I felt exactly the opposite on that. I enjoyed that scene because it was actually fairly tense. Remember they were trying to harvest the humans, not kill them in the rubble.

It would be an interesting concept, maybe something that couldn't be tackled in a single film. Perhaps something like The Matrix where they learn to cohabitate, in the end. Or isn't that what happened? :wink:

I have an idea that I have toyed with for 10 years. I could do it. But I'll keep it to myself... :razz:

1. Yes, it was tense, but it didn't make sense IMO.

2. They've killed tons of humans already, why not 3 more?

3. They could harvest them even dead. A human body doesn't decompose in 2 minutes.

1. We have a difference of opinion on that

2. Because they were harvesting in the area, as shown a few minutes earlier

3. They could only harvest them alive I think

Who knows,

Hell we don't even know what they are harvesting them FOR when you really think about it.

What about the red weed?

See I think that is one of the best things about the film. They didn't have these grand ideas like in Independance Day. And did anyone else notice -- there was no crazy scientist like in most other disaster movies. Though there was the typical divorced father who wasn't close enough to his kids.

I must say, i'm shocked by the negative/luke warm reaction this film is getting. I agree that it has some minor weak spots (mainly the final five minutes), but it is still far and away one of the better films of the year. Is it Batman Begins good? No, but it's as close as one could hope. I'd say, as far as overall quality is concerned, it would be like Begins if Beginds has a kinda crappy ending. Everything leading up to it is utterly flawless. I think that, in a way, this film was both blessed and cursed by Spielberg. Blessed in the sense that the man is truly a master filmmaker, and his niche appears to be horror and scaring the crap out of people. Surprisingly enough, this film is truly and deeply frightening on a level I haven't seen in awhile. I was genuinely afraid at certain moments. I haven't been afraid during a movie in a long, long time. Forget this "sci-fi" crap, this film is a HORROR film first and foremost. It's shot like one. It's staged like one. It simply is one. The level of tension that Spielberg manages to build throughout the film becomes simply unbearable. It's astonishing. Just the whole film is Spielberg at the top of his game. Creative camera angels all over the place (loved the continuous tracking shot circling the van), money shots that will give you the chills (it's all about the tripods, the red weed, and the river of dead bodies), and impeccable character development created in the span of about three minutes.

Oh, yeah, I was gonna talk about the "cursed" aspect SS brings to all (most) of his films, this one included.

His undying vision of complete love for humanity. It's like it would personally destroy him to give one of his films a less than Hallmarkish ending. It's normally not that big of deal, but here it is just so misplaced from the events that takes place before it (the red weed is made out of human blood, for chrissakes!), that is really hurts the overall film. Not to the degree that it could have, because the film is masterful before it, but it still prevents it from going over the top and hitting that mark of all time classic.

Look, the film is great. I refuse to punish a film for being flawless 95% of it's run time. Could it have been an all time classic if SS could NOT pull punch for once in his life? Yes. Be that is it may, though, the film is still one of the best of the year and still one of the best summer blockbusters you're ever likely to see. The ending didn't hurt the film as much as it could have (or as much as I thought it would while I was watching it), but it still hurt enough. 9/10.

Excellent. Great set pieces, fine performances and better than any horror movie I have seen in years. Alien had this kind of impact. The basement scenes are fabulous with the "snake" and the "others". The tripod roar is outright scary and fabulous.

A+

Well, I'm glad Eagle agrees with me. I have it at C, as everyone by now knows.

For those of you that want to see a film where the aliens win....

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

And I walked all the way home, skipping with glee...

Cause OH MY FUCKING GOD was War of the Worlds AMAZING :yikes: :yikes: !!

I guess I'll file this one next to AI, Signs and The Village in the "what the hell did people find wrong with the ending" category. I know that I should be used to it by now, you know, the not taking reviews too seriously, but after anticipating this movie more than perhaps any other in history, I was honestly getting a little worried by what some were saying about the last act of the movie. But man, I think it ended perfectly and I don't think I'll ever understand the hate. I'll go to the grave proclaiming this as a modern masterpiece of cinema.

