had these interstellar travelling aliens invade with an arsenal suspiciously akin to 1990’s US weaponry and civilian tech, complete with CD-ROMS, Abrams tanks, integrated circuits and the like. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998/40 "2005-05-13T13:21:35Z")
Upon re-reading, that last post was a bit incoherent. I’ll try again when I’m _not_ at work. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-trailer/302998.md?page=3)