Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Interests > Tilted Entertainment


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 07-03-2005, 09:43 PM   #41 (permalink)
Little known...
 
Kostya's Avatar
 
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Yeah yeah yeah...

I went into this expecting it to suck bigtime, and it didn't...

But it wasn't very good either...

Firstly, thanks to Uncle Steve, we knew that Spoiler: Robby would miraculously survive his sojourn over the ridge of death, despite some kind of napalm strike seconds after he departed. Because as if Speilberg would have a sad ending, not to mention the oh so subtle symbolism of the statue at the end there...

Secondly as everyone's already pointed out the plot had some absolutely ridiculous aspects. The only excuses I can come up with are really stupid ones like Spoiler: the aliens planted the machines there, kind of like combine harvesters, and were waiting for complex life to develop so they could 'farm' us. But frankly, I think a set up like the Matrix would probably be a lot more efficient, and safe. and so on...

Lastly, the aliens I found fairly unimpressive, their weapons were... in inefficient to say the least. The only scenes that made me squirm were the Spoiler: people killing other people in desperation, which is an aspect of the 'end of the world' scenario that I think is the scariest of all. The British version of Threads for instance, scared the crap out of me as a youngster. The dude climbing through the windshield with his bare hands, ugh...

All in all, worth the price of admission, if you're a student or senior... :P
Kostya is offline  
Old 07-03-2005, 10:04 PM   #42 (permalink)
32 flavors and then some
 
Gilda's Avatar
 
Location: Out on a wire.
Part of what made the aliens scary was that

Spoiler: We don't know why they planted the machines, or why the activated them now. The motive was, well, alien.

But I completely agree with you about the human element being even scarier:

Spoiler: The scariest part being when the mob attacks the van, and Cruise has to take it back at gunpoint, and then has it taken from him at gunpoint, and then that man is murdered for it. It had a Lord of the Flies quality to the savagery shown.
__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert
Gilda is offline  
Old 07-03-2005, 10:13 PM   #43 (permalink)
Free Mars!
 
feelgood's Avatar
 
Location: I dunno, there's white people around me saying "eh" all the time
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kostya
Firstly, thanks to Uncle Steve, we knew that Spoiler: Robby would miraculously survive his sojourn over the ridge of death, despite some kind of napalm strike seconds after he departed. Because as if Speilberg would have a sad ending, not to mention the oh so subtle symbolism of the statue at the end there...
Napalm strike? Not a chance, kinda dumb move by the military to do that, especially after ordering their men to move the line further down the hill and wound up killing them all. Besides, Hollywood dictate that cool things must be seen including the aircraft that dropped the Napalm bomb which wasn't seen.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kostya
Secondly as everyone's already pointed out the plot had some absolutely ridiculous aspects. The only excuses I can come up with are really stupid ones like Spoiler: the aliens planted the machines there, kind of like combine harvesters, and were waiting for complex life to develop so they could 'farm' us. But frankly, I think a set up like the Matrix would probably be a lot more efficient, and safe. and so on...
Again, as Hollywood would dictate, that wouldn't be as fun as the way it's been done in the movie. Besides, that's the way it was written in the novel, you could argue with HG Wells on that point.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kostya
Lastly, the aliens I found fairly unimpressive, their weapons were... in inefficient to say the least. The only scenes that made me squirm were the Spoiler: people killing other people in desperation, which is an aspect of the 'end of the world' scenario that I think is the scariest of all. The British version of Threads for instance, scared the crap out of me as a youngster. The dude climbing through the windshield with his bare hands, ugh...
Um...their weapons were in-efficient? Please enlighten us as to what would have been more efficient? I'm sure that weapons that vaporize victims would far be more efficient than guns, otherwise with guns, you need to get rid of the bodies Especially millions of them. Again, that's how it was done in the original novel.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nimbletoe
Spoiler: Oh, and another thing. How in the world did Boston go untouched? Call me crazy, but I would think these things would go toward big cities first... even Independence Day got this right. What kind of idiot would head toward a major city with lots of people? Gah.
Again, in the original Novel, London was dead but most of the city was still standing including the bridge, although, they were mostly covered in red weed or whatever it was called. Even some people were still heading toward to large cities like London.
__________________
Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

Last edited by feelgood; 07-03-2005 at 10:20 PM..
feelgood is offline  
Old 07-04-2005, 04:50 AM   #44 (permalink)
Insane
 
I just saw this yesterday. I thought it was just okay the ending and plot irks have alreay been brought up. Was it entertaining? Yes, but I guess I expected more from the movie. I do love that little Dakota Fanning though she's going to be a really good actress as she gets older.
Roark is offline  
Old 07-04-2005, 09:27 AM   #45 (permalink)
Watcher
 
billege's Avatar
 
Location: Ohio
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nimbletoe
I thought it was absolutley awful. I've never read the book, buuuut...

