Why Ebert is right about War of the Worlds

I disagree, completely.

"...but the sense of tension that should be there just isn't."

Would you like to tell this to my girlfriend, sister, and mother? It felt like they were immitating the old saying.."Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil," one of them had their hands acrossed their eyes, glancing through their fingers when it let up (which it never did); one of them had their hands covering up their mouth in shock as the tripod battered New York; and one of them covered their ears as if to try and make the aliens go away. I haven't seen them do that yet - even in Batman Begins.

This is one story that will change with the times. From WWII, to the Cold War, to now the 'war' on Terrorism, it is meant to represent how society reacts towards destruction. It plays on alot of our (being American, of course) fears about a major attack on a city and *not having any idea what's going on*, which is exactly what happened on 9-11. People running around, screaming, make different assumptions about what was going on, and having no idea if and when they would strike next. The truth was few and far between on 9-11, and I feel this movie represents that perfectly.

Granted, the movie certainly did not have an epic feel to it, however, it certainly did play on our emotions. They told you just enough of the story to get acrossed the point.

Here's a question, though: Had this been a remake of the last War of the Worlds, with no changes made, just updated actors and special effects, would anyone have gone to see it, and would it have done as well as it has thus far in the box office? I don't feel it would have.

This certainly was one of the more intense films I've seen. Could it have been more creepy? Sure.

Spielberg certainly achieved what he set out to do - make the audience feel attached to the characters and identify with the plot somehow. *SPOILER ALERT, DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE*

For example, when Robby comes out of the house when they reach Boston at the very end of the film, 75% of the females, and fathers for that matter, either clapped or showed some other sign of emotion. I'm going on a long shot here......but I don't think they'll be showing that type of emotion on Friday when the Fantastic Four hits theatres.

This movie, to me, adds to the overall story of War of the Worlds. It adds another chapter to the story, which is alot more than alot of the other sequels/prequels/remakes can say today.

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The ending of WOTW is universally panned because of the "biblical resurrection" of Cruise's teenage son character. Unfortunately, his character was chopped up pretty good by Hollywood "committee writing". On the other hand, Mr. Chatwin is likely to become a hot movie trivia item in the future when people rack their brains trying to figure out who played Dakota Fanning's brother in War of the Worlds.

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First of all, you really should put "SPOILERS AHEAD!" for those who haven't seen the movie.

I saw the movie last night, and feel that the ending was a letdown, even though I'm familiar with the source material.

No matter how up close and personal Spielberg tried to make this film, it's still a CGI FX spectacle. And, that being said, an ending that's as subtle as the one presented simply doesn't work.

Furthermore, it's not foreshadowed (unless you call the opening narration foreshadowing) at all until Cruise arrives in Boston and notes the alien roots are turning grey - nearly at the end of the movie.

Given the amped-up whiz-bang nature of the movie, the quiet ending does not do the trick. And I'm not sure what would.

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the ending sucks because during the whole movie it is alluded that the world is getting taken over by all the aliens, and they are obviously in jersey, completely overtaking the whole thing, and just a state or two away is boston, completely untouched by the whole incident? i dunno but if i think of world domination and jersey in the proximity it is to boston, i think im going to assume that boston would not be sitting pretty and unscathed.

The ending plays out like the editor was humming along nicely with all the action sequences and spielberg comes rushing in and goes "DUDE, we gotta wrap up this movie in 10 minutes, STAT!" So they whip up a nice morgan freeman voice over, have Tom walking into beautiful boston with his daughter to meet her well dressed, and showered mother and step father, and oddly still dirty brother. It was the crap of all crap, it makes bruckheimer endings seem deep. Thin, flemsy, very forced, it indeed was one of the worst endings i think ive ever seen.

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The movie sucks big time. I rated it 2/10 on imdb because it's so unimaginative, so dull, so road-movie. It should have been more like the original radio play. Or maybe situational-room based. But road-movie?! No way! Cruise is a nice chap and good actor, but he doesn’t save the flick.

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Boston was far from "completely untouched by the whole incident." In the background you can see a great deal of distruction, it is just the in-laws' house that is one of a few that made it through it.

