Box, you have totally redeemed yourself. Just so you know, I completely disagree with, but still respect your opinion on this film.

Anyways, to everyone in general who are talking about it, I think the ending was really good. I'm going to admit that it would have been nice if the son had died. It would have been a nice emotional punch, but that didn't hurt anything for me. The film was so great, that was hardly anything. But in regards to how the alien's died, I personally thought it was a great ending, and the way it was shot gave the whole film a real sense of symmetry, as it tied back to the opening scene. The theme being that the smallest thing imaginable can be the ultimate downfall of the aliens, a race so complex and ultimately superior. I'm glad to see for once that the humans were in fact useless. They couldn't do a thing to defend themselves. Not a thing. After countless alien invasion and alien war films where the humans just magically find some new medical or weapon discovery and save the planet, this ending was awesome. The humans lost about a billion of their planets population, a lot of the Earth is left in ruins, and the rest have managed to survive, but not because of anything they did. Because they got lucky that something so small, and so "insignificant" to them, saved them. Us humans for once, weren't at the top of everything. What I find even more awesome is that this is the ending in the book as well, and this was written so long ago. Kudos to Spielberg for not changing it to make the typical Hollywood ending.

Ha, I think I've written a paragraph of my official review now, lol. I'll have a full review up sometime soon. I believe I have decided to officially give this film an A-, and will be my favourite film of the year thus far. It certainly won't stay there. I find the second half of the year has much more quality films.

PEACE, Mike

That was one of my problems. I didnt really get the feel that human population was badly hurt. Ok it was all shown from the view of Tom Cruise and of course he doesnt have communication etc. But at least some shots of global destruction would have been good.

Wow, we definately do not agree. For me personally, one of the great things about this film is that Spielberg actually managed to restrain himself and not use the usual sweeping crane shots he does. He shot the entire film from the view of this family, struggling to live among this war. This view just from the family throughout the whole film is one reason the film is so awesome. Films like The Day After Tomorrow did the sweeping destruction view, and didn't focus on just the key characters, and was crap.

PEACE, Mike

I just didn't feel that the ending was well executed, and the way the aliens were defeated wasn't much better than Signs, where the military broke out the squirt guns to foil the invasion.

The thing is, I can appreciate Mike's comments and looking at them in perspective, it is an itneresting twist. I just found the film rushed and it got to that point so fast that it just didn't seem to fit. And can someone explain the grenade thing to me. Why did that wipe out their defense shields?

I think it's very close to beind a D film. Giving it an F would be kind of crazy, though.

Calling it a 'D' film would be calling it as bad as films such as Battlefield Earth, Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever, Cradle to the Grave, Cabin Fever, Freddy Got Fingered, and junk like that. I could go on with all the terrible films in this category that I've seen. So yeah, I would call you crazy for giving it a D grade, easily.

PEACE, Mike

I don't see how anyone can rate this lower than a B. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

War of the Worlds is Potentially Good

By Jeff Schade

There is a certain stigma in Hollywood that films should not take too much nor too little time to produce. If a film is in “development hell” for too long, then expectations of movie goers are greatly reduced, and too many delays generally means poor box office receipts. If a film is too quickly rushed into production though, it often means quality is being sacrificed for quick money returns. The latter seems to be a problem that plagues the next summer action film, War of the Worlds.
From the moment moviegoers step into the theatre and the lights dim, they are presented with an odd narration, delivered flawlessly by Academy Award ® winner Morgan Freeman on the possibilities of another race of beings inhabiting our Earth. It is an eerie proposition that sets a masterful tone for the film.
Such is the basic plot of the latest Steven Spielberg helmed action film, War of the Worlds. It seems that Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise, Minority Report, Eyes Wide Shut), a divorced father with two children (Justin Chatwin, Taking Lives, and Dakota Fanning, Man on Fire), who would rather stay with their step-father then him, is finally beginning to realize the extent to which his life is in disorder. When he finally tries to make a difference, fate has a different plan as a freak lightning storm descends upon their home town. Minutes later, it is clear that this was no ordinary storm, as a massive tripod-like machine rises out of the ground and destroys everything in its path.
As Ferrier and his children attempt to escape, it becomes clear that this is no isolated event and is in fact the choreographed work of an alien race whose plans have been in place for thousands of years. It is also clear that the alien race will not be satisfied until a complete extermination of the human race has been completed.
From then on, it is all Ferrier and his children can do to race against time trying to escape the next attack. They set out for Boston to meet with his ex-wife, stopping along the way for safety. However, safety is only relative.
While it will be no surprise to viewers who have seen any of director Steven Spielburg’s previous films, including A.I.: Artificial Intelligence or Minority Report that it is a technical masterpiece. What may surprise some though is that beyond that it is really quite shallow. From about 20 minutes into the film onward, numerous plot holes are evident. Some that even the most casual of movie goers will not miss. However, there are also numerous strengths depending on which portion of the film is in discussion.
The first 45 minutes perhaps as breathtaking, from the seamless CGI money shots to the flawless acting and pacing. However, a major plot change occurs and suddenly the film begins to lose a great deal of steam. The effects were mastermind by Hollywood stable mate Industrial Lighting Magic or ILM whose other credits include Terminator 2: Judgement Day among others. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to viewers that the CGI effects are some of the best ever shown on the big screen. The problem is, the film was advertised as a pseudo-disaster movie, and unfortunately the special effects shots are few and far between. What Spielburg, with the help of writer David Koepp has chosen to do instead is focus on the family element within the story line.
While overall this isn’t necessarily a problem, it isn’t exactly up to the level that one would expect which is one reason why the film misses a great deal of its potential. Due to the narrow focus, the film looses a great deal of steam about ½ way through as there is simply nowhere else to go. Instead of focusing more on the invasion at hand, the writers decided to place the two main characters into a cellar with an insane patriot, played decently by Tim Robbins (Mystic River). All to soon though it becomes clear that even this stalling will not be enough to keep the film going.
While Cruise gives a typically solid performance, it isn’t up to his usual level, and often times leaves the viewer wondering if he just wasn’t trying hard enough. Dakota Fanning also disappoints, choosing to make her character one of the most grating personalities placed on the big screen in a long time. Justin Chatwin delivers a decent performance, but once again not as good as it could have been.
There are also numerous issues with plot holes in the film, that as stated, even a casual movie goer will be able to spot. This is where the film truly undoes itself as it feels rushed. Its shorter runtime, of 109 minutes also does little to allow the typical Spielberg character development.
The final issue is the ending that not only feels rushed, but completely unintentionally funny. It isn’t that it contains a slightly absurd plot twist, like this years Hide and Seek, it is more that it simply ends with little explanation to why everything occurs. While too much explanation would drop the film even further into B-grade movie level, a little bit would not have hurt in the least bit. It is just more evidence that perhaps the movie was rushed into and out of production.
Overall, while the film is far from bad, it definitely wastes a great deal of potential. Potential that could have easily made this one of the best films of the year. Because it doesn’t though, the film grades as a B, and earns a recommendation solely on its technical and special effects achievements.