Spoiler: Are you telling me a civilization that buried those things millions of years ago aren't aware that we have bacteria? Are you kidding me? Is this in the book too?


There is no way in HELL his son could have survived. That was absolute bullshit.

The scene where the son should have died was absolutley retarded. "I HAVE TO SEE THIS!!" What in the world? Why? You already know you can't hit them retard.

EDIT: Oh man, the alien heads and the shield CGI was straight out of independence day. What crap.


Save your money, rent it if you must. Ugh.
--That threw me too. It just doesn't make sense. Spoiler: Bury advanced fighting machines in the ground for millenia, if not eons, then wait until humans have an advanced society, then move in. Right.
--Spoiler: Somehow they have this super advanced tech, but no biology. Okay...I can't blame Steve S. for that though, it's an old book.
--Spoiler: Son surviving. Given the movie's overall tone of realism, that was a distinct knock against that theme. Why bother to be (overall) a realistic view of an alien invasion, then throw in straight BS happy ending? The kid ran into a firestorm per some unexplained shmarmy internal thing "he had to do." Well, that was just a cheap plot device to put big Tom in the position of choosing his young daughter or his estranged son. It was poor form, especially from Speilburg. Generally speaking, when people run into a battle line that is completely decimated by an overwhelming force, they don't live.


True realizm would be an orbital bombardment or a virus engineered to attack humans. War against technology high enough to travel the stars does not need to include anything landing on earth, period. If you want our land, but not us, at all, there's no reason not to nuke a planet senseless from orbit. Or, use kenetic projectiles big enough to destroy cites but not leave radiation. If one has to fly by a asteroid belt to get to earth, why not snag one or two? Or, you problably have biology skills sufficient enough to exterminate us via disease. Either way, there's simply no reason to come mop us up personally. That whole concept is driven by the need to make a movie where humans have a chance. If you can fly the stars, it's likely you can destroy us from orbit, but that would make a shitty movie.


Quote:
Originally Posted by mexicanonabike
is it similar to Independent day?
--This was Independance Day part II, without the plot. Which says a lot. It was more realistic, but I don't generally go see my "Aliens invade the world" movies for a heavy dose of realism.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TexanAvenger
I was supremely disappointed with this movie. I don't think Cruise acted the entire movie, the plot fell apart repeatedly, the ending was so abrupt I actually leaned forward in my seat at the end, and there was a couple making out in the seat next to me and I was getting jealous.

The special effects were good, I'll give you that. But I really felt like that's the only thing this movie had going for it, save a few moments that struggled to redeem, though they failed, the movie as a whole.

I'm just going to 2nd that, and move on.
It was not a "bad" movie, but it was far from "good." I think this makes the first time I went to see a Spielburg movie and left it feeling truely let down.
__________________
I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."

Last edited by billege; 07-04-2005 at 09:34 AM..
billege is offline  
Old 07-04-2005, 10:06 AM   #46 (permalink)
Free Mars!
 
feelgood's Avatar
 
Location: I dunno, there's white people around me saying "eh" all the time
Quote:
Originally Posted by billege
--That threw me too. It just doesn't make sense. Spoiler: Bury advanced fighting machines in the ground for millenia, if not eons, then wait until humans have an advanced society, then move in. Right.
Spoiler: You must've missed the part where Martian's lighting storm was actually an distraction to quickly deploy the machines. Remember the part where a CBS crew were found next to the destroyed aircraft and the reporter showed Tommy boy a frame by frame of the lighting strike hiding a pod of some kind before it struck the ground?
__________________
Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

Last edited by feelgood; 07-04-2005 at 10:16 AM..
feelgood is offline  
Old 07-04-2005, 11:01 AM   #47 (permalink)
Watcher
 
billege's Avatar
 
Location: Ohio
Quote:
Originally Posted by feelgood
Spoiler: You must've missed the part where Martian's lighting storm was actually an distraction to quickly deploy the machines. Remember the part where a CBS crew were found next to the destroyed aircraft and the reporter showed Tommy boy a frame by frame of the lighting strike hiding a pod of some kind before it struck the ground?

Yeah, I caught that. My point is that I don't understand the point in burying superadvanced fighting machines deep in the earth, then leaving them there for untold (but implied to be) lengths of time. <i>Then</i> come back via lightening storm so much later.

