War of the... huh?
The various reactions around our offices regarding War of the Worlds has been amusing, with some of us wowed by the special effects and others just too ticked off at the ending to care. I'm in the latter camp.
If you've read the book (and you have, haven't you?) then you already know how the aliens are defeated, so the only questions remaining for the Spielberg/Cruise version of the story are what the fluff will look like, and how the movie will deal with the conclusion. With the level of SFX technology these days we expected the aliens to kick some ass, and we weren't disappointed. The computer generated tripods looked wickedly cool and the "laser" beam weapons rock. The sense of scale is consistent, so you aren't seeing a "small" tripod in one scene and a big one in the next, they're always big. The aliens themselves look good as well, though not as menacing as you might think.
But that ending. Ouch. Here's the story in a nutshell... Cruise has kids for the weekend, aliens attack... yada yada yada... run from aliens... yada yada yada... aliens die. Roll credits. It's as if Spielberg ran out of money and had to shortcut the ending. Seriously, the aliens die, and the credits roll. We're left hanging on several plot points, and we realize that as cool as the aliens were we never really got to see a good fight happen with them.
I would have given the movie 2 stars if I'd written the review. Lots of hype for the movie for a really lame payoff. I do look forward to the DVD though, this thing will rock the sound system.
If you've read the book (and you have, haven't you?) then you already know how the aliens are defeated, so the only questions remaining for the Spielberg/Cruise version of the story are what the fluff will look like, and how the movie will deal with the conclusion. With the level of SFX technology these days we expected the aliens to kick some ass, and we weren't disappointed. The computer generated tripods looked wickedly cool and the "laser" beam weapons rock. The sense of scale is consistent, so you aren't seeing a "small" tripod in one scene and a big one in the next, they're always big. The aliens themselves look good as well, though not as menacing as you might think.
But that ending. Ouch. Here's the story in a nutshell... Cruise has kids for the weekend, aliens attack... yada yada yada... run from aliens... yada yada yada... aliens die. Roll credits. It's as if Spielberg ran out of money and had to shortcut the ending. Seriously, the aliens die, and the credits roll. We're left hanging on several plot points, and we realize that as cool as the aliens were we never really got to see a good fight happen with them.
I would have given the movie 2 stars if I'd written the review. Lots of hype for the movie for a really lame payoff. I do look forward to the DVD though, this thing will rock the sound system.
4 Comments:
WOTW looks absolutley kick-ass,it premiers on friday over here. Shame bout the ending though
This is one of those movies that makes us curse our own rules about not ever copping out and giving a half star.
I almost gave it 4 stars though because I think the effects need to be seen on a big screen. I settled for 3 stars because although the movie has issues, the effects make it worth theater admission. With effects this huge, I couldn't justify a two star rating which by our own definition says wait for video.
I stand by saying it's worth seeing at the theater in order to check out the amazing visuals on a huge screen.
Okay yeah I had to speak up. The ending to WOTW is NOT bad. The conclusion, yeah its one of the worst I've seen in a while. But the ending was straight from the original film and text by HG. You can't complain about Spielberg sticking to the story. But the whole thing where "Oh my God! Everybody WE care about survived! What a spectactularly fortunate coincidence!", that was ri-goddamned-diculous. That ending was terrible, but I still thought it was one of the most incredible and intense films I've seen in years. And trust me, I've seen a couple movies in my time.
Well, after hearing you guys rant about it, maybe it won't suck as bad for me when I see it... I'll be expecting it. Thanks! :P
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