War of the worlds (BBC 3)

Who's shocked? Merely making a comment. My 70 year old Mom won't even look at a Chinese meal, let alone taste one. Perhaps that's shocking to you, I don't know. I was surprised when she turned her nose up in disgust, knowing she'd never even tried one. But not shocked.

Anyway, just came back to comment on the fact that I completely forgot about one of the very best "Blade Runner", as you so rightly included.

"Calm down, Charlie Brown".
 
I think this film gets unfair criticism now due to the popularity of hating Tom Cruise.

At points, the film was truely terrifying, such as the scene in the basement when the aliens come to search the house.

There's also an interesting examination of human nature. The scene where the family are confroned with the crowed while they're in their car, and Tom Cruise having to 'deal' with Tim Robbins charcters raise a lot of questions.

Contrary to others, I didn't find Dakota Fanning annoying at all and found her performance was perfect for the situation. How else do you think a ten year old would act when the planet is being invaded by aliens.

Also, I'm quite happy that there was no scientific explanation about the aliens, as this was similar to Cloverfield. Normally in these films you have Professor Von Knows A Lot toddling on screen and explaining everything, usually that it was an American government consipracy or something like that. Instead, this just emphasises how much man kind was taken by surprise by the events.

My one criticsm would be the return of the son at the end. It could have been a much more ponient ending if he had been lost, but instead they went for the Hollywood ending.

So yeah, I my opinion, and solid film.
 
It was a pretty rushed production, which maybe explains why the last ten minutes are so crap. Spielberg wanted to make it fast, which just doesn't happen with effects movies of this size, so there perhaps wasn't enough time to work on the ending or add a few things that didn't make his son just walking up to them at the end so stupid, and why Boston, where they are heading to the whole movie, was untouched by the aliens.

With a bit more work he could have challenged his all-time classic alien movie, Close Encounters.
 
For the most part, the movie was fantastic - the big set pieces were scintillating and the first emergence of the Tripod is frightening.

But there are serious downparts. Tim Robbins character is awful and the ending is abysmal. Would love to see a re-edit cutting the impact of those aspects down.
 
I was watching it on a dodgy downloaded dvd so it may not have been to its advantage. The Russian opening titles should've been a clue I suppose.:)
 
Have to agree. I saw this on DVD a couple of years ago, and thought it was excellent. Some great effects, and genuinely scary moments. Spielberg still has it for me.
 
You and me both which is why I can't wait to actually get to see this show at the O2 this summer (Justin Hayward and all...) :D

As for the Spielberg version on TV last night, loved the first hour, hated the rest. Like others I would have happily given up the daughter to the aliens and as for the son.....do most kiRAB go into a panic attack and start screaming their heaRAB off when they don't know what is going on or what. I thought they might just start crying !

Like a lot of remakes, I really did not go much on this version and thought it could have been done so much better but more importantly, I just wished they had kept to the original story.
 
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