war of the worlds

BlitzKrieg

true...but its not just the element that there were soldiers

but also the fact that these soldiers were directing citizens to safety and performing almost mundane security tasks

If i was going to see soldiers i would have expected a more 28 days later sort of situation or day of the dead...

Elmo

A basic format for any Hollywood Disaster Movie. It is luckly to have the Speilberg name attached to it.

Tusky

The holes some people are picking the film are in one way hilarious and in other really anoying. Im glad I didnt go see the film with yea, try and suspend your disbelief and stop moaning about stupid things. Its a science fiction movie for christs sake.

[edit] Im not talking about all of yea. Some people made some good points.

Elmo

Speaking of holes in the movie.

Why was the camcord still working when the storm hit? all other forms of electricity had gone.

Sorry If this has already been mentioned.

I forgot that their where alot of holes in this movie.

Creamy Goodness

I noticed that camera hole too? like they say like 30 seconds before it that the EMP has knocked out everything, but long behold some dudes video recorder is working.

that wasn't just a hole, it was a huge black hole.

ObeyGiant

Maybe he changed the batteries?

Earthhorse

I think somebody else already said that if the camera were off during the EMP then it wouldn't have been affected.

monkeyfudge

What about the sons robotic acting abilities? How come they weren't affected by the EMP... oh wait.. maybe they were...

ObeyGiant

Earthhorse wrote:

I think somebody else already said that if the camera were off during the EMP then it wouldn't have been affected.

Well - if the camera were off and there were no battery in the camera when the EMP hit, yes.

However, a better question would be this: how did the news crew manage to get a recording of an entire lightning strike?

An even better question would be this: Does this really take away from your enjoyment of the movie?

Elmo

An even better question would be this: Does this really take away from your enjoyment of the movie?

Yeah because during the movie I kept going.

Now Hold on a Minute that doesn't make sense.


The problem was that it was just one thing at the start or during it. There where plenty of things you could pick at.

And I have to say I am generally the last person to see any holes in any movie, so yes I can say that it did remove the enjoyment for me.

Kingp35

Elmo wrote:

Yeah because during the movie I kept going.

Now Hold on a Minute that doesn't make sense.


The problem was that it was just one thing at the start or during it. There where plenty of things you could pick at.

And I have to say I am generally the last person to see any holes in any movie, so yes I can say that it did remove the enjoyment for me.

Thats exactly the same as me. I was noticing all the holes while watching the film and I was just thinking that that makes no sense at all and its just stupid so it did take away the enjoyment of it.

Also the ending was treated so bad I was just so let down. I thought Spielberg would have been able to not make a film with so many stupid mistakes in it.

toiletduck

yeah, gotta agree the holes just ruined it for me

ObeyGiant

So, ignoring the fact you all didn't seem too worried about seeing a movie about big giant aliens that can come crashing into the Earth on lightning... none of you sat there and thought "you know, I probably don't know too much about EMPs and their effects, and I really don't know if that guy just put a new battery into his camcorder, so maybe I should just ignore these things and just enjoy the rest of this movie"?

For shame.

Elmo

"you know, I probably don't know too much about EMPs and their effects, and I really don't know if that guy just put a new battery into his camcorder, so maybe I should just ignore these things and just enjoy the rest of this movie"?

LOL

Kingp35

ObeyGiant wrote:

So, ignoring the fact you all didn't seem too worried about seeing a movie about big giant aliens that can come crashing into the Earth on lightning... none of you sat there and thought "you know, I probably don't know too much about EMPs and their effects, and I really don't know if that guy just put a new battery into his camcorder, so maybe I should just ignore these things and just enjoy the rest of this movie"?

For shame.

I was waiting for a comment like this.

Well look at what the majority of people in here are saying about the ridiculous plotholes. Its not just the emp its LOADS of things.

Ah but your right as long as a film has aliens in it it doesnt matter if the plot is a load of rubbish and full of holes.

