War of the Worlds

[MFS62]

So many special effects.
So few plot questions answered (or just cursory explanations).

I had seen an interview with Spielberg a few weeks ago. He said he had done two movies (E.T. and Close Encounters ) in which the aliens were benign, friendly or downright cute. He wanted them to be pure evil in this one.

So I went to see it last week.
I had seen the first WotW , but MMYF had not. So she enjoyed it more than I did. And , best of all, she didn't ask me to explain the differences between the two movie versions.

Lotsa' noise, mayhem and those good special effects made for good Summer escapist fun.
In honor of the fact that Spielberg stayed true to the original by giving the aliens three fingers, I'll give this one three fingers up (out of four).

Final note, I had remembered that part of the movie had been filmed in Naugatuck, CT, the next town over from where my daughter lives. It took a long time, but near the end of the movie I spotted the location they used.
The place they used needed some urban renewal anyhow.

Later

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I'm not going to bother with any version of WOTW that isn't set in Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

[MFS62]

And Naugatuck really doesn't look like Boston, either.
This version of the movie mentions pods in New Jersey. In fact, Tom Cruise's house is at the foot of what looks like either the Goethals or Bayonne Bridge.
But the plot involves Tom meeting his wife in Boston. And after the initial attack, the story has him trying to get there.
In one of the final scenes, Tom and daughter are entering a totally ravaged "Boston". I turned to MMYF and whispered "I knew that if the Red Sox ever won the World Series, the world would end".
We both laughed out loud, and the folks around us were wondering what was so funny..

Later

[dgwphotography]

MFS - I used to live in Naugatuck - where did they film there?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was thinking that Tom Cruise's New Jersey neighborhood was under the Pulaski Skyway.

Scarlett, your Grover's Mill policy would rule out the novel by H.G. Wells!

[MFS62]

Iubitul wrote: MFS - I used to live in Naugatuck - where did they film there?

They use an old factory building in some of the outside shots.

Later

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

The novel by H.G. Wells didn't cause people to leave their homes in a panic.

I live in an area where the radiocast is part of the local history. Our township even has a monument to the invasion that didn't really happen.

[Elster88]

I thought it was okay, in a turn your brain off and watch sort of way.

[Theoldmole]

So the aliens destroy the whole world except the neighborhood in Boston where Tom Cruise's inlaws live, and then die of the common cold from eating too many people?????

[Benjamin Grimm]

The dying of the common cold thing is right out of the Wells novel. And it was a clever plot twist. Outbreaks of infectious disease are a byproduct of alien civilizations coming together for the first time.

I think the biggest plot hole is one that didn't (I don't think) come from H.G. Wells. Why would the aliens have come to earth a million years ago to bury their giant machines? They could have easily done whatever they wanted to do with the earth back then, without even the need for giant war machines. Why wait until a civilization grows, a civilization that would require the use of giant war machines to conquer it?

[Elster88]

Not to mention, how come they didn't catch any colds when they were here the first time?

[Benjamin Grimm]

It was a million years ago. The cold virus that killed them in the 21st Century wouldn't have evolved yet.

[metirish]

I saw this again recently and I like it a lot.....