War of the Worlds? 2005?
Seen this? The new one with Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Steven Spielberg?
Pretty cool - lots of interesting effects, completely bizarre aliens, and nifty apocalyptic scenes. This one was way cool. Parts of it were downright creepy. This scene in particular I found highly disturbing for some reason (maybe I drowned at sea in a former life or something). The alien lawn spreader was pretty gruesome, but I can live with that (but see below*). Summary here. I haven't read the summary yet, so don't quote me on it - your mileage may vary.
Okay, most of it was creepy. Parts of it were downright scary. A lot of disturbing images, which is funny since I laughed through most of "Natural Born Killers". Some of the scenes invoked dark memories of 9/11/01 and other recent events in the world. "Is it the terrorists?!" the daughter shrieks early on.** The burning train was pretty bad. Blah. Creepy.
Tim Robbins' character was cool. He's being described by most reviewers as a "crazed survivalist". Crazed? Yeah, he had a few screws loose. Survivalist? Dunno. He wasn't prepared enough - you dig BEFORE the aliens invade, and you don't get stuck at home if you have a couple days warning. Crazed survivalist? Nah. I know a few. He ain't it. But his character is cool.***
By the way, here's a cool site on avoiding looking like a crazed survivalist if looking like one is not your thing. There's a lot of good info on this site is you're more interested in surviving and less interested in open battle with commie hordes.
Couple of questions about War of the Worlds keep bugging me, though.
When the aliens buried their war machines "a million years ago", why didn't they just conquer the earth then? Weren't cavemen fun enough to chase through the woods? Maybe they were just waiting for Reality TV to evolve and wanted to exterminate that?
I guess the aliens hadn't heard of germ theory either (but, hey, maybe they hadn't - they're aliens, after all, and it is the f***ing point of the story, so I'm willing to cut 'em some slack). Guess it was just odd to see the lil' three-legged buggers running around nekkid without a care in the world. I'd've wanted alien bug spray, personally.
*Wouldn't an alien wood chipper have been more efficient than a giant syringe? Waste not, want not! (yeah, that's alien red stuff, a LOT of blood, and part of a cow in the yard). After all, you've come a long way and don't want to run out of fertilzer before you grow enough of whateverthehell that red stuff was.
**The first few hysterical shrieks were okay, but it got old REAL fast. Kids got no respect for the end of the world these days.
***Too bad Cruise's (Ray Ferrier) character killed Robbins' character (Harlan Ogilvy) instead of the f***ing bratty spoiled kids. Heck, if I'd acted like that during an alien invasion when I was a kid, PoppaZombie and MommaZombie would've beat the $hit outta this lil' zombie, then left me for the alien lawn spreader machine.
/Start Rant/ By the way - that last link is just a joke. I don't subscribe to newfangled ideas about reasoning with kids and dealing with their need to express themselves and achieve self-actualization through being allowed to do basically anything they want. It's a waste of time and not good for anyone, especially the kids. Reason with a three year old? A fourteen year old? PLEASE!!! (Note - that last link is a joke too) But that's another topic. But seriously, folks, don't fall for the crap. Too many two-legged animals running around out there being mistaken for human until they hurt someone else. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SPAWN! My barbarian horde will thank you for it after the collapse of civilization. Your neighbors will thank you for it now.
Don't make me get medieval on your brats, or you. But I digress... /END RANT/
And that airplane (looked like a 747 to me) crash on the former in-law's house? VERY empty plane. Where'd everybody go? And why did that one guy's video camera work when cars and even watches went dead from EMP? Yeah, I could deal with the car with new solenoids being workable, but it was just too odd. And what was up with that force field? They could drag people into their baskets through it but you couldn't penetrate it with a rocket launcher? And was that orange snot venting from the war machines as the aliens got sick and died?
But don't think I'm being completely negative.
The alien war machines were pretty cool. The spotlights and blaring foghorn/trumpets were interesting. The machines themselves seemed to be partially organic or biotic (giant cyborgs, maybe?). The foghorn sound in particular was used to good effect, as it usually presaged a completely inconvenient arrival of the aliens.
And I learned that in order to be a good daddy I shouldn't leave car engines in the kitchen. 'Course, I think the kids were a total loss prior to the start of the movie, but what do I know?
Too bad this movie never said the where the aliens came from. They ~implied~ Mars (the red planet scene in the prologue), but I guess it doesn't matter when the aliens are disintegrating your neighbors and throwing semis at you. I can't say I'd stop to ask.
