I've heard some people say they love it and some people who are indifferent to it, but this is the first time I've heard of someone who hates it. =) Care to explain why? I haven't seen it myself, and was planning to at some point (though Batman is higher on my list).

I personally thought it was awesome. Not the best ending ever, but even that was pretty good.

I will comment that it depicts humans as little rats running around in fright, helplessly being farmed.

Lets see....Giant machine things coming up from nowhere turning everyone into dust and all electricity being out and cars not working.......
I'm positive that with all that was going on, every sane human alive would be trying to get the hell away from those things.

Sure - *SPOILER ALERT*

First off, nothing was really explained. The red plant/fungus stuff? Never really explained. All electronic devices weren't permanently knocked out... only temporarily. The newscaster had a working tv.

Secondly, all the main characters were annoying and stupid. The little girl had the most annoying scream to me which she did alll the time and I don't know anyone who screams like that when they're scared (even when watching really scary movies with my nephew who is 4... she usually closes her eyes and zones out due to panic). The young boy was a retard and would go on these primal urges to fight the machines which everyone knew had a shield up that made them impenetrable so why would they try the same tactic that fails every time and not try something different like kamikazi grenaders or something... Or how about mines? I mean it just doesn't accurately depict what the SMART people would do, but more so the idiots. The aliens also seemed like morons... they didn't consider disease? You're telling me they can shoot down in lightning bolts into machines that have insanely powerful weapons, etc... but in all their millions of years of life they've never ever come across disease and developed a machine for ridding themselves of microscopic things? I mean today we're even moving towards nanotechnology...

So many times the main characters were stupid, and NONE OF THEM DIED. Like the time when they were driving through all those people with their car and how they didn't predict something like that would happen? How about the time when they stopped to go pee and the little girl felt the need to run waaaayyy off, and they took their time ever getting back in to the car without ever knowing what ELSE these aliens might have for machinery to harvest them that might be stealthed, or whatever... it's like they knew the whole entire time of the movie that the aliens only had one type of machine, and that there were very few aliens attacking so they'd know when they hit again. The shield didn't make sense as well, since when they pick up human beings wouldn't they have to lower the shield to bring them through? Howcome the nade detonated on impact on the shield but when the machine picked up the guy with the nade belt the nades didn't go off when they hit the shield? I could go on and on about the horrible writing of the movie... it seemed rushed and incomplete. For a fun movie to go watch it's a good one to go see once in theaters since it's got a lot of animations in it that are really great and some cool concepts...


Oh ya... and how about the fact they actually thought their family was still alive sitting in their home like morons? I think if my family knew about a bunch of aliens trying to harvest us they wouldn't be hiding in the most obvious of places.
"Honey I'm home!"

One last thing - the guy he had to kill in the basement, HE HAD TO KILL HIM? WHY? Man I would have felt bad when a few minutes later in the movie the machines find them ANYWAYS. The aliens also looked harmless, and when they traveled never took weapons with them of any kind to make sure that they were safe... Nor protective gear to protect them from disease.

That is what humans are... We are just an experiment for a stronger race.

Yes. White mice.

Anyways, to address something else elsewhere in this thread, Batman Begins (not Returns) was awesome... Mrs. Cruise (her name isn't worth remembering) can't act, but she didn't manage to spoil the movie.

Yeah. I haven't even seen the movie, but the fungus is one of the major background elements in the book. It's there for pure creepiness, and as a symbol of invasion and conquest. Even their native spores travel along with them. Invasion by terraforming (or would that be aresforming, in the case of Martians?)

I find it disheartening that modern movie audiences want so much explained for them. Part of what makes horrific things horrific is there is no immediate explanation. The tendency to set aside something as invalid if it's not explained is, I think, a defense mechanism on the part of the rational mind... finding a reason to take something that bothers it and write it off.

I'd forgot about the red stuff... been a while since I read the book. Makes me wonder if that's where Stephen King got the idea for the red fungus in Dreamcatchers (the book... haven't seen the movie.) Now that I think about it, I'm inclined to think so.

Yes, I read the book that "War of the Worlds" was based off then saw "Dream Catchers" it's too similar to be a coincidence.

Err, the red fungus that is.

Has anyone seen the independent film of War of the Worlds by the different director? Funny stuff, that green-screen and clip-artesque CGI. It came out this year. The main character is walking from place to place for about 1-2 of the 3 hour movie. However, it stays pretty close to the book which I liked.

I'm not even sure it was meant to be an intelligent act of cultivation, though... it could have just been spores that got carried along with the spacecraft. Either way, though, the symbolism was there: the invaders were making themselves at home.

The problem with your objection is that, in a case like that, there is -no way- for the characters to figure out what they're dealing with. The conveniently placed superscientist who spouts a theory off the top of his head that ties it all up in a neat package is, if anythng, more of an affront to the intelligence of the audience. :P

The fact that the "book written long ago" wasn't long on explanations wasn't a weakness to be excused, it was a deliberate and intelligent design point. H.G. Wells accomplished what he set out to do: he told a terrifying story about invaders so ruthless and so advanced that humankind could do nothing to stop them, and "we" were only saved through a happenstance of biology. It was horror, not adventure... no real heroics, no brilliant deductions, and nobody saved the day.

Of course, that's only the official version of story. If you want to know what really happened, read The League of Extraordinary Gentelmen volume 2 by Alan Moore. :P Wells' little novel was just a cover-up presenting the government's sanitized version of events.

Yes, the working class accent was a bit of a surprise, since we all know that Michael Caine can do class in his sleep. I forgave it, insofar that he perfectly captured the "respectful impudence" the character has carried in the modern mythology. Even Tim Burton's Batmovies borrowed too much from the 60s TV show Alfred, who, along with all the other supporting characters, was basically a prop.

D:
You dirt boy, you.