Tuesday, August 02, 2005
War of the Worlds
Last night we went to the cinema for the first time in ages. We went to see Tom Cruise's new film, War of the Worlds. Well, it's not all that new anymore, but it's still his latest. The story is based on the The War of the Worlds
classic novel my H.G.Wells. The premise of the original story was that martians (beings from Mars) were watching us and decided it was time to take over the Earth. They landed in big saucers that grew three legs and destroyed much of mankind. However, they then ended up being killed by bacteria that they were unable to see from space. It kind of ends up as an analogy of they way they were studying us and the way that we study bacteria.
Anyway, the film builds upon a previous film, The War Of The Worlds [1954]
, and the brilliant musical version
by Jeff Wayne.
My first impressions of the film is that is wasn't as good as I hoped it was going to be. I think this is partly to do with the differences between the original story and the new one. But that's not to say it wasn't a good film.
I won't go into lots of detail about the differences because although they end up being a tad confusing for someone who knows the original story, they are basically asides to the new film. In fact, the new film is only very vaguely based on the original, in my opinion. There were some small plot errors (such as how some people were using video cameras and there was a working car when the alien's EMP apparantly stopped everything electrical working - broken or not), but the main plot was coherent, although much more of a "blast"-fest than many of Spielberg's usual heart-warming stories. The ending was typical Spielberg cheese, though.
I'm really interested to see how the Pendragon version that's nearing the end of its production will turn out. It's a very authentic version of the original story (set at the turn of the century for a start). However, that's not to say you shouldn't go to see this new movie. It's clearly well made and a good no-brainer. I particularly loved the beginning where the EMP storms arrived and everyone was watching. It evoked the feeling I get every time a thunderstorm is near me.
classic novel my H.G.Wells. The premise of the original story was that martians (beings from Mars) were watching us and decided it was time to take over the Earth. They landed in big saucers that grew three legs and destroyed much of mankind. However, they then ended up being killed by bacteria that they were unable to see from space. It kind of ends up as an analogy of they way they were studying us and the way that we study bacteria.Anyway, the film builds upon a previous film, The War Of The Worlds [1954]
, and the brilliant musical version by Jeff Wayne.My first impressions of the film is that is wasn't as good as I hoped it was going to be. I think this is partly to do with the differences between the original story and the new one. But that's not to say it wasn't a good film.
I won't go into lots of detail about the differences because although they end up being a tad confusing for someone who knows the original story, they are basically asides to the new film. In fact, the new film is only very vaguely based on the original, in my opinion. There were some small plot errors (such as how some people were using video cameras and there was a working car when the alien's EMP apparantly stopped everything electrical working - broken or not), but the main plot was coherent, although much more of a "blast"-fest than many of Spielberg's usual heart-warming stories. The ending was typical Spielberg cheese, though.
I'm really interested to see how the Pendragon version that's nearing the end of its production will turn out. It's a very authentic version of the original story (set at the turn of the century for a start). However, that's not to say you shouldn't go to see this new movie. It's clearly well made and a good no-brainer. I particularly loved the beginning where the EMP storms arrived and everyone was watching. It evoked the feeling I get every time a thunderstorm is near me.
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It sounds worth seeing. I've never really had much time for sci-fi stuff but I'm starting to like it a bit more these days.
I haven't seen the original War of the Worlds. It was a radio show at first wasn't it and people thought it was real?
I haven't seen the original War of the Worlds. It was a radio show at first wasn't it and people thought it was real?
Well, it was a book at first, but they made a radio show and I seem to remember that when they first played it it caused a panic because everyone thought the Martians were invading!
We've got it on vinyl at home, the original one, and theres a leaflety/book thing with it full of pictures of the funny tin martian things. At the end theres a drawing of when all the aliens are killed, and loads of seagulls are pecking at the insides, I can remember looking at it when I was little and thinking 'yuk!' haha.
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