How many of you out there revere Steven Spielberg as a master story teller and a director par excellence?? I, for one, revere him as both the above. Believe it or not, I have seen Jurassic Park 17 times and ET, god knows how many times!! And these were just his OK movies. Both were nice movies, stories a tad bit (?!?!) out of the ordinary. Agreed there were movies about aliens before ET, but those movies depicted aliens as creatures set to blow the entire world sky high!! They did not have cute and cuddly aliens - a la ET.
A few days ago, I saw the trailer for War of the Worlds during my visit to the local AMC theatres. It looked interesting and decided to see the movie once it was released. With all the destruction shown in the trailer, I thought it would be one more action packed adventure from the master. And I did get a chance to see this thanks to my boss who gave me free tickets to go catch the spectacle (seemed like a debacle at the end of the movie!).
All those people who are interested in seeing the movie, please exit at this point as the climax of the movie is going to be blown to smithereens here (atleast it is an attempt to do so!). The rest of you can read on.
This movie starts of with the focus on Tom Cruise - a divorcee with two kids. The ex is on a vacation and decides to leave the kids with the dad. Then, the skies open up. There are reports of lightning strikes, thunderstorms, EMP blasts all over the world. Yeah, you guessed it right. The same things happen in Tom Cruise's town as well. The the alien machines rise from the under the ground. The sub-terrain has been the hibernating ground for these creatures for god knows how long!
The next few minutes is nothing but bloody carnage! And by bloody, I mean it literally. These creatures suck the blood from the humans and spew it all over the place. It is not exactly the place for hematophobics. While all this happening, you would expect some heavy artillery from the earthlings. And not the kind that involves war tanks and rocket launchers. Coming to the climax, it is quite lame. The action in the movie lasts for about an hour and a half. The destruction of the aliens last just 2 minutes! I mean, shouldn't there be something more to destroying the creatures than see the alien machines stop moving and having the military fire their rocket launchers at them?
That's it. The movie is over at that point. I mean, el finito! There is a small description as to what happened that brought about this demise of the intelligent species from another world that had its machines buried deep underground in our planet and decided to wake these machines up one fine day. The secret weapon that destroyed the alien species was nothing but the millions and millions of viruses and bacteria that exist in our planet. Humans have evolved over time, adjusting their bodies to these viruses and bacteria. The aliens apparently donot have the antibodies to defend themselves from these creatures. Hence, they were dying a slow death from the time they stepped foot on our planet.
It could probably be an intelligent answer to what may happen if and when Earth is attacked by aliens. But, for a movie coming in the wake of a high octane thriller called Star Wars, I thought it was a lame ending. I would definitely give 8 or 9 out of 10 for special effects, 7 for the overall acting and another 8 or 9 for the photography/videography (I donot know the right word here!! I am sorry.). But overall, the movie would rate just about a 5 or 6 because of the ending. I am no professional movie critic, but I do have a right to voice my opinion. But one thing I really liked about this movie was the way the alien creatures are portrayed. I mean, starting off with creatures that looked like a cuddly teddy (that is how I would like to describe ET), Spielberg has come a long way showing us real life-like alien creatures. They looked so real!
Spielberg fans, flame me all you want. But that is the truth and you all know it.
A few days ago, I saw the trailer for War of the Worlds during my visit to the local AMC theatres. It looked interesting and decided to see the movie once it was released. With all the destruction shown in the trailer, I thought it would be one more action packed adventure from the master. And I did get a chance to see this thanks to my boss who gave me free tickets to go catch the spectacle (seemed like a debacle at the end of the movie!).
All those people who are interested in seeing the movie, please exit at this point as the climax of the movie is going to be blown to smithereens here (atleast it is an attempt to do so!). The rest of you can read on.
This movie starts of with the focus on Tom Cruise - a divorcee with two kids. The ex is on a vacation and decides to leave the kids with the dad. Then, the skies open up. There are reports of lightning strikes, thunderstorms, EMP blasts all over the world. Yeah, you guessed it right. The same things happen in Tom Cruise's town as well. The the alien machines rise from the under the ground. The sub-terrain has been the hibernating ground for these creatures for god knows how long!
The next few minutes is nothing but bloody carnage! And by bloody, I mean it literally. These creatures suck the blood from the humans and spew it all over the place. It is not exactly the place for hematophobics. While all this happening, you would expect some heavy artillery from the earthlings. And not the kind that involves war tanks and rocket launchers. Coming to the climax, it is quite lame. The action in the movie lasts for about an hour and a half. The destruction of the aliens last just 2 minutes! I mean, shouldn't there be something more to destroying the creatures than see the alien machines stop moving and having the military fire their rocket launchers at them?
That's it. The movie is over at that point. I mean, el finito! There is a small description as to what happened that brought about this demise of the intelligent species from another world that had its machines buried deep underground in our planet and decided to wake these machines up one fine day. The secret weapon that destroyed the alien species was nothing but the millions and millions of viruses and bacteria that exist in our planet. Humans have evolved over time, adjusting their bodies to these viruses and bacteria. The aliens apparently donot have the antibodies to defend themselves from these creatures. Hence, they were dying a slow death from the time they stepped foot on our planet.
It could probably be an intelligent answer to what may happen if and when Earth is attacked by aliens. But, for a movie coming in the wake of a high octane thriller called Star Wars, I thought it was a lame ending. I would definitely give 8 or 9 out of 10 for special effects, 7 for the overall acting and another 8 or 9 for the photography/videography (I donot know the right word here!! I am sorry.). But overall, the movie would rate just about a 5 or 6 because of the ending. I am no professional movie critic, but I do have a right to voice my opinion. But one thing I really liked about this movie was the way the alien creatures are portrayed. I mean, starting off with creatures that looked like a cuddly teddy (that is how I would like to describe ET), Spielberg has come a long way showing us real life-like alien creatures. They looked so real!
Spielberg fans, flame me all you want. But that is the truth and you all know it.
4 comments:
They looked so real! How do u know that?? i guess its from the close associations with certain people and your undying love for any reflective surface! wanted to watch this movie. Now, im definitely gonna! Why did the aliens visit in the first place? Probably to steal a particular bass guitar.. hmm..
You definitely got it right on the associations with certain people part! :D. It better not be you who comes down a hole in my roof trying to steal my new guitar...I know where you live!! :))))
Cheers!
the word is 'screenplay'
Thx Mr. Anonymous!
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