Wednesday, July 13, 2005

War of the Worlds

So I saw War of the Worlds last night with a couple of friends and I approve. I just finished reading the book so I had a fairly clear picture in my mind of what should be included. I must say that a few of the ways in which it differed, dispite being very cool visually, disappointed me and created some issues that didn't make sense when thought about critically. Naturally, I won't say what these are so as not to spoil it for those who haven't yet seen it. A couple of other ways in which the movie differed from the book I had no problem with at all because they were still in keeping with the spirit of the novel or greatly improved it for the big screen medium.
Also, the special effects and cinematography were spectacular. My uncle (by marriage) was one of the top special effects guys for the movie. His name is Pablo Helman, and his name actually came up in the credits, in the big important font, before Tom Cruise. I really have to hand it to my uncle. A lot of the CG creations looked like actual physical objects. The alien tripods were especially cool, as were the death rays and the sounds that the tripods made.
In conclusion, I sooooooo want a death ray and my birthday is coming up in a little over a month. hint hint

1 comment:

Spark of Life said...

My thoughts on WotW:

"Independence Day" more or less screwed the entire alien genre into being sub-par for all eternity. You just can't compete with that one. But. This one wasn't bad. The first 2/3 of the film were good, and there was real fear. Not just jump in you seat stuff, but OHMYGOD fear. And a lot of that fear came from what the people were doing, not the aliens, which I though was a good idea.

Now, the last 1/3 of the film really disappointed me. Especially the ending (I've never read the book, but I think it ends the same way. doesn't mean the ending doesn't suck, though). We're talking deus ex machina up the ass right there. I understand what they were trying to say, but I don't think enough evidence was planted throughout the earlier parts of the film to make that ending feasible.

That's just me. But I did like it.