War of the Worlds, a Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks S.K.G. release, is rated PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and disturbing images.

Review © 2005 Jeff Schade

I haven't seen any of those movies. I give WotW a C- but it's close to a D+ for me. Movies that I rank similarly to it include Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Matrix Revolutions, and The Lost World. Movies that I would rank a bit lower for me (in the D range) include The Exorcist and Top Gun. Incidentally, the only movies I have in my IMDB vote history that I would give an F to are Austin Powers 2 and Planet of the Apes (2001 version). I tend to avoid seeing movies that I won't like.

Well, the reason why I gave it a C is because I felt that, for every good thing about it, there was something which I thought was lacking. The good and the bad make it fall somewhere down the middle, which for me is the limit.

To say that the film is a D-level or an F-level film would be, I think, to discount much which is really well done. Just consider the ferry sequence, which in my opinion is the second best boat sinking stunt I have ever seen after Titanic's. At each point, you know exactly what is going on. You know that people are rushing to get on the ferry. You know that, when Cruise tells his friend and her daughter to be with them, the tension increases because the stakes are even higher now, with the welfare of 5 people at stake at the centre. Meanwhile, you are also painfully aware of the many others who simply don't stand a chance of being on the boat. Then, you become aware of the fact that the woman and her child are torn away from Cruise and his family. It makes it that much worse because those two actually stood a good chance of making it.

Then, as you, along with Cruise, get on the ferry, you begin to wonder just how safe it really is. Just then, Dakota turns around. She sees light on the horizon, and we become immediately aware of the fact that this sequence is occurring in a place and time where a vastly superior and hostile force is threatening humanity. You know from previous events in the film that a boat will do nothing to protect anyone. That being the case, you instincitvely know that the boat will sink.

Since you know this, you can sit back and observe how it is sunk. Knowing beforehand does not make it any easier to watch. It's actually worse, because you realize how wrong all the people were to hope that a ferry ride across the river would help them. Spielberg is doing the exact same thing, on a smaller scale, that Cameron did in Titanic. In Titanic, we are told almost instantly how the ship will sink, and we are shown graphics of it. Later, one and a half hours after that demonstration, we have that in the back of our minds when we witness the events unfolding as Rose and Jack try to make their way from one end of the ship to the other. Not once are we confused about the location or sequence of events, because Cameron has made us familiar with them at the very beginning. Spielberg is doing the same with WOTW.

Sequences such as the sinking of the ferry distinguish great directors from the lesser ones. There is not a single moment throughout the film, except perhaps during the ending, that this is the work of a master who knows and is comfortable operating in the medium of cinema. Spielberg at his worst is merely "interesting". At his best, he is sublime.

