War of the Worlds, PSA
Jul. 6th, 2005 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
I know you'll all be crushingly disappointed, but I don't have any more Sims updates as of yet (will Draco get over his fear of roaches?) -- I didn't play last night as I went and saw War of the Worlds. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to seeing it. I thought about going to watch Batman Begins yet again, but Jade said that I should at least see WotW once, and anyway I've already seen BB three times. (I had a free movie ticket from buying the BB Xbox game, but the showtimes were only 5 min. apart, so at least BB got my 'money.' :D) I'm completely indifferent to Tom Cruise. On a scale of 1-10 of how interested I am in a celebrity, he'd rank a solid 5. I wouldn't see a movie for him, but I wouldn't stay away because of him, either. And he's done lots of movies that I've enjoyed (Top Gun, A Few Good Men, and Minority Report come to mind), but he's also done ones that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Also, prior to seeing WotW, I wasn't a Dakota Fanning fan. I'd never seen her in anything, but she's just one of those kids who seem annoyingly precocious -- a 40-year-old woman in a child's body, you know? Plus I wasn't all that impressed with the trailers, and the last movie I saw by Steven Spielberg was A.I., which has to be one of the worst movies in existence. So these were my biases going into the movie.
The movie was *awesome*. Right up until the last two minutes, I'd give it a solid 9 ranking. It was just so well done. Spielberg excels at human drama and storytelling, and WotW showcases that. Ray Ferrier is a totally imperfect hero. I LOVED that. He was not the typical hero archetype, and thus his transition into a Good Father was not only rewarding, but believable. You grew with these characters; you felt what they felt; you believed that this crazy catastrophe could actually happen to you. (I think that's Spielberg's gift; I've seen plenty of alien invasion movies, but even the good ones don't really make me feel that I am ever in any danger -- Signs is a good example -- but WotW is somehow more 'real' than that.) I was very impressed with Dakota Fanning; while I still wouldn't run out to see everything she's done up to this point, I thought she was fabulous in this movie. Seeing Miranda Otto go from Eowyn to pregnant mum (though, the least pregnant-acting woman ever) was a bit jarring, but oh well. :)) I think the reason the trailers failed to excite me is because there isn't any way to successfully synopsize a movie like this, when its greatest strengths and triumphs are not ones that you can show in a 2-second clip -- and I wouldn't want it to be. It reminds me of the trailers for The Matrix in this respect, although TM trailers were far more successful at piquing one's interest. I think WotW depended a lot on the draw of Spielberg and Cruise's names (as well as the source material itself) -- and judging from the opening box office numbers, it worked.
It wasn't a perfect movie; I had a few issues. As I said, I would have given it a 9 rating up until the final two minutes. I never read the book, so I'm not sure how close an adaptation it is; maybe some of the issues that I have with the movie cannot be blamed on the movie but on the source material -- in any case, I'll talk about them and someone who knows better can see me straight.
The pat ending REALLY bothered me. It's completely unbelievable that every. single. damn. relative of theirs survived (at least, immediate family that we've met). Including Robbie, who should have died. I was kind of hoping/expecting that everyone else had died, and Tom and Rachel were the only survivors -- that would probably be the most believable scenario (though you first have to accept that this is a survivor's tale; otherwise the most believable end might be that they all died). However, part of the plot calls for Ray to prove himself as a father, and ultimately, as a human being -- and we needed his ex-wife to see that. Okay, so she can live. But for her folks to be okay, too? And her husband? And out of nowhere, Robbie?! WTF.
And what was so goddamn special about Boston, that that town managed to get off scot-free, with houses still standing? And how did everyone know to gravitate there? By all rights it should have been as messed up as any other city. But fine, let's set aside the coincidence that not only was it basically untouched, that it just so happened to be the place where Mary Anne was headed. Which means that Mary Anne and her whole family can live.
But Robbie survived? He survived not only the big fire explosion that the military stationed there did not survive, and he survived the entire trek from the site to Boston, by himself?? REALLY? I didn't particularly love Robbie, and I didn't particularly want to see him killed, but it would have been real. We saw Ray make the choice to let him go -- that he needed to let him go -- and I was fine with that decision. I don't think he could have done anything else. With people dying all around them, it seemed almost inevitable that one of them would have to succumb to the same fate that so many others around them had succumbed to. But not only did they get separated, they each survived on their own? That's where my suspension of disbelief shook. A lot.
Not to mention -- this movie was good. It had earned more than a pat ending. Usually, movies without a whole lot of substance have to end things happily, because that is your payoff for sitting through the rest of it (which usually is mediocre). But this movie would have been good (in my opinion, better), if it had stuck to a more realistic ending. That they suffered some losses. That everything wasn't perfectly hunky dory at the end. Ray bringing Rachel to her mother should have been enough. It was enough. And to coat it with a layer of extra sugar just makes it taste bad.
