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Has anyone seen it yet? I saw it last night and thought it was terrible. Besides the glaring plot holes and improbable occurances, I just didn't think the story was that good. Spielberg is losing his touch methinks.

Plot Hole example:

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So these aliens buried these machines millions of years in the past. Besides not really making sense to begin with why are they at all the world's population centers?

This post has been edited by The Ancient on 5th July 2005 13:01

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

It sounds like it doesn't follow Wells' book, so I don't really want to see an offshoot too badly. I'm not really in a Tom Cruise mood these days either, after all his stupid antics.

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

I saw it Sunday night at the drive-in along with Mr and Mrs Smith (great movie, IMO), and I wished I hadn't. At first I thought it was good, and thought they would tie some things in together a little more, but when it ended, you're right, there were some serious plot holes. For anyone who hasn't seen it, I'd say don't bother, unless you're a huge fan of Tom Cruise, then see it just for the sake of seeing it.

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I'm not really in a Tom Cruise mood these days either, after all his stupid antics.

Seconded.

This post has been edited by Caesar on 5th July 2005 15:02

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Is PJ

I liked it.


The one major plot hole I was thinking the whole time was

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Okay, so if they've been planning this for a million years, why attack now? Even 50 years ago and we'd have next to no resistence. Meh, I guess we didn't have much of one anyways.

Oh, and:

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Why didn't that kid die? What the huh?

This post has been edited by Tidu-who on 5th July 2005 16:32

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

There were a lot of things I was struggling with. I'm usually really good with interpreting movies and such and that really bothered me. Maybe it was because I saw it really late at night after a long day, but maybe some people here could clear some things up:

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Why was the girl's mother's family the only one in Boston? Why were they alive when everything around them was destroyed, and their house was intact and all was good? Plus, the ending was really corny. Everybody gets there, the son's alive somehow, they all embrace, and the world is saved

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How were the robot things finally destroyed? At first I thought that it was a virus that us humans have grown a natural immunity to, but that they were still susceptible to, but then when Tom brought up the whole deal with the crows attacking the robot thingy, I got confused. At the end, too, it said that "even the simplest organisms helped to save the world' or something of the like. That fits the context of both viruses and a relative context of animals, since they're simpler than humans. So I wasn't sure if the robots were destroyed by a virus or by animals or if they were all linked so that when one was damaged, the others were as well. Some help here would be appreciated.

There are plenty more, but I have to go soon, so I'll stop with those two for now.

This post has been edited by Caesar on 5th July 2005 17:30

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Is PJ

I haven't seen the original movie or heard the radio braodcast, but if I'm not mistaken...

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....the aliens were killed by simple germs in the atmosphere that humans had long since grown an immunity to. I think him noticing the crows was on account of their shields being down, not so much the birds actually causing any harm.

I'm probably wrong though, and that's just what I got out of it. Can someone who has seen the original confirm?

And yeah, that kid, what was up with him?

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"I'm fifteen and I own at Halo, I can totally aid in this battle!"

Okkk.

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Wilson: "That smugness of yours really is an attractive quality."
House: "Thank you. It was either that or get my hair highlighted. Smugness is easier to maintain."

Radia, that's what I thought was the reason, but I wasn't positive. Thanks for confirming!

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Is PJ

I was gonna go see it this weekend but im too sure now from the opinions of most the people who have posted (if not all of them) this movie seems really dumb and incomplete. I hate tom cruise anyway i was just gonna see it for the alien stuff in it.

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"To be forgotten is worst than death." Freya , FF9

"How do you prove that you exist...? Maybe we dont exist." Vivi, FF9

I thought the plot was terrible.

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Radia's explanation is right, both about the virus and the birds (Tom Cruise was yelling that the birds showed the forcefield was down and the Army should open fire). They really, really didn't do a good job of explaining the virus, though.

But I liked some of the scenes, and Spielberg showed he still has a good eye. There were some great shots in there.

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I liked that shot of the train on fire. Also, there were a couple of scenes that stuck with me. The first was the scene where the mob attacked the car. They didn't realize that by ganging up on the car they were doing more harm than good, and possibly ruining any chance of getting out of there. It was also crazy when that other guy picked up Tom Cruise's gun and shot the original thief, but I thought it was fitting. A very good depiction of the mob mentality. I also liked Tim Robbins as the crazy guy.

But, yeah, a lot of the plot made no sense. One that comes to mind right away:

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These aliens had technology so advanced that no civilization on Earth could defeat them, but nothing that detects heat? The only thing that can search a basement is that eye-tentacle flashlight?

So overall I thought it was entertaining eye candy, but not that great.

This post has been edited by MetroidMorphBall on 5th July 2005 23:54

I thought the movie was great! Sure, it didn't have the most complicated plot in the world, but it the book didn't, either, and the movie was REALLY consistent with the book. I'm pretty sure Spielberg was guessing that most of the people watching the movie would have read the book, or at least known how it ended (hence the brief virus explanation). The acting and directing was great, though, and the whole movie was very suspenseful.

Overall: Simple plot, ending wasn't explained too well, but top-notch everything else

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The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole witness to history

ICO-You were there-

I just saw it last night (front row, baby!) in-between by usual bar-hopping and I thought it was good (and, no it's not the beer talking). I won't post any spoilers here, but there are some scenes that stuck with me that were really good. Alien attacks are always cool.

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

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The virus ending was actually the only part of it that I appreciated. Thought it was a clever twist (having not read the book).

