War Of The Worlds

[sickfins]

anybody notice some interesting details through the movie they would like to share with the class...

watch at the beginning of the movie when that shawshank guy is talking about aliens looking on our planet with envious eyes...camera is moving towards the earth but pans up from another planet before it does so, you can catch a brief glimpse of it at the bottom of the frame.  it could presumably be mars considering that's where the aliens are from in the book, but it's the only origin reference in the movie that i noticed.

also look for strange posters in the background of the movie.  there are many identical ones posted on a wall outside of ray's house even before the aliens come, and these posters make several appearances in various places through the rest of the movie, but they were always too far away from me to see.  also look for ridiculous signs amongst the people holding up their missing signs in the crowd: i spotted 'kahn is coming' or something very similar, referencing spielberg's editor.

[SHAFTR]

that article is a bit of a stretch, but I didn't notice The Searchers reference until it was mentioned in the article.

[picolas]

spoils

supposedly the part where the alien is playing with the wheel is a reference to a part of the book that talks about how the aliens came from a wheelless society.

[AntiDumbFrogQuestion]

SPOILERS






(well....kind of)

As soon as the Human Dust appeared on Cruise I thought of only one thing: The Holocaust.  The only parts of this movie that worked for me were when you saw middle-class white folk getting the shit beat out of them mindlessly.   The basement? The Underground Railroad.  I think Spielberg was smart to say "this could happen to YOU bitch!"   For the viewer not caught in this mindset, the Robbin's death scene (weakIsay) might have seemed more neccessary. My Dad didn't dig it.
I wish the movie was longer and had more characters just to get the jist of what was psychologically contained.  I mean, it could have ended up like Independence Day in that way (ID4 heehee!), but it's a WAR, not Tom Cruise Looks Scruffy Plus Aliens.
Dakota Fanning rules, and if I was her age, I would have a crush on her. Even if all her roles are the same character a la Hanks Cruise and Norton.

The first act was the best part as far as I'm concerned.  I like Spielberg dysfunctional famblies.

[w/o horse]

It was big.

SP.  OI.  LER.  S.

There were three moments I really liked:
When the first people start getting killed.  Just like bam bam bam they're all dying.  That was great.
The army on top of the hill.
Cruise walking out of the house.  Wait sorry more specific.  Cruise walking out of the house at the end, when everything is read.

There were other times I smiled during the movie.  The flaming train.  'There will be tunnels there already, we'll have a system of tunnels!'  The people in cages underneath, although it was just the discovering of the cages that was exciting, and the whole grenades and pulling Cruise down thing was way too Hollywood for me.  When Cruise runs through the store, out the door, and down the street.  The television shot of the city being destroyed.

It may have been paint by numbers, but there weren't any numbers under one hundred being used, you know.

Also, I don't know how with all this talk of Spielberg movie similarities no one has said that the alien eye visiting the basement felt exactly like the spider eyes in Minority Report.  Unless someone did say that and I missed it, at which point I'm sure a quote will be offered.

[mutinyco]

Ebert brought up the spiders.

Watch his 2-star review attack Manhattan and the Mutiny City News cast: http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/mutiny/thumbs_up.html

[Stefen]

So I finally saw War Of The Worlds. Gotdamn, how good is Kamiski? Hes the best filmmaker in the bergs whole camp (lost souls being forgotten...please). This movie had almost a flawless first half but then it falls to pieces. The Berg feels he needs to add a feel good third act to everyone of his almost classic films. I'm dead serious. Aside from A.I, which is amazing, everyone of the new age Spielberg flicks falls to pieces at the end. It's almost like he feels bad leaving us with a bad feeling ending when in reality, none of them would be bad movies, except for the end. I'm in the minority (pun....maybe?) that feel these new Berg movies are fantastic (ai, minority report and kind of WOTW) but they all lack an emotional punch cause of the third act. The Berg feels it gives more emotion when everyone is reunited after catasrophy when I feel it gives emotion after everything is resolved regardless of who survives. WOTW would have been a classic film if only Tom and Dakota had survived. But no, he has to give it everyone in this quasi family. The Berg nowadays makes amazing first half movies. But his family man attitude intereferes with what we really wanna see. Which is reality. I just watched WOTW but felt like Kaminski came out the real winner. A.I is still one of the best movies of my lifetime but that may have been a misstep for Spielberg. And that's whats unfortunate.

[AntiDumbFrogQuestion]

speaking of the new 'BERG....Never saw 'Terminal', looked kinda weak, boring, "gay" (third definition only), but highly enjoyed 'Catch Me If You Can' for all it's fictionalizing and lukewarming of reality.   It got better towards the end, which is rare in many movies.    I think 'BERG too has to give a REAL ending in his next sci-fi outing that is full and complete. Minority felt rushed, WOTW definitely rushed, and AI had a long ending...pretty cool, but I didn't dig them aliens. It was creepy enough sure.
K Im DONE

[Alexandro]

and AI had a long ending...pretty cool, but I didn't dig them aliens.

Godammit!!!   i tough it was clear all over xixax that those were ROBOTS!!!! Not aliens, ROBOTS...aaaaaaaaaaah it's useless...

(or were you being sarcastic?)

[Just Withnail]

ProDumbAlienAssumtion

[NEON MERCURY]

war of the worlds sucks...
please stop posting in this thread...

[killafilm]

Haha, no.

Not that I had posted in here previously.

[Stefen]

NEON has become a straight up hater the last month. Whats the deal NEON?

[Weak2ndAct]

SPOILERS (do I even need to warn now?  it's been out for a while)

I'm really surprised about how negative these comments are about the fate of the son.  The whole reason he ran away from Ray was because he didn't want to take orders, that he wanted to be 'a man' essentially, and fight his own battles.  Ray really treats him as helpless and pathetic as Dakota-- it makes perfect dramatic sense for them to be separated.  I don't see the reunion as a cop-out at all, just the resolution of their relationship, and Ray finally seeing his son as a free thinking individual (or grown up, I suppose).  Just the way Cruise holds him at a distance for a moment-- that gesture says it all.  

So yeah, anyway, I really liked the movie a lot.  To have a 'popcorn movie' to be loaded with so many ideas and allegories, yet deliver the goods... jeez Louise.  David Koepp doesn't get enough love either-- that guy has been responsible for creating some the best setpieces/suspense sequences in the last 20 years.

[NEON MERCURY]

NEON has become a straight up hater the last month. Whats the deal NEON?

i had scabies....they itch me penis..and they makes me mad
i got no health insurance...doctors are expen$ive..even the doc-in-a-box ones.....but watching eyes wide shut and prescrition lotions cured it...
so i am happy now