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Originally posted by Jeron:
ID4 and WOTW are two completely different films, focusing on an totally different aspects of the same genre. The point however is they are different, they're not even in the same camp with each other. ID4 is over at Chucky Cheese's bouncing around and putting all its quarters into fun, dazzling, but completely pointless arcade games. That's fine, ID4 holds a special place in my heart in a lot of ways. WOTW however is out to dinner in formal attire, discussing serious issues with colleagues while doing a delicate balancing act between the fictionally plausible and the outlandishly implausible. WOTW is hands down a killer sci-fi action film. It's heavy handed though, and its not out to satisfy the criteria checklist for sure-fire popcorn entertainment. Spielberg went out of his way to deliberately do everything in that film, and what he's ended up with is nothing short of awe inspiring. People who are unhappy with the film like Bodhizefa, who have obviously chosen the ignoramus route by forgetting this is based on a literary work, need to step back and re-evaluate their brains. Read the work it's based on, then criticize it. That's like watching The Passion of the Christ, and blowing Mel Gibson to shambles for not including enough firework explosions, Aston Martin hotrods, beautiful women, and espionage. I mean, seriously... get a grip.

[Message edited by Jeron on 07-06-2005]

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I couldn't agree more, the other guy just didn't get what he wanted, his expectation and the reality that the film is are two islands in different oceans.

War of the Worlds is a much better film that ID4 ever hoped to be, while its a fun film, its suffers from stupid little tag lines stuck all over the place, trying to be hip, trying to connect to a clearly targeted audience, and to point out the error that AI made, yes this is a movie that is clearly grounded in its original source material, while at the same time a fresh work. Spielberg wonderfully ties both the original novel to the 1953 film, and into his own version. From the narration to the ending narration, the demise of the invaders, and even the survival of Robbie all hark back to the 1898 novel.

This is a great film, that is full of scares, and tension, great camera work, a fantastic yet understated score. The acting is topnotch, as is the screenplay.
It goes without saying the visuals are truly the best we've seen in years, and the sound affects are among the best I've heard in ages.

This more than makes up for the misfire that was Terminal, and the disaster that was A.I.

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Originally posted by JoeinAr:

I couldn't agree more, the other guy just didn't get what he wanted, his expectation and the reality that the film is are two islands in different oceans.

War of the Worlds is a much better film that ID4 ever hoped to be, while its a fun film, its suffers from stupid little tag lines stuck all over the place, trying to be hip, trying to connect to a clearly targeted audience, and to point out the error that AI made, yes this is a movie that is clearly grounded in its original source material, while at the same time a fresh work. Spielberg wonderfully ties both the original novel to the 1953 film, and into his own version. From the narration to the ending narration, the demise of the invaders, and even the survival of Robbie all hark back to the 1898 novel.

This is a great film, that is full of scares, and tension, great camera work, a fantastic yet understated score. The acting is topnotch, as is the screenplay.
It goes without saying the visuals are truly the best we've seen in years, and the sound affects are among the best I've heard in ages.

This more than makes up for the misfire that was Terminal, and the disaster that was A.I.

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The acting is topnotch, as is the screenplay.
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Good acting? Sure, if you like screaming and generic families who have no rapport. Good screenplay? Yeah, if you like some of the most flat characters ever brought into the cinema. Absolutely, if you like boring, rehashed aliens coming to take over the planet in an uber-unscary fashion. Positively, if you're the type that falls for plot device after plot device and useless set piece after useless set piece. This film had a few decent moments in all categories. But for the most part, it was a waste of my time and the celluloid on which it was printed.

All I wanted was a good film. Instead, I got a ridiculous mockery of one, score included.

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Originally posted by Bodhizefa:
All I wanted was a good film. Instead, I got a ridiculous mockery of one, score included.

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The pacing of the movie is jarring. Whenever it gains momentum, it comes to a halt for a family moment, and in the case of the Tim Robbins basement sequence, it comes to a screeching halt so deafening, the movie doesn't seem the same to me after.

Anyway, I would be much more forgiving of all these interspersed family moments if the ending family reunion had a strong emotional resonance, but it still just doesn't hit the right notes for me--especially Williams's music at that moment, which seemed to my ears to actually work against the scene.

The film is pretty episodic in nature, which I like, and it reminds me of Saving Private Ryan, with all of the characters they briefly meet along the way, only to never see them again. That actually worked for me, but again, when they end up in that basement, it just stays with the Tim Robbins character, and they don't run into anyone else of note until they end up at Grandma's in Boston.

July 4th, Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise...I don't want a formal dinner with stuffy attire (sorry Jeron.) What you have is a film trying very hard to be serious (from bleak cinematography and heavy-handed direction.) But's still about creepy aliens vaporizing humans with ray guns. (Which is why I appreciate ID4...because it knows it place is the cosmos.)

I still hold that it is an entertaining enough film with fantastic effects, solid acting, but marred by poor pacing, a woeful ending (true to the source material or not) and a lackluster score.

#3 so far for me this summer behind ROTS and Batman.

One thing that shouldn't come as a surprise is the ending someone gave a spoiler to: practically all the Spielberg films have in them this idea of homecoming. The abducted kid and his mom at the end of CE3K, the two sisters in The Color Purple, the kid and his parents in Empire of the Sun, etc. Steve has been seperating family members for 30 years now just to bring them together eyes full of tears in the last reel. He figures it's a formula that'll never get old.