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Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 12:29 pm
by unkbill
For Gordo:
The man Tom was holding back was his son in the movie.
The movie was O.K. at best. I wasn't bored to tears but it all revolved around Tom protecting his daughter at all cost.
One of the stupidist parts was when the aliens arrived via lightening bolts into ships that had been buried in the ground thousands of years ago. In the middle of New York city and elsewhere that no one ever seemed to have found over all that time.
Tom does go cammando several times. What he does to the man in the basement was a strange piece of you just imagine what I did for my daughter.
5/10
Edited By unkbill on 1120408235
Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 7:46 pm
by GORDON
From here.
Shoulda called this movie "Attack on One World by Another." Wasn't much actual warring between worlds.
Ok, a few things... I'll try to avoid topics already discussed in the non-spoiler WotW discussionhere.
- "Is it the terrorists?"
- Tim Robins' character... it would be easy to be irked by it. One of the few characters in the movie with an honest-to-god gun... and he is paranoid and crazy and ultimately a coward that Tom Cruise needs to put down... whatever. While shielding the kid from the reality of it, by the way. What if Tom Cruise had gotten killed and left the little girl alone? Making her completely unprepared for the horror she was in the middle of is not really doing her a favor, if she ends up having to fend for herself.
- Speaking of guns.... where were they? I believe 3 civilians had guns... Tom Cruise our reluctant hero, the fucker with the 9mm who steals Tom's minivan, and crazy, paranoid Tim Robins who has 3 vulnerable aliens in his crosshairs before Tom Cruise stops him from pulling the trigger (And now we know that the aliens' tripod had a bunch of captured humans in it. Too bad or them, I guess. I wonder how many of those people were killed between Tom Cruise stopping Tim Robins, and Tom Cruise pulling the hand grenade pins). Maybe they fact that it was the New England area is a factor in an unarmed populace.... but I can easily name five people without trying who have, at the least, a shotgun in the house.
- Passenger jet falls on the neighborhood, smashing into every house for a block... good thing it missed the minivan in the driveway.
- I've read other reviews where the reviewers didn't understand what was going on with the "blood farming." I liked those scenes, personally. They didn't come to earth to drink human blood... they were seeding the landscape with their vegitation and using the blood to fertilize it. Again, not totally spelled out in the movie, but I read the book (and several short stories by other authors in this universe, whose work is considered canon) to know what was up.
- I liked the look of the tripods.... some scenes reminded me of The Second Rennaisance scenes of The Animatrix. They looked like the battle wagons they were supposed to be. And everything was in 3's... except the eye lens of their snoopy cams. I missed that.
- I'm not sure if I like the "they were buried there the whole time, and just the pilots were added before the invasion." Seems that if it were me I'd be a little extra careful and plant my ships, say, in an ocean or something where they'd be less likely to be found. Under Brooklyn (or whatever borrough that was) seems to be just tempting fate... which leads me to...
- If they buried their machines before human written history, then what was their point? If they wanted earth for farmland, why didn't they just take it then? I guess if the martians just liked to kill intelligent species, they'd wait for humans to get some technology.... but I don't know. I guess I can just write that off as one of those "unknowable alien concepts" of which I spoke in the main review.
Edited By GORDON on 1122952977
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:12 am
by unkbill
- I'm not sure if I like the "they were buried there the whole time, and just the pilots were added before the invasion." Seems that if it were me I'd be a little extra careful and plant my ships, say, in an ocean or something where they'd be less likely to be found. Under Brooklyn (or whatever borrough that was) seems to be just tempting fate... which leads me to...
I'm thinking they buried thier ships when they seeded the planet with humans. Knowing when they had propagaited enough they would have enough fertilizer to complete thier transformation of the planet.
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:17 pm
by Vince
- Speaking of guns.... where were they? I believe 3 civilians had guns... Tom Cruise our reluctant hero, the fucker with the 9mm who steals Tom's minivan, and crazy, paranoid Tim Robins who has 3 vulnerable aliens in his crosshairs before Tom Cruise stops him from pulling the trigger (And now we know that the aliens' tripod had a bunch of captured humans in it. Too bad or them, I guess. I wonder how many of those people were killed between Tom Cruise stopping Tim Robins, and Tom Cruise pulling the hand grenade pins). Maybe they fact that it was the New England area is a factor in an unarmed populace.... but I can easily name five people without trying who have, at the least, a shotgun in the house.
I won't even say it...
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 12:01 am
by Leisher
-Not only did the aliens plant invasion vehicles, but they could see the future so they planted all of them where cities would be while avoiding where subways would be located. Of course, one wonders why they couldn't see their own demise.
-If I remember, it was the common cold that killed the Martians in the original. This time, there is no explanation of what specifically killed them nor any explanation of why their shields went down. It also begs the question of how did they plant their ships in the first place if Earth was so deadly. Oh, and was this the first planet they tried to invade? If each planet is only safe for the native species, then why would an advanced race even bother with interstellar travel?
-The weapons were driving me nuts too. Why have weapons that turn humans to dust when you need those humans to help fertilize your environment? And what sort of weapon turns a convoy of humvees 180 degrees, sets their insides on fire, removes the bodies, and then accelerates them enough to climb a hill?
-Not even one military guy was taken with grenades until Cruise did?
-If bullets and birds wouldn't penetrate the shield, then how did the tentacles go out and grab humans and bring them back in? Technically speaking, at some point a part of that shield had to drop. The military would have figured that out pretty quickly WITHOUT TOM CRUISE'S HELP.
-How did the tripod sneak up on them while they were sleeping?
-If you remember the symbolism Spielberg put into Saving Private Ryan, then one has to wonder if Robbie wasn't a symbol of the U.S. He was young and brash, yet loving and took care of his sister. He went out of his way to help people when he had the chance and strode into battle despite it being futile. Still, he was able to survive without a scratch and made it home before his family.
-And let's not forget the "Hallmark" ending. The rich people are sitting in their home living the high life on a street with just a bit of debris but otherwise hasn't been touched. Then it turns out everyone is alive. I like happy endings, but that one seemed totally forced and it was cheap that we didn't see any of the big battle nor how Robbie survived.
Edited By Leisher on 1121400121
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 5:00 pm
by TheCatt
This movie sucked nuts, and why didn't they explain what did the robots in?
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 7:50 pm
by GORDON
Morgan Freeman did, at the end.
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:04 pm
by TheCatt
Well, by that time I didnt care... what did he say?
And, did you see how the person to whom he was speaking was his son, there was no message to the military?