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Post by NerdGroupie on Jun 28, 2005 23:50:13 GMT -5
I'm rarely one to be excited for remakes (I learned from Godzilla the hard way), but I think this looks really good. Plus, yes, I am a sucker for Tom Cruise.
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Post by Mr. Atari on Jun 29, 2005 17:48:40 GMT -5
Looks like the critics are not impressed.
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Post by dash on Jul 2, 2005 20:04:45 GMT -5
just came back from seeing this. okay, for those of you who actually want to dish out the $7 to see this, suit yerself. i shall now give some minor spoilers in rant form: ***** spoilers for a crappy film ********* ******* last chance *********** okay, so let's just get this out of the way: i went into the film not being a huge speilberg fan. i do not believe this truly affected my perceptions on the film, but i'm sure my subconscious was a tad biased. alright, so basically not only did he do a crappy re-make of a great film, but he decided to put his own "spin" on it by not-so-subtly using 9/11 parallels in every possible sense. everything from tom cruise being shown covered wtih that infamous WTC white dust all over his body while wearing a NY baseball cap, to out right force-fed concepts like his kids saying, "IS IT TERRORISTS?!?!?" everytime an alien blew something up. personally, i found this not only quite offensive and over done, but lame and in no way needed in a simple and pure alien movie. this was not DAWN OF THE DEAD-- we did not need the political message. okay, so minor spoiler number two: speilberg is a flippin' idiot. i am still angry over this major film goof. okay, so tom and the kiddies are waiting at his ex-wife's house all alone, when all of the sudden an airplane falls out of the sky, demolishing everything in it's path. again, it looks like groud zero. nothing has survived. well, except for one thing... THE VAN THEY NEEDED TO DRIVE AWAY IN FOR THE NEXT SCENE. not ONLY was everything BUT the van in total shambles and completely demolished, but there was also a conveinent pathway dug out so that they could drive off in the van!!! WTF? lastly, i shall turn your attentions to mr. tim robbins. tim tim tim. TIM-MAY! i just don't get you. what was your purpose in this film? it's bad enough "someone" in the film who was "supposed to have died" didn't (i'll leave that discovery to you guys, even though this is a spoilers section), but you end up getting the crap kicked out of you by TOM CRUISE??? HUH? don't you like outweight him by an entire person? i suppose speilberg is truly the master of fantasy... or DELUSION. **** done ***** okay, so that was my take on the film. oh-- and even though i understood the ending, i suppose like 80% of the audience didn't, because i had to explain it to everyone while walking out of the theater, including those i went with to see it. i'm not sure if this is the fault of speilberg, or mankind's collective intelligence. --- end rant ----
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Post by ratso on Jul 2, 2005 20:41:42 GMT -5
alright, so basically not only did he do a crappy re-make of a great film, but he decided to put his own "spin" on it by not-so-subtly using 9/11 parallels in every possible sense. everything from tom cruise being shown covered wtih that infamous WTC white dust all over his body while wearing a NY baseball cap, to out right force-fed concepts like his kids saying, "IS IT TERRORISTS?!?!?" everytime an alien blew something up. personally, i found this not only quite offensive and over done, but lame and in no way needed in a simple and pure alien movie. this was not DAWN OF THE DEAD-- we did not need the political message. That is just tasteless, It makes me sick. I come from a family of firefighters and I've seen enough people in my life coverd with the "White Dust" I had family and friends that were injured and killed there. So the fact that this little snob (The guy that made E.T.) Is going to use 911 is his stupid movie to hit a nerve with the audience shows that he is desperate for attention, Out of ideas, and not only that it proves that he is nothing but a phony. God I hate that guy.
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Post by DC on Jul 14, 2005 2:21:50 GMT -5
I agree with the 'terrorist' symbolism crap, but what really pissed me off was the little girl. The book was great, the old movies were great. Know why? CAUSE THEY DIDN'T INCLUDE A LITTLE GIRL SCREAMING FOR 2 HOURS STRAIGHT!!!!!
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donmac
Moderator Emeritus
Beedee Beedee Beedee This Sucks!
Posts: 1,290
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Post by donmac on Jul 14, 2005 11:08:43 GMT -5
Well, I hate to sound like Harry "Ubergeek" Knowles, but I liked War of the Worlds a lot. I was expecting the usual overdone sentimentally from Spielberg, but he only lapses into that only a few times (particularly in the end scene, which was thankfully very short). Instead, this was dark and was one of the most tense, edge-of-seat movies I've seen in quite a while. Spielberg proves yet again that he is a master of this type of movie. The action setpieces were all jaw-droppingly impressive, the sounds of the alien machines were disturbing (in the right way), and how the story was completely told from the perspective of Ray (Tom Cruise) was very effective (i.e. throughout the movie, with only a few exceptions, we only see what he sees). And I personally didn't mind the terrorist references, to completely ignore references to this in a movie about a level of destruction that would even make WWII look small would be dishonest (because it would be like 9/11 times 1,000 - yes, 911,000). Plus, this is a disaster movie, not an adventure movie - the people in it shouldn't be having fun. If you want an alien invasion movie in which people are joking about kicking E.T.'s ass, then watch Independence Day instead. (Even though this movie kicks that movie's ass all over the place.) The two things I didn't like very much about the movie was the annoying son and the crazy revolution guy played by Tim Robbins (although he wasn't as bad as I feared from reading reviews). Still, the good far outweighs the bad, and I was particularly impressed on how much was retained from the original H.G. Welles novel. The machines buried underground; the tripod design; the red stuff growing everywhere; the aliens consuming people; the demise of the aliens; and the opening and closing narration all came from the original novel. Pretty impressive for an updated version of a novel that's over 100 years old (which, BTW, is available for download here and here). This is easily one of the best movies of the summer, which has been one of the best summers for movies in quite a few years.
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Post by DC on Jul 14, 2005 11:22:50 GMT -5
It may not have been obvious, but I liked the movie a lot too.
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Post by Skyroniter on Jul 14, 2005 11:30:17 GMT -5
I enjoyed it until the farm house basement. It went downhill fast at that point. The ending sucked.
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donmac
Moderator Emeritus
Beedee Beedee Beedee This Sucks!
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Post by donmac on Jul 15, 2005 14:38:05 GMT -5
I just didn't get scared or tense. At no point did I believe the world was under attack. Truthfully I had a much better time with Independence Day at the theaters (however, I was a little kid back then in 1996, and now I realize how much it sucks). This movie is no doubt better than Independence Day, but even Signs with all it's irrational and no logic, still had me believeing aliens were invading earth better than this film did. In fact, I think Speilberg tried to copy old Night's style, and failed especially during those scenes. I think the new WotW is much better than Signs. The latter had some good tension in some scenes, but a lot of that was copied from Hitchcock, and Spielberg was able to give us spectacle AND tension in the same scenes, while Signs had little or no spectacle in it at all. Plus the ending of Signs dealing with the demise of the aliens was pretty lame, IMO. (I know the movie was really more about a man finding redemption with his family, but something similar could be said about WotW, which is about a man, who has never before amounted to much, stepping up and saving his family.) As for Independence Day, I've seen some people actually claim it's better than the new WotW. For me, people with that view might as well be from Mars because that's about like saying Pauly Shore's Bio-Dome is funny than MST3K: TM.
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Post by NerdGroupie on Jul 15, 2005 14:58:57 GMT -5
Skipping over everything you people said, I think it left something to be desired. It just seemed like it was Tom and Dakota running, hiding, and looking at something happening off screen. Dammit, it could have been good, and it just....wasn't.
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