But if they'd've thrown some NASA probes at the helpless puny humans, that would have been pretty funny. "Drop this on us, huh?"
TZ
WARNING! SPOILERS INCLUDED! DON'T BLAME ME IF I RUIN THE MOVIE FOR YOU! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND RUIN IT FOR YOURSELF!
Pretty cool - lots of interesting effects, completely bizarre aliens, and nifty apocalyptic scenes. This one was way cool. Parts of it were downright creepy. This scene in particular I found highly disturbing for some reason (maybe I drowned at sea in a former life or something). The alien lawn spreader was pretty gruesome, but I can live with that (but see below*). Summary here. I haven't read the summary yet, so don't quote me on it - your mileage may vary.
Okay, most of it was creepy. Parts of it were downright scary. A lot of disturbing images, which is funny since I laughed through most of "Natural Born Killers". Some of the scenes invoked dark memories of 9/11/01 and other recent events in the world. "Is it the terrorists?!" the daughter shrieks early on.** The burning train was pretty bad. Blah. Creepy.
Tim Robbins' character was cool. He's being described by most reviewers as a "crazed survivalist". Crazed? Yeah, he had a few screws loose. Survivalist? Dunno. He wasn't prepared enough - you dig BEFORE the aliens invade, and you don't get stuck at home if you have a couple days warning. Crazed survivalist? Nah. I know a few. He ain't it. But his character is cool.***
By the way, here's a cool site on avoiding looking like a crazed survivalist if looking like one is not your thing. There's a lot of good info on this site is you're more interested in surviving and less interested in open battle with commie hordes.
Couple of questions about War of the Worlds keep bugging me, though.
When the aliens buried their war machines "a million years ago", why didn't they just conquer the earth then? Weren't cavemen fun enough to chase through the woods? Maybe they were just waiting for Reality TV to evolve and wanted to exterminate that?
I guess the aliens hadn't heard of germ theory either (but, hey, maybe they hadn't - they're aliens, after all, and it is the f***ing point of the story, so I'm willing to cut 'em some slack). Guess it was just odd to see the lil' three-legged buggers running around nekkid without a care in the world. I'd've wanted alien bug spray, personally.
*Wouldn't an alien wood chipper have been more efficient than a giant syringe? Waste not, want not! (yeah, that's alien red stuff, a LOT of blood, and part of a cow in the yard). After all, you've come a long way and don't want to run out of fertilzer before you grow enough of whateverthehell that red stuff was.
**The first few hysterical shrieks were okay, but it got old REAL fast. Kids got no respect for the end of the world these days.
***Too bad Cruise's (Ray Ferrier) character killed Robbins' character (Harlan Ogilvy) instead of the f***ing bratty spoiled kids. Heck, if I'd acted like that during an alien invasion when I was a kid, PoppaZombie and MommaZombie would've beat the $hit outta this lil' zombie, then left me for the alien lawn spreader machine.
Don't make me get medieval on your brats, or you. But I digress... /END RANT/
And that airplane (looked like a 747 to me) crash on the former in-law's house? VERY empty plane. Where'd everybody go? And why did that one guy's video camera work when cars and even watches went dead from EMP? Yeah, I could deal with the car with new solenoids being workable, but it was just too odd. And what was up with that force field? They could drag people into their baskets through it but you couldn't penetrate it with a rocket launcher? And was that orange snot venting from the war machines as the aliens got sick and died?
But don't think I'm being completely negative.
The alien war machines were pretty cool. The spotlights and blaring foghorn/trumpets were interesting. The machines themselves seemed to be partially organic or biotic (giant cyborgs, maybe?). The foghorn sound in particular was used to good effect, as it usually presaged a completely inconvenient arrival of the aliens.
And I learned that in order to be a good daddy I shouldn't leave car engines in the kitchen. 'Course, I think the kids were a total loss prior to the start of the movie, but what do I know?
Too bad this movie never said the where the aliens came from. They ~implied~ Mars (the red planet scene in the prologue), but I guess it doesn't matter when the aliens are disintegrating your neighbors and throwing semis at you. I can't say I'd stop to ask.
But if they'd've thrown some NASA probes at the helpless puny humans, that would have been pretty funny. "Drop this on us, huh?"
TZ
posted by TexasZombie at 20:44
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