MovieChat Forums > War of the Worlds: Goliath (2014) Discussion > We enjoyed it, but... THE THING THAT IS ...

We enjoyed it, but... THE THING THAT IS VERY WRONG WITH THIS. (spoilers)


(spoilers)

First off, we and our 10 year old boys enjoyed this. We weren't blown away by it, but it was entertaining in a Retro Steampunk GI-Joe way.

BUT THERE WAS SOMETHING VERY WRONG ABOUT THIS STORY, BEING A VARIANT OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS.

The WHOLE THING that made the original story an enduring timeless science fiction classic, was because IN THE END IT WASN'T "SUPERIOR FIRE POWER" THAT SAVED US.

There have been plenty of stories about aliens coming and us having to kill them. THEY ARE NOT CLASSICS.

The original story (and indeed the classic 1950's movie with Gene Barry, culminating in a nuclear bomb) was how our obsessions of military prowess and military bravery was NOT the answer to defeating this enemy.

In the movie, at least, all of our power didn't even bring down ONE of them. It wasn't that our military wasn't "big enough", it was that NONE of our weapons were ANY good.

And in the end, the thing that defeated them was something which (at the time it was written) we were just BEGINNING to gain an understanding of - germs (and the microscopic biological world which we're still only beginning to understand).

While I can not think, off the top of my head, what would have been a suitable "follow up twist" in this movie to have finally defeated the Martians, the fact is that the whole "superior fire power combined with grit and determination" theme COMPLETELY REVERSES the ENTIRE POINT of the original story.

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