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*SPOILERS*
"War of the Worlds" - Hmmm...The tripods were great, the atmosphere was great, the FX were impressive, it was nice to see the tripods realised at last and the red weed. All very good.
BUT....1hour 40 minutes! You get comedies longer than that, let alone films about the World being invaded by Aliens! Much too rushed.
Just as the red weed appeared it was dead for example!
The army scenes were alos dull, with yet more pitch black scenes of guns firing at noting. The shiled idea was a wastes, as it a llowed for no fight back moments. The war ship "Thunder Child" in the original story, fighting to gain time for the steamer to escape was a wonderful moment. Nothing here at all though
And where were all the epic scale visuals of destruction?
You had 3 (count 'em!) 3 shots of destroyed cities.
One on a tiny TV monitor, one as a far away shot and one at the end.
Where were all the epic scale scenes of destoyed cities with tripods standing over them and striding through the ruins? Where was the full horror of the aftermath?
Where were the long, long shots of the red weed draped countryside with tripods striding over the land?
Instead we had ONE long shot of the weed, in almost pitch blackness.
When Cruise came out of Robbin's house it looked like he was on a big set! It was all so localised and cramped looking.
The black smoke atmosphere makes for a great written description but not a good movie visual when it is so rampant.
When Cruise walked out there was no sky, no horizon, no open space...it was just black. It looked like a bloody great plane hanger set, not a devastated, changed World.
One of the strengths of the story is the aftermath, as things settle down after the initial attacks. As the weed chokes the land...as the people catchers pursue people over hills...we needed to SEE these sights in daylight. To really see how the world had changed and the scale of that change.
And where were the characters? Robbins was obviously the stand-in for the Artillary man in the original story. But his throwaway, crazy speech about the World man would build in these mythical tunnels, the cities they would build and live in right under the Alien's noses and how they would build an army to fight back...Great stuff, and totally wasted in the film as a few mumbled lines.
Going by the famous 'Musical Version' one character that really stood out (again, part of the extended aftermath, in the movie so rushed over) was the Priest who was certain that the Aliens were Devils, sent from hell in the final judgement. A great idea, a powerful set-up. And another interesting event that the lead character (Cruise) would come across. the film (Robbin's aside) was ALL running and hiding from tripods with nothing actually HAPPENING!
And as far as I remember, the silly idea that the Alien's had arrived on Earth millions of years ago and simply buried tens of thousands of HUGE machines in the ground (none of which, despite all our excavations, tunneling, mining and deep core drilling have never found!!!) was a change unique to the film.
And it did not add up.
Please! Someone tell me WHY the stupid Aliens arrived on this planet they wanted, when there was no men in their way, or buildings taking up space, and spent christ knows how long building and burying these huge machines ONLY TO FUCK OFF AGAIN!
And then wait all this time to go BACK, and go through a shit load of fuss to take control of a planet...THEY ALREADY HAD CONTROL OVER ANYWAY MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO WHEN THEY BURIED THE MACHINES!
Talk about going around in circles and making work for yourself!
And seeing as the first life to ever form on this World would have been countless germs and viruses..How come they did not drop down dead while spending all that time burying those damn tripods!
Great moments and ideas...but sadly too full of holes, too rushed and too localised in it's visuals to fully show the destruction.
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