There just is nothing like a Steven Spielberg movie when the dude is in top form. It's kind of indescribable the way he can command your attention and to present his story visually and boy does he take you for a ride in War of the Worlds. There is so much iconic imagery in this movie and stupendously orchestrated carnage and destruction and Steven presents it in such an exciting way. There will not be a better scene in a movie this year than the Tripod bursting from below the street. That is easily one of the greatest sequences in film history. I can't believe how much my heart was pounding and the death grip I had on my arm-rests through the whole thing. You know that the effects boys come to play when Spielberg is at the helm, but Jesus Christ did they ever out-do themselves this time. Amazing practical effects work tearing the living shit out of the street and surrounding buildings, fucking displacing the front of a church (although I'm pretty sure some of that was cgi, it was just so seamless) combine with the most realistic and BEST cgi ever put to film to create this masterful scene. And the SOUND! Oh my sweet lord, the SOUND :yikes: ! The sound of the tripod almost made me shit my pants and all the other crashes and smashes were gloriously pronounced in what I think is the best sounding movie I've ever heard in a theatre. I can't believe all the damn cool shots Steven came up with, like the one through that guys camcorder, or the reflections in the window behind Ray......just unbelievable direction and cinematography. Wow, that just completely shits on any other action scene I've seen in a long time.

Whew.........let me take a breather to talk about the story and characters.

Morgan Freeman's narration begins the movie with a chilling sense of dread as we see shots of people all over the world going about their business. It sort of reminded me of the beginning of Terminator 2 actually. We are then dropped into the life of Ray Ferrier and his two kids who are spending the weekend with him. I was immediately sucked into these peoples lives and at the centre of it all is a totally kick-ass performance by Tom Cruise. Forget all the shit you've heard out of him recently and recognize that this guy is a damn fine actor. His jackass father had me charmed right away and the tense scene between him and Robbie was a damn riot. Who the hell said this film had no humour? These domestic scenes had a tonne of guffaws and I just loved the tone of it all. These two kids (wonderfully played by both actors by the way) act like real kids and the conversations were all convincing to me and made me like and care for this family. This is why, once the lightning strikes and events are set in motion, there is such an intensity to everything. I loved the route this movie took by following Ray and his kids and getting a sense of how the average Joe would deal with such extreme circumstances. We see Ray desperately try to protect Robbie and Rachel, we see how pissed off Robbie is and how courageous he's willing to be and, well, we see Rachel scream a lot :wink: (but she's damn good at that). That scene of the attack on the minivan just blew me away. You see Ray and Robbie getting tugged away and beaten while poor little Rachel is helpless in the car, it's just so engaging. We glimpse some pretty damn harsh stuff during that scene and I was mighty impressed the film managed to get away with so much, violence wise.

What follows is another riveting moment between Robbie and Ray that leads to the introduction of the Tim Robbins character, Ogilvy. Some have complained that the movie loses steam here, but for me, it was a much needed breather from all the ass-kickery that came before, not to mention that Ogilvy serves a real purpose, leading to another fantastic scene. There is a great shot of Ray silhouetted in black standing in the door-way waiting to take care of business that is just badass. The movie is just full to the brim with iconic shots like that; such as the bodies flowing down the river, the tripod demolished against a building, the tripod in its full glory after emerging from the street, Rachel standing with the tripod's spotlight on her, the shot of Rachel through the smashed hole in the overturned vehichle, etc....etc... I'm just waiting for a good download of this movie so I can't start taking screen grabs to make desktops (and don't worry, I'll see in theatres at least twice more).