Endings are super important. Super important. So overall, considering the weakness of the ending, I'd end up giving WotW an 8 rating.
Also, I didn't find it particularly believable that whatever killed the aliens did it that quickly. I think the idea of humanity having "earned" the right to live on this planet with billions of deaths is a really cool concept, and I don't even mind that we don't know what really killed the aliens, but the idea that it wiped them out that quickly seems a bit absurd. And we're never given any explanation as to why they picked this time to invade, if they had already planned it years ago. We don't even know why they were invading. But the answers to those questions lie with the aliens themselves, and we wouldn't necessarily know the answers, so I'm okay with being kept in the dark there. Still, their entire force being wiped out over the course of days seems a bit far-fetched.
I loved the moment when Ray made the decision to kill Tim Robbins. I love Tim Robbins, but he had to go. :)) It was such an irrevocable step; a turning point in the way we saw Ray as a father. (One of the most effective scenes is when Robbie first tries to join the military, and Rachel screams for him to return, asking who will take care of her if he goes?) If they were going to give it a sugar-coated ending, then I would have actually liked to have seen Rachel acknowledge her father more, and what he did for her. I mean, as far as Miranda et al know, he had an easy time of it -- which we know he did not.
So anyway -- see the movie, if you were on the fence about it. It's good. Well worth watching. And hey, maybe you won't have the same issues I did with the ending. <g>
PSA! This is totally and completely legitimate, if you weren't sure:
In a few weeks, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. You will be charged for these calls. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
noelleleithe points out that this part is not true -- see link in comments for details.)
If you haven't already done so, call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone or go online to www.donotcall.gov.
This is the national DO NOT CALL list. It blocks your number for 5 years. (This part, however, IS true, and totally works. The volume of telemarketing calls I received after putting myself on this list went down dramatically.)
I've done this for all my phone numbers, not just my cell phone. It only takes a second, and it's so worth it.
The movie was *awesome*. Right up until the last two minutes, I'd give it a solid 9 ranking. It was just so well done. Spielberg excels at human drama and storytelling, and WotW showcases that. Ray Ferrier is a totally imperfect hero. I LOVED that. He was not the typical hero archetype, and thus his transition into a Good Father was not only rewarding, but believable. You grew with these characters; you felt what they felt; you believed that this crazy catastrophe could actually happen to you. (I think that's Spielberg's gift; I've seen plenty of alien invasion movies, but even the good ones don't really make me feel that I am ever in any danger -- Signs is a good example -- but WotW is somehow more 'real' than that.) I was very impressed with Dakota Fanning; while I still wouldn't run out to see everything she's done up to this point, I thought she was fabulous in this movie. Seeing Miranda Otto go from Eowyn to pregnant mum (though, the least pregnant-acting woman ever) was a bit jarring, but oh well. :)) I think the reason the trailers failed to excite me is because there isn't any way to successfully synopsize a movie like this, when its greatest strengths and triumphs are not ones that you can show in a 2-second clip -- and I wouldn't want it to be. It reminds me of the trailers for The Matrix in this respect, although TM trailers were far more successful at piquing one's interest. I think WotW depended a lot on the draw of Spielberg and Cruise's names (as well as the source material itself) -- and judging from the opening box office numbers, it worked.
It wasn't a perfect movie; I had a few issues. As I said, I would have given it a 9 rating up until the final two minutes. I never read the book, so I'm not sure how close an adaptation it is; maybe some of the issues that I have with the movie cannot be blamed on the movie but on the source material -- in any case, I'll talk about them and someone who knows better can see me straight.
The pat ending REALLY bothered me. It's completely unbelievable that every. single. damn. relative of theirs survived (at least, immediate family that we've met). Including Robbie, who should have died. I was kind of hoping/expecting that everyone else had died, and Tom and Rachel were the only survivors -- that would probably be the most believable scenario (though you first have to accept that this is a survivor's tale; otherwise the most believable end might be that they all died). However, part of the plot calls for Ray to prove himself as a father, and ultimately, as a human being -- and we needed his ex-wife to see that. Okay, so she can live. But for her folks to be okay, too? And her husband? And out of nowhere, Robbie?! WTF.
And what was so goddamn special about Boston, that that town managed to get off scot-free, with houses still standing? And how did everyone know to gravitate there? By all rights it should have been as messed up as any other city. But fine, let's set aside the coincidence that not only was it basically untouched, that it just so happened to be the place where Mary Anne was headed. Which means that Mary Anne and her whole family can live.
