War of the Worlds
there was a lot of hype about this movie and i went to see it last night. i thought it was great. some people said it had a dumb or fast ending, but it is a remake, and the original film ended the same way, i like how they even kept the creeping hand coming out of the ship.
o yea, and i loved the awesome visual effects.
o yea, and i loved the awesome visual effects.
Comments
(that I know of or have seen...please feel free to name any I have omitted):
# War of the Worlds (2005)
# Catch Me If You Can (2002)
# Minority Report (2002)
# Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
# Saving Private Ryan (1998 (~Debatable~)
# The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
# Jurassic Park (1993)
# Hook (1991)
# Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
I thought that the Love Of Father? theme in Hook was a very creative twist, and I felt that the Last Crusade treatment of the same was excellent. But all you have to do to puke yer supper is watch AI and Minority Report back to back, with their treacly, simplistic Love Of Father? Conquers ALL BS!! (® MACchine). I haven't seen WOTW but I imagine it to be something along these lines.
Just think about the oftentimes satyrical treatment of parents (often distant and disinterested) in these earlier movies:
# E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
# Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
# Jaws (1975)
--B
Originally posted by bergz
Official List of Steven Spielberg movies with cheesy Love Of Father? themes
(that I know of or have seen...please feel free to name any I have omitted):
# War of the Worlds (2005)
# Catch Me If You Can (2002)
# Minority Report (2002)
# Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
# Saving Private Ryan (1998 (~Debatable~)
# The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
# Jurassic Park (1993)
# Hook (1991)
# Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
I thought that the Love Of Father? theme in Hook was a very creative twist, and I felt that the Last Crusade treatment of the same was excellent. But all you have to do to puke yer supper is watch AI and Minority Report back to back, with their treacly, simplistic Love Of Father? Conquers ALL BS!! (® MACchine). I haven't seen WOTW but I imagine it to be something along these lines.
Just think about the oftentimes satyrical treatment of parents (often distant and disinterested) in these earlier movies:
# E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
# Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
# Jaws (1975)
--B
I haven't seen it yet either. Apparently, Cruise plays a dead-beat dad. Not sure how that will fit your theory.
I see how the theme carries in the plot of most of the movies you've listed except for Minority Report. ???
edit: duh, I forgot about the sub-plot of the little boy that was murdered. my bad.
Originally posted by LiquidR
I haven't seen it yet either. Apparently, Cruise plays a dead-beat dad. Not sure how that will fit your theory.
From Slate:
"It's not your father's War of the Worlds?but it is a father's War of the Worlds. [...]
"Largely, he's a man who runs away from towering, tendriled, three-legged alien death-ray machines. All he can think about is saving his young daughter and headstrong teenage son, who challenges his every move. [...]
"If Ray is never a great dad, Cruise makes it clear that he's operating with dadlike primal instincts: His reaction time is faster than his thinking. [...]
"In the past, Spielberg's nice aliens have been replacements for absent dads. Now, for a change, it's the dad who has to be a dad."
--B
I can truly say that's the first time I've teared up while watching things get blown to shit in a movie.
Why? Spielberg makes it feel real. Not, "That fireball and car flying in the air look cool and convincing" real, but "Oh god, those people are being killed and they're terrified and the scale of destruction is so vast and those things just keep coming and it all happened so fast" real.
9/11 real, which is clearly the source of this movie's power (and IMO creates for itself a problem, but that might be spoiler territory). This is for sure the first summer blockbuster that trades on our new found knowledge of what vast urban destruction actually looks and feels like.
Dust. Crowds of people alternately transfixed and then running for their lives. Wild speculation as to what the fuck is actually going on. Debris raining from the air, at one point with real pathos and strangeness. More dust.
I'm not sure you can even call it "enjoyable". Intense, certainly. The images will stay with me. The CGI reaches a level of utter believability, with some of the most surreally horrifying things framed as if caught on camera accidently while filming Tom and his little family, the cameraman finally obliged to tilt up, and up, and up.....then to start panning wildly back and forth, as if in astonishment.
