MovieChat Forums > War of the Worlds (2005) Discussion > Here's what I liked & disliked about the...

Here's what I liked & disliked about the film...

posted 6 years ago by CinemaDemon989 (1286)
8 replies | jump to latest

I liked the idea of giant killer tripods. For an alien invasion flick, it was a nice change of pace compared to having flying saucers. And I thought the special effects for the tripods was pretty impressive.

That scene in the beginning of the film, when the tripods first came out of the ground and started attacking...that was one memorable scene. Probably the best scene of the entire movie.

I thought the film started to go downhill when Tom Cruise and his daughter hunkered down in that basement with Tim Robbins. Even though Tim Robbins is a great actor, his character just sort of popped out of nowhere, and didn't really seem to fit the story-line.

I thought the scenes where Robby was chasing after the military, saying things like, "we need to get back at them" (meaning the aliens), was extremely ridiculous and almost laughable. What exactly was Robby planning on doing? There were many scenes throughout the film that I would consider corny. Random unfitting feel-good scenes.

But other than that, I still liked the movie. It had it's flaws and plot-holes...but it was still enjoyable.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yeah, I liked it too even the Tim Robbins sub-plot.

I thought the scriptwriter wasted an opportunity to more strongly connect it to the novel though. As you probably already know, in the original H.G. Wells novel, the aliens came from Mars. Apparently, because the movie was set in current times and because Mars was known to be a barren planet by now, Spielberg decided to leave the aliens' origins unexplained. Instead it's explained that their machines been here for millenia buried deep in the earth until they are released.

In my hypothetical script, they would still be from Mars, but Mars of the distant past when it still had an atmosphere and water. The aliens traveled to Earth back then, but finding it inhospitable to them, they buried themselves and waited until Earth evolved to something that could nominally support them.

Everything else about the movie would stay exactly the same. This explanation could have been worked into the exposition of the reporter who tells Cruise's character about the aliens.

The smallest of tweaks to the dialogue is all it would have taken.

[–] CinemaDemon989 (1286) 5 years ago

Maybe that crazy lightning storm was generated from Mars, which is what activated the tripods in the ground.

But still, how deep were these tripods in the ground? Its difficult for me to believe that humans (including the government) wouldn't have discovered them. Or maybe...the government knew about them the entire time. Seems plausible, right? More government secrets. Maybe they just assumed the tripods were ancient and inactive, and would never rise up.

[–] BillySlater (4093) 5 years ago

I really don´t get why this movie gets slammed, I think its one of Spielberg´s best. It´s obviously not without its flaws. As you mentioned, Justin Chatwin is incredibly annoying and unlikable. The Tim Robbins subplot does seem out of place but that basement scene is just filled with tension, and makes up for it imo.
I also agree with you and think the 1st act of the film, is absolutely enthralling from the lightning storm to the aliens coming out of the ground and zapping everyone.
Its fair to say that there´s not much substance to the movie, its just a survival film with no real message but it is great at delivering what its supposed to.

[–] mobocracy (845) 4 years ago

I just rewatched it for the first time since it was in the theater. I remember it being meh and that it was kind of panned.

What surprised me most on rewatching is how emotionally intense it is. The director and the cast do an excellent job of creating intense situations and the cast communicates the fear and horror of the situation. The annoying teen son was annoying because his behavior is very true to what knucklehead teens actually do.

I think the survival narrative is a little dull but maybe that’s just a byproduct of how chaotic and unplanned survival would be.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16135) 4 years ago

I think the military assault on the hill was an attempt by Spielberg to kill two birds with one stone. The aliens are portrayed as a mega-sized 9/11 event with people being killed indiscriminately and survivors covered in ash. So the military response is a "rally the troops" flag raising gesture on Spielberg's part like it's gonna be ID4. BUT...as the hilltop scene shows, it's laughably futile to fight back against such superior (and malicious) forces.

[–] modica (4169) 4 years ago

I would have to say that the Tim Robbins part is very realistic. This is exactly what happens to people when something of such magnitude occurs. The fact that it just pops up doesn't bother me either, because in real life things just come out of nowhere. Not sure why people are so sensitive to this part of the movie.

[–] Starman (412) 4 years ago

Tim Robbins part is certainly the most powerful and realistic part of the film, it finally slows down and goes into deeper atmosphere and feelings of what's really going on, it's less about aliens now and more about people going mad. This part is one of the main reasons why I can't watch the film again, too disturbing and frightening.

[–] Lampedusean (498) 4 years ago

I reckon you don't have a teenage son lol.