But Robbie survived? He survived not only the big fire explosion that the military stationed there did not survive, and he survived the entire trek from the site to Boston, by himself?? REALLY? I didn't particularly love Robbie, and I didn't particularly want to see him killed, but it would have been real. We saw Ray make the choice to let him go -- that he needed to let him go -- and I was fine with that decision. I don't think he could have done anything else. With people dying all around them, it seemed almost inevitable that one of them would have to succumb to the same fate that so many others around them had succumbed to. But not only did they get separated, they each survived on their own? That's where my suspension of disbelief shook. A lot.
Not to mention -- this movie was good. It had earned more than a pat ending. Usually, movies without a whole lot of substance have to end things happily, because that is your payoff for sitting through the rest of it (which usually is mediocre). But this movie would have been good (in my opinion, better), if it had stuck to a more realistic ending. That they suffered some losses. That everything wasn't perfectly hunky dory at the end. Ray bringing Rachel to her mother should have been enough. It was enough. And to coat it with a layer of extra sugar just makes it taste bad.
Endings are super important. Super important. So overall, considering the weakness of the ending, I'd end up giving WotW an 8 rating.
Also, I didn't find it particularly believable that whatever killed the aliens did it that quickly. I think the idea of humanity having "earned" the right to live on this planet with billions of deaths is a really cool concept, and I don't even mind that we don't know what really killed the aliens, but the idea that it wiped them out that quickly seems a bit absurd. And we're never given any explanation as to why they picked this time to invade, if they had already planned it years ago. We don't even know why they were invading. But the answers to those questions lie with the aliens themselves, and we wouldn't necessarily know the answers, so I'm okay with being kept in the dark there. Still, their entire force being wiped out over the course of days seems a bit far-fetched.
I loved the moment when Ray made the decision to kill Tim Robbins. I love Tim Robbins, but he had to go. :)) It was such an irrevocable step; a turning point in the way we saw Ray as a father. (One of the most effective scenes is when Robbie first tries to join the military, and Rachel screams for him to return, asking who will take care of her if he goes?) If they were going to give it a sugar-coated ending, then I would have actually liked to have seen Rachel acknowledge her father more, and what he did for her. I mean, as far as Miranda et al know, he had an easy time of it -- which we know he did not.
So anyway -- see the movie, if you were on the fence about it. It's good. Well worth watching. And hey, maybe you won't have the same issues I did with the ending. <g>
PSA! This is totally and completely legitimate, if you weren't sure:
noelleleithe points out that this part is not true -- see link in comments for details.)If you haven't already done so, call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone or go online to www.donotcall.gov.
This is the national DO NOT CALL list. It blocks your number for 5 years. (This part, however, IS true, and totally works. The volume of telemarketing calls I received after putting myself on this list went down dramatically.)
I've done this for all my phone numbers, not just my cell phone. It only takes a second, and it's so worth it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 06:26 pm (UTC)Sorry, but it's not. Not that registering the numbers is a bad idea, of course, but they aren't being given to telemarketers. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 06:30 pm (UTC)After all we've been through?!?
::weeps quietly in the corner::
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 06:49 pm (UTC)I think this was probably the best Spielberg movie I've seen in awhile. It certainly was chilling and intense. *shrug* I'm his bitch, what can I say.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 07:19 pm (UTC)I envy you, americans.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 09:00 pm (UTC)In the book, the aliens come to Earth because Mars is all used up and they need water. Because they don't have water, they don't have bacteria and aren't used to the dead decomposing so basically they all get a cold and die from it. They sort of made reference to that in the movie in the beginning and end, zooming out from the DNA of the ameboa and zooming back in at the end. The "birthright of humanity" is from the book too and I really liked that line and that they used it in the movie..
And yeah, Tim Robbins was a really creepy mofo and needed to be offed. Creeeeeepy.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 11:08 pm (UTC)I knew it was something to do with bacteria and germs, I just didn't know it was a cold specifically. There are lots of bacterial things they could have died from, you know!
Yeah, I was totally able to be good with the idea that humans (us) never "knew" the aliens. Realistically, we probably wouldn't -- they had their own agenda, and while we could make guesses as to what they wanted, ultimately we probably wouldn't know (especially if they had succeeded in wiping us all out). I mean, the movie doesn't even tell you about the them needing water thing, and I was okay with that (though of course I was curious).
Are you planning to play WoW tonight? Jade and I are trying to decide what characters to play. If you'll be on, I desperately want to finish "Assault on Fenris Isle" once and for all.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 11:27 pm (UTC)Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly a cold. I remember a lot of talk about decomposition (I guess they don't decompose on Mars?) so I think that's what some of them got sick from. Get your shots before you go to South America sort of thing.
I shall be on tonight. I need to finish that stupid quest too (along with a bajillion others.)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 11:31 pm (UTC)But, as you say, strafing is fun. It's important to have fun when you're invading a planet.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-07 01:13 pm (UTC)