War of the Stupid Worlds
Steven Spielberg may not make great movies these movies these days, but he can usually be depended on for very sophisticated and thrilling visual style. So when I heard he was making a version of War of the Worlds, I couldn't wait to see it, even if it starred Tom Cruise. I wasn't expecting a fabulous movie, just something cool to watch. Alas, even these limited expectations were disappointed. Despite all the running around, buildings toppling, and crowds of people vanishing into poofs of gray ash, War of the Worlds felt flat.
Any geeky thrill from watching the towering Martian walkers (their planet of origin is never specified in the movie, but hey, we all know Mars has had it in for us for a long time) destroying large parts of the suburban US was undercut by insulting lapses in plot and action details, deeply offending said geek. For instance: A good deal of the early action centers around the fact that Electro- magnetic pulses have disabled all electric devices, from TVs to cars. But not, apparently, the hand-held camcorder carried by one of the many doomed gawkers in New Jersey. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. In addition to such inattention to detail as this, characters major and minor exhibit the stupid behavior one expects from B-movie horror flicks. OMIGOD!--Aliens are destroying our major cities! Quick, everyone, let's get to *BOSTON*!. A better defense technique than might have been to have everyone carry around full-length mirrors, since the super-high-tech invaders seem never to encountered a reflective surface before.
There have been some attempts to read contemporary political messages into the movie. Right-wing bloggers, in particular, have been angry that the hero, red-blooded NASCAR dad Tom Cruise, just runs and hides from the invaders rather than fighting it out against impossible odds, maybe while shouting 'Wolverines!' Eh, whatever. One of the things I liked about the movie was its relative faithfulness to the H. G. Wells novel, wherein man and his seemingly omnipotent Earth technology is rapidly and inexplicably brought low, then just as inexplicably rescued.
Any geeky thrill from watching the towering Martian walkers (their planet of origin is never specified in the movie, but hey, we all know Mars has had it in for us for a long time) destroying large parts of the suburban US was undercut by insulting lapses in plot and action details, deeply offending said geek. For instance: A good deal of the early action centers around the fact that Electro- magnetic pulses have disabled all electric devices, from TVs to cars. But not, apparently, the hand-held camcorder carried by one of the many doomed gawkers in New Jersey. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. In addition to such inattention to detail as this, characters major and minor exhibit the stupid behavior one expects from B-movie horror flicks. OMIGOD!--Aliens are destroying our major cities! Quick, everyone, let's get to *BOSTON*!. A better defense technique than might have been to have everyone carry around full-length mirrors, since the super-high-tech invaders seem never to encountered a reflective surface before.
There have been some attempts to read contemporary political messages into the movie. Right-wing bloggers, in particular, have been angry that the hero, red-blooded NASCAR dad Tom Cruise, just runs and hides from the invaders rather than fighting it out against impossible odds, maybe while shouting 'Wolverines!' Eh, whatever. One of the things I liked about the movie was its relative faithfulness to the H. G. Wells novel, wherein man and his seemingly omnipotent Earth technology is rapidly and inexplicably brought low, then just as inexplicably rescued.
posted by Ambivalent_Maybe at 7:01 AM
2 Comments:
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I had an orginal comment here, but when I tried to publish, it didn't appear to post; that message if you havent seen it - or perhaps it pops up when I publish this comment, was:
I'm so glad to hear my intuition was correct. Funny thing, I saw the 50's Gene Barry version of this movie late last year and was wondering why nobody had done a remake. I don't know about Spielberg... The last movie he made with Tom Cruise seemed awfully stupid, and though he was really good with dinosaurs, I really would've preferred the ACDoyle version of The Lost World.
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Ok, quoting myself done..., I thought I'd lost this comment last week, didn't want to rewrite it, decided I'd sit down and add ad comment this week, and began with almost the exact same phrase that I used a week ago... i.e.: "I'm so glad to hear my intuition was on target..." Jeez, ... anyway this weeks comment:
... as a followup to "why nobody had done a remake...", I actually saw "Mars Attacks" recently and realised this was actually a remake in a much more 'hip' way... Enjoyed it the 2nd time, only have a vague memory of seeing it originaly in Myrtle Beach... Pancake Houses, and Putt Putt golf grabbing my attention there more so... Ah well, that would'a been'a cool movie: "Mars Attacks Myrtle Beach...." Maybe we could get Tom as the beach bum who save's the putt putt..
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