The ending was a major misstep because, unlike in The Village* or Signs**, the events preceding it rely so much on the threat from the aliens to achieve their emotional intensity (what makes the ferry sinking so painful, for example, is the awareness that nothing can be done to defend oneself from the aliens and their advanced technology). Giving such a simple reason for their demise after one hour of intense battle against that threat is almost a form of betrayal. It might work well on paper, but onscreen, within the format of cinema, the dynamics are completely different. The theatre environment, with its darkness enveloping you, almost demands us to surrender ourselves to the experience. When we've gone, via the characters, through so much, it is difficult to step back and accept so simple a cause for the aliens' defeat, because such an easy answers cheapens our and the characters' suffering. It is better to die at the hands of some[one/thing] who/that seems invulnerable and invincible rather than at the hands of some[one/thing] whom it is so easy to defeat. In essence, the bacteria, the lowliest of God's creatures, as the narrator states, did what humanity couldn't achieve. That is a deeply humiliating fate.

However, within that faulty framework, much in the film works splendidly well.


*Ivy and Lucius are so well played, Ivy in particular, that the sheer force of Howard's and Phoenix's performance almost single-handedly transform the film from a thriller into a love story. At the end, you don't care if those of whom we do not speak are real or not. What you care about is whether Ivy will make it in time to save Lucius' life.

**Signs is not about aliens (and WOTW in some ways isn't either). It's about Gibson losing and regaining his faith. At the end of the film, you couldn't care less about the alien. What you care about is the boy's life being saved, and Gibson finding his faith again.

Did you really copyright that? Fill out the forms and all?

You don't need to fill out forms to copyright something. If you write something original you automatically have a copyright on it.

That's not entirely true. I studied entertainment and copyright law in school. If you really had something that you wanted protected, you'll need real prove. Otherwise, it's he said/she said. It's not enough to just have it written down.

The problem here with some of these reviews (and I think my post here will most help baumer) is that they are judging it as a science fiction movie, and in that genre typically we expect and get some professorial type explaining all the little details. But WotW is actually a horror movie, and conforms more to that genre's expectations. One example of what I mean is it's a lot like Halloween: in Halloween you follow JLCurtis's point of view most of the time and you rarely know more than she does, and you get very few answers at the end. But it works because that makes it scarier and scaring is what it is settting out to do, that's the goal. Knowing more about a horrific situation can help put it in perspective and make it less scary. There are lots of good horror movies that barely explain anything, I still don't know what happened or why in John Carpenter's The Thing, but I don't mind because I didn't judge it as a sci-fi flick in which rationality and science triumph, I judged it as a horror movie.

Hm ok ....but then I missed the horror I guess. Of course it looks often like a horror movie and has typical elements from that. But at least for me it just didnt work :???:

I'm not surprised. This board is filled with a lot of hard core horror fans who are used to some really gruesome stuff. So they almost always complain when a mainstream horror movie comes out that it just isn't scary enough.

Your are right :razz:
I found Ring 1 and 2 boring for example and everything else than scary. So I think WOTW was "harmless" for me.

The human reaction/interaction and the tension that Spielberg was able to build up in this film was scarier than a lot of things I've seen in some so called "horror" films.

PEACE, Mike

then he shouldn't have called it war of the worlds. it's a war film not a little family emotional journey indie. give us the money shots. who cares about basements and apartments and cars... where was the damn destruction for alien's sake!! ](*,)

it was the script. the dialogue. the idiocracies in the film that totally make it derserving of a C.

F - yeah i don't think it fails because from a technological point of view, it was pretty good.

but I wanted to smack all the characters at one point or another for stupidity. also, the three-fingered hand of the aliens is so famous. why show it just once in the whole movie. this was suppsoed to be about the aliens not tom cruise.

Actually I wrote the review for the main site. I just put that at the end to show it is my original work.

And true I'd have to fill out the correct forms, but I believe for certain works it is not required unless it comes into question.

It could've been one of the grestest movies ever. It could've been the best science-fiction movie of all time. It could've been Spielberg's best movie. The special effects were amazing, it amazes me with what they can do with them. The entire city just being destroyed by the tripods were phenomenal. The acting was decent, Cruise was great but others around him weren't as good. Dakota pulled off her thing as the little scared girl, but the brother (Robbie) was just horrendous. Robbins was in the movie for only about 20 minutes and his character was of very little importance. Everything was great, until the ending. I know, I know that's how the book ends, but it all seemed a little to anti-climatic to me. it seemed rushed, the movie seemed like it needed about another half an hour to explain itself. Pretty intense movie, with some of Spielberg's usual humor thrown in. It was great summer fun, but don't expect it to win any awards.

B+

x

Saw it. Friggin' loved it. Cannot wait for the DVD (which is sure to be amazing). Best movie of the summer BY FAR. Very scary (I jumped once or twice, my body shook during the beginning of the alien attack, and chills went down my spine once or twice), freaky, and emotional (I got teary eyed a few times yes). There are some very haunting images in this movie that will stick me. The alien attack scenes were amazing and disturbing- the special effects were AWESOME. Tom Cruise gave a very good performance as well as Dakota Fanning. Tim Robbins was pretty good as well (even though the scene in the basement lasted a little too long). There were some lighter moments as well that were funny. Can't wait to see it again. I'll give it an A. \:D/