Caution: some minor movie spoilers
I've come to trust the directing ability of Steven Spielberg. Ok, so AI was not as good as it could have been, and a few of this other movies have had some weak spots, but on the 30th anniversary of Jaws, people still get a little shiver when the step into the deep, dark sea.
We (the usual movie crew) went to see War of the Worlds last night. I'll start by saying the movie had so much promise, and I had such high hopes. I'm not a big fan of Cruise, but that never seems to matter much with Spielberg.
During the movie, I was enjoying myself. By the end, I was wishing I had left somewhere in the middle.
No, I didn't think it was all that bad, and it was certainly 10 times better than Batman Begins, but it could have been so much more. The special effects were really good, and when it was action, it was really action. I was gripping my seat for most of the movie, and as usual, Spielberg's group sequences were frantic and effective.
But even a sci-fi-global-destruction-alien-thriller needs a little bit of talking now and then. There was a complete absence of any practical information during the movie. Where did they come from? How did the ships work? What did they eat? What did they want? You know, those basic science-type questions that a movie like this has to answer in order for us to suspend our disbelief and enjoy.
I'm not usually one for talking during movies, but this one left me asking all sorts of questions. I'm going to have to give it a dismal two-and-a-half stars.
Flown by mariposa at 12:00 PM on July 02, 2005
Comments
Hello everyone!
I really, really liked War of the Worlds. Consider this apology for the movie. Spielberg normally sews up every last detail of the plot in a pretty explanation, allowing no room for subtle differences in perception. The worlds he creates normally reek of moral absolutism and a clear, attainable truth. The Holocaust. The assault on Normandie. Even AI was a didactic take on a complicated topic. War of the Worlds may not have room for moral ambiguity, but it does take a narrow view of a world wide phenomena, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks.
The movie was consistent in it's focus: it was basically a survival story that followed a father's journey from New York to Boston in his efforts to save his children from alien invasion. I felt as if I was there with Tom and Dakota because I only knew as much as they did.... which is not much. The narrow focus set against a backdrop of total anarchy and destruction lends an unexpected but extremely moving character development; we come to see how events make a happy-go-lucky guy into a shrewd survivalist and a protective and passionate father. Tim Robbins' character provided a contrast - someone who has lost everything and is so filled with fury that he cannot possibly do what it takes to survive.
I think that is what made the movie so effective - if we were to face near total destruction, we wouldn't know the who-what-where-why-when, we would only know the result of the destruction in our own sphere of reality. Lines of communication would break down and we could not be so media savvy, comparing sources and the like. We wouldn't even have much time to compare information with each other, which is why we cumulate relatively little information about the aliens beyond suggestions and rumors. We would have to think very differently because none of the institutions we rely upon would be there to protect and inform us. So kudos to Spielberg for finally trusting viewers to be okay with the limited perspective of the main character he focuses on.
I especially enjoyed the fact that he did not follow the son after he separated from Cruise. And I like the way my imagination can work over all the things that went unexplained in the movie, rather than having my hand held while Spielberg plucks away any and all unanswered questions, which he usually does. Well done. Makes me want to listen to the original radio recordings, which I hear are even scarier. It was just a surprisingly good monster movie...
Posted by: kjersten at July 12, 2005 05:26 PM
|  |
| September 2008 Flights |
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
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 |
|
|
|
|
|