I suppose one can explain that by saying "their motivation is truley alien" so we're not supposed to understand. But, that's lame. Why an alien species could take over the planet, but chose to bury machines and wait 1000 years, is beyond me.
__________________
I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."
billege is offline  
Old 07-04-2005, 11:13 AM   #48 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Janey's Avatar
 
Location: Toronto
Quote:
Originally Posted by mexicanonabike
good to see some ppl liked it. and i'm glad to see it's better than ID4. the book i read was something like: aliens atack, then they die from a virus(cold if i'm corect) and ID4 was the same except they used a computer virus. but noone seemed to see the resemblences.

what is ID4?
Janey is offline  
Old 07-04-2005, 11:19 AM   #49 (permalink)
Free Mars!
 
feelgood's Avatar
 
Location: I dunno, there's white people around me saying "eh" all the time
Quote:
Originally Posted by billege
Yeah, I caught that. My point is that I don't understand the point in burying superadvanced fighting machines deep in the earth, then leaving them there for untold (but implied to be) lengths of time. <i>Then</i> come back via lightening storm so much later.

I suppose one can explain that by saying "their motivation is truley alien" so we're not supposed to understand. But, that's lame. Why an alien species could take over the planet, but chose to bury machines and wait 1000 years, is beyond me.
What point of the movie did the Martian buried machines deep inside the ground? It looked like they simply sent a small pod to quicky pentrate the ground and quickly gather required resources that's available to them within the area, to build the machine within a short period of time before before rising to start killing people.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Janey
what is ID4?
Independence Day. Link
__________________
Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

Last edited by feelgood; 07-04-2005 at 11:21 AM..
feelgood is offline  
Old 07-05-2005, 12:44 PM   #50 (permalink)
<Insert wise statement here>
 
MageB420666's Avatar
 
Location: Hell if I know
Quote:
Originally Posted by feelgood
What point of the movie did the Martian buried machines deep inside the ground? It looked like they simply sent a small pod to quicky pentrate the ground and quickly gather required resources that's available to them within the area, to build the machine within a short period of time before before rising to start killing people.
And how likely is it that there is a unknown large quantity of the neccesary metallic elements located directly under an urban neighborhood?

It was stated in the movie that the machines were buried a long time ago and that the aliens rode the pods down into them so that they could control them and destroy all humans (and cows).

The writers/producers/director could have kept the aliens method of travel from mars to the earth the same as it was in the book, and had the movie make a whole lot more sense. Which for those of you who don't know: The aliens shot over in large cylindrical objects, had the machines unscrew the lid on it (from the inside, the machines and aliens where both inside the cylinders), and proceeded to do what they did best.

Would have fixed so many plot holes. Cause it takes a really, really, really^extremely, powerful telescope to see something the size of a bacteria on another planet.
__________________
Apathy: The best outlook this side of I don't give a damn.
MageB420666 is offline  
Old 07-05-2005, 05:03 PM   #51 (permalink)
 
MexicanOnABike's Avatar
 
Location: up north
id4 is independence day... they named it ID4 since Independence day is on july 4th. ID4.
__________________
MexicanOnABike is offline  
Old 07-06-2005, 07:56 PM   #52 (permalink)
Psycho
 
Location: Salt Lake City
how could it be id4 when it was a remake of a movie that was done IN THE 50's!!!! seriously (btw i know you don't actually think it's a sequel you jsut think it was really alike) ID4 was cheesy and more humerous than WotW. Which i liked more about wotw is it was more serious and dark.
__________________
The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings. Words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out. -Stephen King
Beltruckus is offline  
Old 07-07-2005, 09:17 PM   #53 (permalink)
Little known...
 
Kostya's Avatar
 
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Quote:
Originally Posted by feelgood
Um...their weapons were in-efficient? Please enlighten us as to what would have been more efficient? I'm sure that weapons that vaporize victims would far be more efficient than guns, otherwise with guns, you need to get rid of the bodies Especially millions of them. Again, that's how it was done in the original novel.
Well my thinking is as follows: Spoiler: As I understand it the aliens were quite literally using humans as 'fertiliser' to grow their disgusting red weeds everywhere. This seems to be fairly implicit in the scene where the suck the blood out of a guy and spray it on the weeds, and Tim Robbins goes nuts. So, one would assume, that having millions of bodies would be a very good thing for the aliens. Moreover, the vapourising rays killed 1 person at a time, some kind of big big vapourising bomb (assuming you wanted to vapourise your fertiliser source for no reason) would be much better. Now, assuming I buried my big machine in the ground and then had millions of years and some goodly number of my alien brethren working on the problem I could probably hook that up. They did imply very clearly that they buried the machines, and that the 'pods' coming down in the lightning were merely pilots who took control of the machines. It's a little difficult to tell exactly how deep these machines were buried, but I also find it rather strange that nobody, anywhere detected or found an uber large pod buried under the ground. Also hilariously they managed to pick the spots where there would be cities. Even more hilariously they picked the spots some time ago, when the geographic and seismologic conditions were entirely different. They are super smart I suppose, but that seems even more of a damning indictment of their poorly thought out plans of world domination, that they could predict with accuracy the distribution of earth's inhabitants, and yet managed to lose the war due to the flu. As for the napalm strike, agreed no planes were seen, but my only concern was that there appeared to be an awful lot of fire in the general vicinity of Robbie's body, or it's implied location, and yet he survived with the customary Spielberg 'small facial cut'.
Kostya is offline  
Old 07-08-2005, 05:53 AM   #54 (permalink)
Who You Crappin?
 