Which brings me to this "horrible" last 20 minutes and an ending that supposedly ruins what comes before. You've got to be fucking kidding me. So Ray and Rachel escape the basket and make their way to Boston where we are informed that the aliens are in a real spot of trouble and are beginning to malfunction. Those who know anything about the book knows what's coming, so maybe this plays out as anticlimactic to others, I don't really know. It was magnificent how this played out in broad daylight and the realization after seeing the crows flying around the tripod was so well done. The following tripod destruction is truly bloody fantastic, yet Steven still managed to slip in that great shot of the alien and almost make me feel sorry for it, the little bugger. And then it's hugs and kisses all around, but in a far less sappy way then I thought it would be and in fact it seemed very honest to me. I mean, did you really expect Robbie to die? Then comes the awesome Freeman outro and cue the applause. Not a false note to this ending at all.

Allright, lets get to the little used, but fantastic score by the master John Williams. Obviously Steven made a decision not to use too much music in the movie, but what is there suits the on-screen action perfectly. The score seems to come in two forms; the creepy slow stuff (dead bodies in the river) and the bombastic (Ferry scene). Actually, the best stuff is saved for the credits sequence, where I heard some very nice Bernard Hermann-esque compositions.

One last paragraph for some leftover rambling. Once again, unbelievable special effects and blended so seamlessly that really benefitted (especially in the street scene) from the hand-held cinematography and graininess to sell the realism. I loved the tripod on the hill and the the hopeless military attack with the tripod coming out of the fire. Just too cool and so very epic. The explosions in this movie were some of the best I've ever seen and seemed to (though who knows) rely less on cgi enhancement as some other films. And was that scene when Ray is driving wildly with Robbie trying to calm Rachel down all one continuous shot, or were there some cuts? I'm not too sure, but it was awesome.

Wow. This is the longest review I've ever written and if you're still with me I appreciate your interest and intestinal fortitude . This movie just cements Steven Spielberg as my favourite director of all-time and most definitely deserves a perfect A+.

All hail the mighty Fucking "Berg" :mirrorbow: :mirrorbow: .

So... how much are they paying you? :razz:

The sound may have been better than the sound in Revenge of the Sith and this movie better get a nomination for sound!

Great reveiew!

War of the Worlds is like premature ejaculation.

Anyone else agrees that the son should've just died instead of a happy-Spielbergian-type-reunion-ending? Robbie should have died!

Freakin' fantastic! I'll admit, when I read all the dissapointed people this afternoon, I was worried, so I lowered expectations. This movie turned out to be a lot better than I ever expected it to be. The special effects are breathtaking. Spielberg shows us all how to do summer blockbusters again. I was a little annoyed by Dakota Fanning, who didn't really add much to the film except her annoying voice. Tom Cruise was great as usual. I think the only reason I can't give this the perfect grade is because the movie left some unanswered questions. Overall, though, brilliant. A

Huh? Please, please, tell me you're joking.


He is nowhere near as good as he was in Minority Report.

That's a given. He's always good, though.

Collateral and Minority Report are his best, though.

There is no grounds for making such a sweeping generalization. Unless you have a very low threshold for what a "good" performance is, Cruise can hardly lay claim to being consistently "good". He is usually "acceptable" or "ok", sure, but "good"? No.


The acting was not among WOTW's strengths. Cruise's performance might be deemed "good" perhaps in comparison to Robbins' ridiculous shtick.

Well the first half of the movie is the best of any movie this year and I give it an outstanding A+ .The initial destruction scene ranks at the top of the list for any movie and the CGI is truely seemless. After seeing everyone get vaporized, I was left breathless. Unfortunately, the second half of the movie let me down. I was a little disapointed that they left the ending exactly the same as the book but I was ok with it. But the movie's pace really slowed down to a crawl with Tim Robbins character. After seeing the first couple of destruction scenes, it left me wanting more. I wanted to see what was happening on the other side of the hill and outside of the basement windows. So overall I was a tad bit disapointed but still a hell of a summer blockbuster. Seeing this on the UltraScreen theater was truely amazing with the booms of the tripods echoing through my body.

B+

That was straight from the heart, brother :wink: .

Ah, well, I knew it wasn't straight from the brain.