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Thursday, June 30, 2005

WAR OF THE WORLDS
Featuring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin
Brief Synopsis: Aliens come and invade planet Earth. We follow one man's journey as he battles against them to keep his family safe.

Comments: The film is fairly engaging as we follow Ray Ferrier's (Cruise) journey. The audience is always kept in suspense as to what happen next and the characters are developed enough that we care what happens to them. It's quite jumpy - the lightning strikes, the ripples through the concrete road and so on so expect to be kept on the edge of your seats! The special effects are great (as befits someone of Spielberg's directoral ability) - the explosions and the robots are very realistic indeed. For this reason, I think it is worth watching in the cinema.

I guess the director could have gone either way with re: the plotline. 1. Independence Day where Will Smith saves the world or 2. Signs where it details of Mel Gibson's stuggle as he defends his backyard. He goes for character development and it pays off - helped no doubt by the fact that Tom Cruise is headlining the cast. Dakota Fanning does well as frightened little girl (I was trying not to think of what I would do with Ben in such a situation). Yin Ping wondered why Tim Robbins got such a small part though!

If you watch the film expecting a great military campaign and details thereof, you will be sadly disappointed. However so many other films kept coming to my mind as I was watching it. The alien invasion, I couldn't help compare to Independence Day (where the aliens have a plan). The scene in the basement of the barn with Ogilivy (Tim Robbins) reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 film; Signs. The way the aliens scooped up the humans as fuel reminded me of the machines using humans as batteries in The Matrix. I really wanted to discuss it with other people but I don't think Yin Ping would have appreciated such a discussion in the middle of the film & cinema!

However the ending is terrible. It seemed like the director had just run out of ideas by the end of the film and decided to tie up because of well I don't know. Time? Expenses? Why wasn't Boston in pieces? How come his ex-wife's family survived? How did Robbie get out of being blown up to bits?!? Aren't the aliens a bit dumb? What did they want with the planet? So so many loose ends, it was (Dez shakes head)...

Things to learn from this film: Learning about cars might one day save your life from advancing aliens.
Rating: 6 /10

Comments:
One film you haven't mentioned - War of the Worlds.

I'll save you money and review it for you! Its wank. After a scintillating opening 45mins in which I was on the edge of my seat (actually - fingers in ears and covering my eyes), the rest of the film went vertically downwards. This was alledgedly one of the most expensive films ever made which makes you wonder how much Tom Cruise got paid for making it!

The initial Alien onslaught from the is visually amazing and imaginative but there is little explanation in why and how and in the end, I didn't care. The ending is the worst bit. I was all ready for a climax to end all climaxes but its was flatter than a bottle of cider left open outside Spar for 2 weeks which is my next destination to try to help me forget this film!

6:50 PM
 
Mel - it's not a waste of time. Now you know which films to avoid!!!
 
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