Derwood's Avatar
 
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
ok, i'm not reading this thread again until I see the movie. You people need to use the spoilers option. What's the point of answering spoiler questions without a spoiler tag?
__________________
"You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel
Derwood is offline  
Old 07-08-2005, 07:49 AM   #55 (permalink)
zen_tom
Guest
 
I loved the movie, very close to the original text indeed.

I could have done without the whole errant father nonsense, but thought the rest of the film was absolute classic Speilberg fare.

I too was confused as to why they changed the original version of the story and Spoiler: had the machines buried underground long before the aliens turned up to drive them but imagine it was made that way Spoiler: as an excuse to show a block get demolished by an emerging tripod. Also, Spoiler: the TV crew bit was unnesessary, knowing that the aliens rode lightning bolts into the earth didn't add anything, and may have actually detracted from the sense of dark mystery that should exist about an alien invader that's planned man's destruction for millenia - it kind of cheapened it

Anyway, I reccommend you read the text of the story, at some point - it's really incredible to think that such a contemporary idea was conceived over 100 years ago.
 
Old 07-09-2005, 03:45 PM   #56 (permalink)
Rookie
 
Gatorade Frost's Avatar
 
Spoiler: I'd assume that everyone realises that we've got it figured out that the aliens come bursting out of the ground, but just in case I'll make this a spoiler. Anyway, my beef is that dropping aliens into pods that have been buried for millenia would be a bit like dropping us into a maggot town (as the analogy goes) with rocks and sticks instead of guns, flame throwers, etc. With ten thousand years of evolution and using our brains the weapons we have now have... uh... progressed a bit.

I'll give this movie 0 stars of 5. I hated it. The first scene happened and I sat there wishing it was over. Probably the scene with the lightning was the scariest, then it was all the same thing over and over again. Now two and a half hours later I'll grateful that I'm not there.
__________________
I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well."
Emo Philips

Last edited by Gatorade Frost; 07-09-2005 at 07:39 PM..
Gatorade Frost is offline  
Old 07-29-2005, 09:50 AM   #57 (permalink)
is awesome!
 
Locobot's Avatar
 
I thought the purpose of this movie was to offer an opposite view of alien encounters from Speilberg's earlier work on Close Encounters and E.T. and in many respects it did. But then we get to see the actual aliens Spoiler: they're cute and chirpy with big doe eyes. It just doesn't match their behavior of frying every human they see.

Tom Cruise was horrible as usual, the man has no business acting. We're supposed to believe he's some kind of gritty longshoreman while he looks like he just stepped out of an abercrombie ad (I supposed to Cruise that would be slumming it). A lot of empathy I might of had for this character was sacrificed at the altar of Cruise's ego, making him look good.

I was unclear on what the hell was going on with the spray and the red fungus. I figured the spray was some kind of anti-bacterial effort and the fungus was nature's response. Kind of like if you boil something it will grow much nastier mold than if you cook it at a lower temperature. You're naturally selecting only the toughest nastiest bacteria to grow and flourish without competition.

The happy ending was ridiculous. With 3/5 of all humans on the planet dead somehow their mom is fine, her new husband is fine, apparently both sets of grandparents make it, and then the snotty teenager who we just saw run into certain death is fine.

I rationalized the "machines buried a million years ago" thing by figuring that machines could be sent through space faster than living creatures. So they sent the machines ahead to wait for their pilots.

Aside from the wrecked plane fusilage (how didn't that burn their house up?) I didn't find it to be exploitive of our 9/11 memories. Speilberg was certainly using things he saw from 9/11, but for the most part these things were not unique to that instance. He was trying to portray life during wartime and I'd say he did a good job, streams of refugees, missing persons boards, panic and chaos in the streets. He's made three of the best war movies of all time (Empire, Saving, Schindler) and I thought he did a good job of tapping that repository of images.

Great action and effects, atrocious acting, zero empathy for the characters, I'll give it two of five stars.
Locobot is offline  
Old 10-16-2005, 07:24 AM   #58 (permalink)
 
MexicanOnABike's Avatar
 
Location: up north
wow... everyone hated it.
i fucking loved it!! who cares if they dont explain it all? it's still fucking great. i'd see it again.

edit: i just reread the book and it follows it prefectly. i mean the church going down? that's in the book, etc... i could name a few more.
__________________

Last edited by MexicanOnABike; 10-17-2005 at 03:36 PM..
MexicanOnABike is offline  
 

Tags
war, worlds


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 11:24 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360