Haha yeah right

Wheely

I really dont know what everyone is giving out about! I went to see this movie expecting a big budget Speilberg-directed sci-fi summer blockbuster, much in the same vein as Indepndence Day! Being directed by Spielberg, and based on a novel by H.G Wells I expected it to be better and it was by far. And plot holes.....c'mon, its a popcorn movie! Its Tom Cruise, aliens and a July 1st release date!! If I had have gone in expecting Taxi Driver or The Usual Suspects I would have been disappointed but I wasn't so I wasn't. I suyspect that those who were "let down by plot holes" seriously misinterpreted the trailers to this movie and expected something else. It was really good for what it was and it never purportde to be anything else than a blockbuster! Seriously I dont know how anyone was suprised. Not everything Speilberg disects is gonna be Schindlers List! And as for those giving out about the ending-it stuck to the books ending and I think Mr. Wells has proved himself so Im not gonna argue that I know better...but seriously, I dont know how anyone was suprised by that either!!

ObeyGiant

Kingp35 wrote:

I was waiting for a comment like this.

Well look at what the majority of people in here are saying about the ridiculous plotholes. Its not just the emp its LOADS of things.

Ah but your right as long as a film has aliens in it it doesnt matter if the plot is a load of rubbish and full of holes.

Haha yeah right

Well, no, I think you're missing my point.

My point isn't necessarily that you should immediately dismiss any plot holes because it's a science fiction movie and not a documentary - I'm merely suggesting that perhaps the fair users of boards.ie aren't an authority on such things, and perhaps this "limited" suspension of disbelief (for example: accepting aliens that travel over lightning, but not accepting that an alien has never seen a bicycle before) is more a failure on the part of the viewer and not necessarily with the film.

I still think most people's problems with this movie are silly.

Elmo

I really dont know what everyone is giving out about! I went to see this movie expecting a big budget Speilberg-directed sci-fi summer blockbuster, much in the same vein as Indepndence Day! Being directed by Spielberg, and based on a novel by H.G Wells I expected it to be better and it was by far. And plot holes.....c'mon, its a popcorn movie! Its Tom Cruise, aliens and a July 1st release date!! If I had have gone in expecting Taxi Driver or The Usual Suspects I would have been disappointed but I wasn't so I wasn't. I suyspect that those who were "let down by plot holes" seriously misinterpreted the trailers to this movie and expected something else. It was really good for what it was and it never purportde to be anything else than a blockbuster! Seriously I dont know how anyone was suprised. Not everything Speilberg disects is gonna be Schindlers List! And as for those giving out about the ending-it stuck to the books ending and I think Mr. Wells has proved himself so Im not gonna argue that I know better...but seriously, I dont know how anyone was suprised by that either!!

I think if you are expecting Speilberg you will be dissappointed by this movie.
This could have been directed by anyone in Hollywood.
What has a July 1st release date got anything to do with anything?

Again just to get my point across. The large pot holes I can accept as it is a SCI-FI movie the smaller inconsistant ones which normally go over my head I cannot, mainly because every 5 seconds their was another one staring me in the face.

Wheely

Elmo wrote:

every 5 seconds their was another one staring me in the face.

List some of these oh so annoying plot-holes that you noticed cos honestly I hat them aswell, but although i noticed the camcorder one, i couldnt say it ruined the movie for me....and anyway apparently if he had the camecorder off and changed the battery its irrelevent...so...thats ok then!!!! So any other ones apart from the camcorder, cos maybe I am going a little easy on this movie....gotta say though I really enjoyed it. Not as good by a long shot as either Sin City or Batman Begins andd I doubt it'll be better than Burtons Wonka, which were the only threee movies I was looking forward to this summer....but it was still really enjoyable. That said my expectations were not exactly high....

chump

I enjoyed it.

It was a silly blockbuster that kept people entertained for the 2 odd hours.

Thumbs up from me.

ixoy

Some of the plot holes did annoy me - I would've liked to have seen more cars moving for example, rather than just the Cruise's (plenty of people would've had cars in the suburbs outside the EMP range presumably) but they were mostly more irritants rather than anything else.

Most of the movie was pretty decent - I actually liked the idea of following one man's flight from the alien invasion. It was something that 'Signs' did right. Spielberg did convey the sense of confusion and terror very well and I think it's alright that we didn't see what happened in the rest of the world, as that wasn't plausible.