Something of the immediacy and gut punch of the early battle scenes of "Saving Private Ryan".
I think the film is amazing as a sort of cathartic re-imagining of 9/11, but I'll be interested in seeing how the box office figures hold up, since all in all it's a pretty down beat affair. That's in keeping with Spielberg's output of the last 10 years or so, which increasingly allows for ambiguity, sadness, and irrevocable loss.
Originally posted by Makke
Saw it last night, and I realise there is no accounting for tastes, but for me it was the worst movie I saw in quite some time. Ridiculous inconsistencies, how you can possibly explain some actions or stuff that goes on in this movie is beyond me, even if it is a fiction story. I understand it is the same story as the remake, but I do not believe it was Spielbergs' intention to have the audience in stitches at the end, I was and I was not alone
the script was written for this movie. It's not a "remake" of anything. It is an adaptation of the book for the screen.
The kids barely tolerate their dad throughout, and he if he's "won them back" the movie doesn't make much of it.
Steve has lost his ability to tell a story. I'm blowing off the upcoming Munich movie (film would appear misapplied here) and waiting to do Netflix.
I want my $9 back.
Originally posted by DifferentLee
This was easily one of the worst movies of the year.
Steve has lost his ability to tell a story. I'm blowing off the upcoming Munich movie (film would appear misapplied here) and waiting to do Netflix.
I want my $9 back.
I don't think Steve has "lost his ability to tell a story", I think he has lost interest in telling a certain (simpler, funner) kind of story.
If you haven't noticed, the all over tone of his films (narratively and cinematographically) have been getting darker and darker.
That being said, it may be that something like "War of the Worlds" isn't really the best vehicle for the kind of story he is interested in telling, since the underlying material is pretty mechanical.
I'm kinda fascinated that America's Most Beloved Director could take on Summer Blockbuster material and come up with something so grim.
It's like the anti-"Independence Day", not an entirely unworthy thing.
If an alien attack from mars actually happened, what do you think the chances are you'd have any information about what was going on?!
All I can say is that its treatment of current events was amateurish and transparent. No irony in Tim Robbins being a patriotic hawk.
9-11 and the WOT were everywhere. Role of the military, civilian participation, the French(!), it was all there.
I mean, the alien ships were Sleeper-Cells!
But seriously, it was eye-rollingly unsubtle.
--B
Originally posted by ShawnJ
I half-expected Crazy Cruise to interpret the blood-sucking alien tripods as the second coming of Xenu. That aside, the film was poorly realized-- the only worthwhile aspects being Cruise's affability, Spielberg's talent as a director, and perhaps Dakota Fanning's lung capacity. Although the film was a disappointment, Tom Cruise throws a mean peanut butter sandwich!
The PB sandwich thing was pretty funny, and came at a good time. Lots of stiff armed people needing a break from the intensity! I loved the film but hated three things (spoiler alert!):
1) Screamy-lung kid (really annoying and over-done). Hell, my daughter would be hiding under the seat sucking her thumb!
2) Flaming Am-Trak (reminded me of that scene in Ice Age where the characters stop at the crossing to wait for the iceberg to pass. Booo!
3) Lame-ass, kid-made-it-home ending! Shoulda died, little smart-ass pecker!
Other than that, I really liked the film. It was well done and realistic. I also liked the way the tri-pods wondered about, "Mars Attacks" style. It was almost comical. The way a kid would plow through an anthill. Really captured the aliens sense of outright destruction. Just plow through and bulldoze EVERYTHING!
The only way I would watch a movie with that ditz in it is if he was beaten badly or killed in the movie.
Originally posted by steve666
I can't watch a movie with Tom Cruise in it. He's a horrible actor and a total jackass.
The only way I would watch a movie with that ditz in it is if he was beaten badly or killed in the movie.
Rain Man was good because he was typecast.
--B
Originally posted by bergz
Rain Man was good because he was typecast.
--B
Yes, his role had no range of emotions whatsoever, perfect for the brainwashed moron.