Also, the movie is shot so that we only know what Tom Cruise's character (or in a few cases Dakota Fanning's character) knows, and I think that worked pretty well for 90% of the movie.

Was the end a bit of a let-down? Yes, to an extant -- but his family isn't the only one to make it through the invasion, so it wasn't as unbelievable as some would have you believe. It was still a good movie, overall. I certainly enjoyed it more than I thought I would (I'm not a fan of this kind of movie, generally).

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I wouldn't be surprised if WOTW has subliminal Scientology messages in it, given the power which Cruise has over the film.

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I saw WOTW twice. Both times my knuckles went white from gripping the arm rests, and I didn't even notice it until my hands went numb.

THIS IS NOT A MOVIE FOR YOUNG KIDS!

I've never seen a grown man unable to look at the screen in absolute terror, and even ask to go home, as my husband did. He demanded several times that I tell him how it was going to end, 'cause he just couldn't stand how mortified he was (he's quite the family man). Of course, I refused to spoil it for him

I thought the ending was a bit rushed, and we had many arguments afterward about how an "intelligence greater than our own" could have forgotten to immunize themselves against biological factors. But other than that, I thought the move was amazing, spectacular, the best horror Sci-fi I've seen since Aliens.

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There are plenty of reasons why some of us who are admirers of Spielberg are lamenting the fact that a "mere cornball ending" is ruining his epical effort. It's safe to assume that not one single Hollywood studio exec dares to tell Spielberg how to end a movie, so this version we see today is purely his. Let's also assume that Spielberg struggled with the ending of this movie, that is to say, he had choices; for instance, he could have let the credits roll soon after the aliens are defeated and the narrator informs those who are "less educated" as to why. The whole Boston "run up to hug mom" scene could be cut out and no one would miss it. I bet you a ticket to his next movie, "Untitled Munich Project", that no one would fault Spielberg if he chose not to show us the fate of Cruise's son, ex-wife, and ex-in-laws. Nevertheless, he did decide on the cornball ending. Allow me to submit a sinister scenario -- might it be possible that Spielberg got pressure from Mr. Scientology who has been going around promoting the "family value" angle of this picture? Just a thought.

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lsm (#10),
I definitely agree. I mentioned in my comment on a previous entry that when I saw it, there were several children there, and they didn't look very happy. It's not that I don't understand that it can be hard to find a babysitter (I have 2-year-old twins -- if you think finding someone to watch one kid is tough, try two the same age!), but surely you could've delayed seeing the movie until you could get a sitter. (I saw it the second day it was out.)

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What I found missing in this remake was mankind's failure to use the pinnicale of their destructive potential to stop the aliens. (The original used the newest state of the art
Flying Wing/jets/ atomic bombs)
What would have rounded the movie out better for me would have been a scene of a joint US/Russian Federation ballistic missile submarine attack on the aliens. Some view from the International Space station/or other satelites of the violence on Earth.. and of course a massive 10,000 megaton Earth counter strike with the heaviest thermonuclear weapons ever developed.. and does nothing against the aliens.
Still overall, I enjoyed the movie..

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SPOILERS APLENTY TO FOLLOW:

I just saw it and I can empathize with several of the posts. I think it's admirable that Cruise's character isn't the hero who uses his mechanical knowledge to Will Smith-ify the aliens. He's just a guy trying to make it through the day. It was also very touching when he realized, on the boat, that his son, trying to lift others to safety, was far more courageous a man than he ever could be.

That said, I did need a hint that the original reason for the colonists' demise would also be the tool used in this telling. Perhaps - for instance - we could've had one of the aliens in the farmhouse appear sick? Or they could've found it dying?

It's a bit beyond credulity that they'd not be in spacesuits of some description.

I'm sort of glad there wasn't a White House situational-room (which we've seen a million times before) and that we were fed bits and pieces (and lots of misinformation) as it would be if this actually happened.

I totally agree that it's NOT FOR KIDS. I'm sort of shocked it got only a PG-13 rating. Three had to leave during the screening I went to. I might add that a woman in the row behind me was so freaked out she told her husband they had to leave, too.

It was very gripping and intense and disturbing, which is maybe what Spielberg wanted. Epic? No, it's not an epic, and maybe that's also what he wanted?