I won't even complain about the plot of the ending, because that's from the original source - find it far more acceptable than Shaymalan's nonsense Achille's heel. I don't think it was executed that well though - too rushed. Would've been better to have some buildup beforehand, some signs elsewhere. Perhaps in the basement scene (as an aside: the bicycle thing was mildly amusing but not stupid - a bicycle or photo is a human concept). And as to that final scene... *gag* Implausible but since I had no hope that we wouldn't get it, I wasn't left too crushed when we did.

All in all, it's definetely worth a watch. The pyrotechnics are handled excellent by a very competent director.. it's just some bits outside of that that lack some sparkle to make it a classic. Oh and Dakota Fanning made me think killing children is justifiable...

Earthhorse

I agree with ObeyGiant. Most of the "plot holes" people are pointing out aren't holes as such, they're just things that didn't get a full explanation on screen, and so require a small suspension of disbelief on the audience's part.

It seems a lot of people want to have their hand held and every last incidental detail explained to them. The amount of pointless exposition this would have required would have ruined the movie.

Elmo wrote:

The large pot holes I can accept as it is a SCI-FI movie

I take it you were at the drive in then?!

Ardent

Earthhorse wrote:

It seems a lot of people want to have their hand held and every last incidental detail explained to them.

You said it. It was a bubblegum movie. Can't fathom why people are getting so worked up about it. I enjoyed it.

Drag00n79

Very disappointing movie IMHO. It did not live up to the hype at all. That said, I dislike Cruise anyway, so it was always going to have an uphill battle with me.

Ludacris

I didnt think it was a good movie.

Elmo

Originally Posted by Elmo
The large pot holes I can accept as it is a SCI-FI movie


I take it you were at the drive in then?!

No I was talking about the large pot holes left by the aliens during the Electrical storm.

LOL

"I KILL MYSELF"

Kingp35

ObeyGiant wrote:

Well, no, I think you're missing my point.

My point isn't necessarily that you should immediately dismiss any plot holes because it's a science fiction movie and not a documentary - I'm merely suggesting that perhaps the fair users of boards.ie aren't an authority on such things, and perhaps this "limited" suspension of disbelief (for example: accepting aliens that travel over lightning, but not accepting that an alien has never seen a bicycle before) is more a failure on the part of the viewer and not necessarily with the film.

I still think most people's problems with this movie are silly.

Ok maybe "plot holes" isnt really the best term but ill point out the problems I had and there are quite a few of them.

here are all the stupid parts of this movie:

The emp camcorder annoyed me.I know you could batteries or whatever but it still annoyed me.

Tom Cruise conviently getting the only working car around while absolutley nobody else could get one to work.

When they were in the mothers house there was a huge plane crash smashing up everything in sight including the house and surroundings but they just walk outside and get into there miraculously untouched car. I mean ffs! then they drive out through a conviently cleared path through all the rubble. Again ffs!

Also while they were at the mothers house there was the news crew whos van and all there equipment is obviously some super new emp proof electrical gear, I mean they showed him a film of the lightening hitting the ground! How did they manage to film that? Its super news crew and emp proof movie gear. Absolutely ridiculous.

Next is when they are getting on the ferry to cross the hudson. When the tripods start to attack there is a rush of people trying to get onto the ferry but low and behold a single line of about ten soldiers are able to stand up to and stop a rushing crowd of thousands. Those soldiers have certainly been eating their wheetabix recently.

Next is when the son goes over the hill to follow the Army and there is this huge explosion exactly where he was standing. Oh but wait he is explosion proof and turns up in Boston at the end of the film. It must be great to be him. What an absolute typical american cop-out

Next is when the Tripods suddenly lose there shields for absolutely no reason. of course we know its the bacteria that defeats the aliens but since when does bacteria affect machinery? Rubbish

Next is that there is hundreds of soldiers around but Tom Cruise is the only person that manages to realise there is birds landing on the tripods so the shields. They were supposed to be the Army for god sake. Some defence force they are if an average joe is better at noticing weaknesses than they are.

Ill say one more because ill be at this all day. The ending when Cruise and the daughter get the Boston. But wait conviently the house of the grandparents is on teh only street that is completely unaffected by the tripods and the mother and team walk out of the house with not a scratch or an inch of dirt on them as if they had just finished a spot of afternoon tea. Again a major american cop out. Convienience at its best.