Everything else you guys seem to be in agreement with me on, the movie just doesn't make sense.

This post has been edited by The Ancient on 6th July 2005 18:07

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

I haven't seen it yet, but I thought THIS was pretty cool.

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M777: lightweight 155mm howitzer
3/11 rules over all artillery!

There are certain movies I watch in theaters where I liked 'em, where I was entertained and didn't feel ripped off, but I knew I would never shell out money to see the movie again. Spielberg seems to be perfecting that particular craft in his later years. Lost World, Minority Report, AI, and now War of the Worlds all fit quite comfortably in that catagory.

It's an odd lil film really. I think it's the stupidest movie I've ever seen that's been handled so well. It's like the filmmakers got round a table and said, "What if we tried really hard to make the best movie from the worst screenplay in exsistence? Y'know...just to say we did."

Performances were great accross the board, direction was quite admirable (if a bit hammy sometimes), and the special effects...easily the best I've seen this year. This was an awesomely made movie based on an awesomely bad story. But the loud and impressive bells and whistles were enough to win me over. As long as you don't pay attention to the plot, it's a pretty fun flick.

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

Yeah, I got to see it the other day.
See, I am a huge Star Wars fan, and I've alwasy thought Star Wars=best movie evar.

Not anymore.
War of the Worlds was so amazing, I almost wet myself. Steven Spielburg worked his age-old magic once again, and Tom Cruise kicked ass and took names. The directed, acting, scriptwriting, visual effects, sound effects, and music were all suberb. I couldn't have asked for a better tribute to H.G. Wells. A fantastic movie, through and through. I was so impressed....

Hokay, there were lots of plotholes.

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

1.) How did Robbie survive? I thought he should've died, but still...
2.) How was the video camera working in the beginning? Solar power?
3.) Why did the watch battery die? wtf?
4.) How did they escape from the boat? Wouldnt they get...chopped up?

Oh well.
Nice work, boyz.

This post has been edited by Shinjutsei on 7th July 2005 01:24

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"Dance, water, dance!"
-Demyx, Kingdom Hearts II

"I met my love before I was born..."
-AFI, 'Love Like Winter' from 'Decemberunderground'

Currently Playing: Guitar Hero, Shadow of the Colossus

loved the special effects! as for the whole plot...hmmm, it was alrite i guess! the book is a classic, i recommend it even though the beginning is a bit boring. all in all tho, the movie was not that bad, but i think that special effects are what kept me into it.

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

I didn't know it was based on a book until the start of the movie. Now, I want to read the book BECAUSE of the movie, but I wish that I'd read the book first, then seen the movie.

This post has been edited by FabulousFreebird on 7th July 2005 21:03

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

I thought this movie was great! Best one of the Summer IMO. As for the plot holes, here's my interpretation of them:

*Spoilers*

Tim Robbins saying that they had been planning this for a million years - Unless he's a mind reader, how does he know this? His was a crazy character and this was just a crazy comment from a delusional rant. The tripods could have been buried a million years ago, five years ago, or just last month. Nobody knows!

Death by Disease - I thought this was very well explained (even if very quickly and in brief at the end). Morgan Freeman (the narrator) says very clearly that Mankind had bought its immunity to the bacteria and viruses of Earth with a billion deaths; meaning that with each death over the millennia humanity has built up a tolerance to Earth-born organisms. The Martians on the other hand have no such luxery. And as for the Tripods failing to work...

The Martians die, and the Tripods just keel over? - As we see when Tom Cruise's character is captured and put in a holding cage on a Tripod, there is a part on the Tripod that opens up to extend a red/fleshy member to grab a captured Human for unknown reasons. Since we had previously seen regular metallic tentacles grabbing a person for the purpose of holding them down and extracting their blood, we can assume that the red/fleshy tentacle is for something else. Also, the openings on the Tripod for this tentacle are also red and fleshy, so it is conceivable that the Tripods theirselves are at least partially biological in make-up. If this is true, then they would be undoubtably based on biology from the planet Mars (or whereever the invaders are from) and therefore subject to the same diseases and problems that the alien creatures/drivers/operators are. If the biological part of the Tripod breaks down (i.e. gets sick and dies) then the mechanical part isn't going to work very well either. Hence the lack of shields and stability in standing up straight.

Robbie surviving and making it to Boston - maybe he caught a ride with retreating military types. One soldier did say that they were to delay the Tripods long enough to evacuate some of the refugees. Or maybe he was captured by a Tripod, but survived long enough for it to fall sick and escaped. There's a couple of different options out there, so I'm not too picky about it.

The watch battery dies - in an EMP pulse, anything remotely electrical gets fried. Quartz battery powered watches included. However, it is true that the video camera at the scene of the unearthing shouldn't have been working. But maybe the EMP pulse only extended so far? And the person came from outside the affected radius? Maybe.

Why didn't they get chopped up by the boat? - Well, there was a little distance between them and the boat. Plus, the boat was being plunged underwater, so the choppy-turney thingy wasn't coming any closer to them. (okay, I forgot what a propeller was called)

Anything else that I missed?

I'm a special effects Fanatic!!! Special effects can make or break a movie.
Star Wars Episode II - Break (A movie that was already broken)
Star Wars Episode III - Make (Even though the Acting was terrible)
LOTR Return of the King - Break (They Went over board)
LOTR Fellowship of the Ring - Make (And the Movie itself was good)

I'll have to See War of the Worlds to judge the special effects for myself.

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