I agree the final scene is laboriously Hollywood-lack-of-imagination, but I suppose everything needs to be tied together in less than two hours or it'd be called a mini-series ... or, dread of all dreads, the Matrix, and we can all live without that.

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Ok, here's the deal: A director makes movies based on the kind of person he/she is at the time the movie is made. It's just like art - If I'm a pissed off, bitter person, my art is going to reflect that just as much as if I were a stable, happy man in love. Spielberg has recently made comments about Close Encounters, and how if he'd have made that same movie today, the ending would reflect the fact that he is a loving father who would do anything for his family, as opposed to the brash, independant thinking of a young man with his future ahead of him. That's just life. All this cynical talk about Tom Cruise's sinister influence on the movie is infantile to the point of being sad. I know it's hip to slam on Cruise these days, but damn if his performance wasn't great in this movie.

This movie actually frightened me. I'm 30, don't have a family yet, but my sense of self-preservation is quite intact. The sense of fear and panic and oblivion is palpable throughout the two hours, and the decision to make a movie that focuses on one family (as opposed to the worldview, ala ID4) was a controversial one, but I think it works. You can really put yourself in Ray's shoes; you have no idea what's going on, you don't know what to do, where to go, you simply know that you need to take care of your family, no matter what you have to do (defend them against a mob, kill the crazy man who won't shut up) to ensure that safety. I thought the ending (microbes and immunities) was the only way to end it. See the above Will Smith possibilities. The ending with the family was great - seeing Robbie finally accept Ray as his dad was a good conclusion to their rough journey. It is satisfying to watch Ray be proud of his boy when Robbie helps those people onto the ferry; when Rachel crawls into his lap and wraps his arms around her after the Tim Robbins scene; and finally when Robbie hugs Ray at the end. Maybe if this society wasn't so goddamned cynical and sarcastic, we would accept those kinds of visuals a little more.

But that's just my two cents.

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This film is so bad it will undoubtedly end up as a cult favourite! The invasion plan of the aliens makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it for a second and while it is visually stunning in one or two places it is totally hollow emotionally. The ending with the family reuniting is so laughable as to be insulting.I'm annoyed at having spent my hard earned cash to see this pile of dung!

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I have one big question. When Cruise was getting on the boat he met up with some chick and her son who he knew, who the hell was she? When during the movie did we meet her?

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Speilberg 1
Movie fans 0

I have loved every film Spielberg has done until this clinker. War of the worlds was dumb beyond belief, funny where it shouldn't have been and turned out to be just a waste of time. Cruise just happens to find the one car on the East Coast that runs and then this same car survives a plane crash that wipes everything else out for hundreds of yards. The only thing scary about this movie was its total lack of plot. The aliens looked like cosmic versions of the three stooges. Both the original movie from the 50's and the radio drama from the 30s were far superior than this God awful remake. Thankfully, it was faithful to the H.G. Wells book as to how the aliens died, but that and cameos by Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, from the original film, still couldn't save this one. I have advised my frinds not to waste their time or money on this turkey. NO STARS.

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The movie had its creepy element. This is something I liked very much. Dakota Fanning's overacting was extremely irritating. The rest of the film was fine. But yeah it wasn't great. As for the ending i.e. aliens getting killed cuz of the virus is inherently flawed even in the book. The first thing we do when travelling to even another country is get ourselves vaccinated and innoculated. Do you honestly believe that an alien species that has been eyeing the earth over millions of years with the technology for space travel would not have thought of that. At the time Wells wrote the book not much was known about this so it was fine. But in a modern day scenario it just doesn't make sense. So u ask what would be a more logical alternative ending ??? I am not creative enough to see how humans would actually survive. I would imagine more of a 'matrix' situation where a handful of humans manage to hide and make it through. Honestly speaking though I think we wouldn't stand a chance.

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It was a great movie if you realize that it was part of Spielberg's continuing series of ruminations on The Holocaust.

That seems to be the guiding metaphor he tried to shape into the movie beyond the veneer of "aliens attack and die from the flu."

Look at the way he shot the opening fight sequence's disintegrations. When Cruise is running through Brooklyn covered in soot, he's running through ovens, not lasers, in Spielberg's mind.

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