*** spoiler warning ***
Comments on Cruise's latest flick, "War of the Worlds."
A person in my sci-fi club asked me, "On a scale of A to D, how will
you grade the flick (before and after viewing)?"
I was underwhelmed. Overall, I'd give the film a D-.
I'd give the film an A for special effects, which were consistently
in-your-face the whole film. We got to see plenty of people
vaporized... and human blood used as fertilizer. And wow, look at
those strange storm clouds. Boring...
The plot was so-so, perhaps a C-. Too much went unexplained. For
example, with today's infrared imaging technologies, no governments
or scientists on the entire planet were able to see the buried
machines? And we saw the aliens far too soon in the film for any
significant tension to have been built.
All Dakota Fanning did thru the film was scream. So, now the
screaming female lead was a child instead of a woman. Boring...
I'd give the film an F as far as any romance. There wasn't any.
More importantly, I learned in scriptwriting class that poorly-made
films use voice-overs; that it is far better to tell a story by
showing rather than by speaking. The voice-overs by Morgan Freeman
at both the beginning and the ending of the film contributed to this
poor rating. (Freeman did a credible job, but that is not the point.
The voice-over shouldn't have been necessary.)
Frankly, I prefer the 1953 version. Much more tension from the
unknown and far better character development. The tension in the
2005 version seemed to have been based more on "what different
method will the aliens use next to kill humans?"
If I hadn't seen WOTW, I wouldn't have missed anything. If you must,
it is better to see it on DVD rental. I wish that I'd seen "Wedding
Crashers" instead.
George
Captain
The USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston)
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