Now if you add all of these up it makes for a pretty poor film whether its supposed to be a popcorn movie or not. Spielberg is supposed to be one of the top directors how can he make so many stupid mistakes in one film? Its really bad film making. This had the potential to be a really top movie but Spielberg seriously messed it up.

Wheely wrote:

And as for those giving out about the ending-it stuck to the books ending and I think Mr. Wells has proved himself so Im not gonna argue that I know better...but seriously, I dont know how anyone was suprised by that either!!

People are not complaining about how it ends or the story behind the ending people are complaining about how badly its done. It does not happen like that in the book. Yeah it has the same concept but its done so badly and explained so badly it just doesnt work. Thats what people are giving out about.

Peteee

Earthhorse wrote:

I agree with ObeyGiant. Most of the "plot holes" people are pointing out aren't holes as such, they're just things that didn't get a full explanation on screen, and so require a small suspension of disbelief on the audience's part.

It seems a lot of people want to have their hand held and every last incidental detail explained to them. The amount of pointless exposition this would have required would have ruined the movie.


I take it you were at the drive in then?!

Well said.

Who's to know what happened to robbie (is that his name, the kid anyway) when he left Ray?

Was he supposed to go into a big explanation like this

'OMG the aliens were coming, but then i hid behind a tree, and all the army people came and and and there was a big fireball, but I was okay because I was a baby and hid behind a tree, so I was okay, then I got a lift back here, amn't I great huh'

Or worse

'I wont bore you with details of my miraculous escape but.....'

lamda

Truly awful ham-fisted attempt at storytelling. So much of it just didnt make one bit o sense. If the aliens were "envious" of Earth, and were watching the planet, why did they leave it til 2005 to go about their invasion? SUrely they should have done it 100 odd years ago when they would have met with no resistance at all. Also how did they have the foresight to put the tripods under the ground if it was before humans were even supposed to be there??? Why didn't they just colonize the planet while they were there? "I know guys, what we'll do is plant these tripods under the ground just in case some species takes hold here and one day we might feel like coming back and setting up shop"

Plus the bit where Cruise meets that reporter woman was one of the clumsiest filling in of blanks scenes I have ever seen.
Plus the bit in the basement was just Jurassic Park but with the robot instead of the raptors.

ObeyGiant

Oh dear, I have a feeling I could be here for quite a while...

Kingp35 wrote:

The emp camcorder annoyed me.I know you could batteries or whatever but it still annoyed me.

You were there for when I said "The problem is with the viewer, not the film", right?

Kingp35 wrote:

Tom Cruise conviently getting the only working car around while absolutley nobody else could get one to work.

That's explained. It may be a little too 'convenient' for you, but it was definitely explained.

Kingp35 wrote:

How did they manage to film that? Its super news crew and emp proof movie gear. Absolutely ridiculous.

The only thing they needed was the tape from the camera. It's very possible the camera taping the thing going into the ground was destroyed by the EMP.

Kingp35 wrote:

low and behold a single line of about ten soldiers are able to stand up to and stop a rushing crowd of thousands

This isn't particularly difficult - especially when the people are being forced to converge into a narrow column to stop people. Besides - once the ferry started to take off, the soldiers *couldn't* hold them.

Kingp35 wrote:

Next is when the Tripods suddenly lose there shields for absolutely no reason. of course we know its the bacteria that defeats the aliens but since when does bacteria affect machinery? Rubbish

Of the many complaints, this is perhaps the silliest I've read (after the bicycle thing) - how exactly do you know that the shields *were* effected by the bacteria? We aren't told anything about how the alien ships work, it might just be some massive coincidence that the shields were down.

Kingp35 wrote:

They were supposed to be the Army for god sake. Some defence force they are if an average joe is better at noticing weaknesses than they are.

Well, the army had all but given up on trying to attack the tripods, and were focusing solely on getting the civilians to safety. So it's not surprising that they wouldn't notice something like that.

Kingp35 wrote:

The ending when Cruise and the daughter get the Boston. But wait conviently the house of the grandparents is on teh only street that is completely unaffected by the tripods

New Jersey is in middle America, Boston is over on the North-East coast. Have you any idea of the scale involved? They never once hinted at destruction on a global scale, so it's not all that surprising that Boston would be unaffected.

I'm not trying to be an apologist for this movie, or to suggest that it wasn't flawed (I personally hated the way the ending was handled - it felt rushed and entirely unspectacular) but, like I said, the majority of these things that people are mentioning are actually problems with the viewer and not the movie, given the number of people that had absolutely no problem with these so-called 'stupid parts'.

ObeyGiant

lamda wrote:

If the aliens were "envious" of Earth, and were watching the planet, why did they leave it til 2005 to go about their invasion? SUrely they should have done it 100 odd years ago when they would have met with no resistance at all.

Given that the 'resistance' they encountered didn't seem to bother them slightly, I don't think it mattered when they arrived.

lamda wrote:

Why didn't they just colonize the planet while they were there? "I know guys, what we'll do is plant these tripods under the ground just in case some species takes hold here and one day we might feel like coming back and setting up shop"

Human blood seemed to be a fundamental part of their 'terraforming' (covering the planet in the red weed). So a large population was probably a fundamental part of their colonisation.

ixoy

ObeyGiant wrote:

Human blood seemed to be a fundamental part of their 'terraforming' (covering the planet in the red weed). So a large population was probably a fundamental part of their colonisation.

*Nods* I'd agree on this.

I assumed this was the reason they waited so long - until there was a suitable population for harversting

ObeyGiant wrote:

Of the many complaints, this is perhaps the silliest I've read (after the bicycle thing) - how exactly do you know that the shields *were* effected by the bacteria? We aren't told anything about how the alien ships work, it might just be some massive coincidence that the shields were down.

Is that any better really? Coincidence, particularly over an important plot point, is often the sign of poor script writing unless it's actually a particular point of a movie, somewhat like in "Magnolia". I far prefer the idea idea of organic tech affecting their shields too.

Someone complained about the mirror stupidly fooling the alien - I'm willing to let it slide on the grounds that the machine we saw was clearly a scout of some sort and thus not likely to be all that intelligent.

lamda

ObeyGiant wrote:

Human blood seemed to be a fundamental part of their 'terraforming' (covering the planet in the red weed). So a large population was probably a fundamental part of their colonisation.

Yes... how convenient eh? How would they have known this?
Ah it's never gonna wash with me. Ah who cares it was crap anyway, best not to annoy myself with it and move on with my life

ObeyGiant

ixoy wrote:

Is that any better really? Coincidence, particularly over an important plot point, is often the sign of poor script writing unless it's actually a particular point of a movie, somewhat like in "Magnolia". I far prefer the idea idea of organic tech affecting their shields too.

I think it's probably pretty important (at this late stage) that I point out I'm not trying to suggest that these are the definitive answers for the problems people are having with the movie - I'm just giving the reasons why I (and presumably, others) didn't have a problem with particular aspects of the movie.

With regards the shields going down, I don't believe in the 'coincidence' of it all. But I'm not going to foolishly suggest that I understand how alien shields work, no matter how many videogames I've played. And this is why it didn't bother me

Peteee

The shields were probably organic in nature (pun intended)

Just because we use metal and kevlar shields dosent mean the aliens do.

Stark

Yeah it does seem likely the shields were organic, as we did see organic components under the ship when they were feeding on the humans.

That meeting the family all happy and unscratched ending was rediculous though.

Scruff

they could have got around the shields if they just used the Starwars tactic of tripping them The shields only seemed to protect to top of the tripods.

Either that or a shed load of suicide bombers who would allow themselves to be taken for harvesting and detonate themselves inside the machines.

Good special effects flick. son should have been vopourised at the start and the daughter should have been a mute. overall rating: meh+

Zombrex

Sheilds -

I just figured the shields went down because the alien inside the tri-pod was dying. Just like a tank or fighter plane is pretty much useless without the pilot, when the aliens were dead the systems in the tri-pod would start to come off line

LFCFan

Was in Santa Monica as part of my Honeymoon and went to see the film. (stupid fire alarms started going off and we got kicked out so missed the end but that's not why I've posted). Anyway, we visited Universal Studios the day after and got to see the

plane crash

set. It was exactly the same as from the film, smoking cars and all. So class to see a film scene in the flesh

monkeyfudge

LFCFan wrote:

Anyway, we visited Universal Studios the day after and got to see the

plane crash

set. It was exactly the same as from the film, smoking cars and all. So class to see a film scene in the flesh

Very nice. It really was an amazing set.