movie night: War of the Worlds
Jul. 20th, 2005 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockWhoa. Um...okay. That was a bit more with the horror and less with the adventure than I was expecting.
I counted three times that I physically recoiled in my seat: one of those times was the shot when Tom & daughter are first in crazy Tim Robbin's basement and he's looking out the window and the alien ship closes in right on the window. I almost crawled up the back of my seat--- it was totally a physical reaction that I had no control over.
I had originally suggested we see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory or Dark Water, but my friend didn't want to watch a horror movie.
I apologized to her halfway through. I was thinking Independence Day.
Onto the film itself: The War of the Worlds remake is what Signs would have been like if it were written by Stephen King.
It's big, and loud, and did a good job of at moments seriously freaking me out. Oh, and there were aliens. The aliens themselves were unimpressive. It seems movie aliens come in three forms: insect-like ones in Alien, humanoid green or grey men a la Signs or Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or the traingle-head shaped ones of this movie and Independence Day.
What happened to the marshmellowy shaped aliens? Or the snake-like aliens? Or the rodent aliens? Did they refuse to join the union?
Anyway, the ships were cool and scary. The movie felt very in-your-face. A very visceral, tangible experience. 3-D glasses would have probably killed me. Visually and in terms of pace, delivery, and tension, it's reliable old Stephen Spielberg deft skill.
The plot... that's a bit weaker. First there's this family. Dysfunctional, of course. If they were functional, after all, this would be Signs. Anyway, there's this family. Tom Cruise plays a totally self-centered and inept father, who'd like to think of himself as a decent dad but can't even be bothered to fool himself on that lie for more than about 8 minutes. Which makes me fear what a child between him and Katie Holmes might be in for. Anyway, they're hanging around and aliens attack.
And they run.
And run some more.
And run some more.
And run some more.
Basically, there's a lot of running. I found the movie a bit exhausting, actually.
Cruise's character Ray grows up over the course of the film, becoming a decent father in the physical sense that he can't be in the emotional sense. Though he improves a little at the emotional stuff too. You get the feeling that it's not some kind of wisdom or learning from tragedy that makes him grow into the father role, but just the fact that he realizes he really does love his kids and that there's no one else around to be the adult, so he's going to have to manage.
Dakota Fanning was cute and wide-eyed and mildly snarky. She screamed well. She stole every freakin' scene in the whole freakin' movie. I invariably found myself staring at her whenever she was on screen as opposed to Cruise, Robbins, or the kid playing her big brother. Freakin' scary, that girl. Definitely my vote for Luna Lovegood in the fifth Harry Potter movie.
Speaking of the brother character-- he actually looked kinda like he could be Tom Cruise and what'shername's son. Nice bit of casting there.
Overall, I give the movie a B. It wasn't instantly classic cinema, but it was exciting and scary enough to leave an impression after watching it. Definitely worth seeing in the theater as opposed to home tv.
I counted three times that I physically recoiled in my seat: one of those times was the shot when Tom & daughter are first in crazy Tim Robbin's basement and he's looking out the window and the alien ship closes in right on the window. I almost crawled up the back of my seat--- it was totally a physical reaction that I had no control over.
I had originally suggested we see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory or Dark Water, but my friend didn't want to watch a horror movie.
I apologized to her halfway through. I was thinking Independence Day.
Onto the film itself: The War of the Worlds remake is what Signs would have been like if it were written by Stephen King.
It's big, and loud, and did a good job of at moments seriously freaking me out. Oh, and there were aliens. The aliens themselves were unimpressive. It seems movie aliens come in three forms: insect-like ones in Alien, humanoid green or grey men a la Signs or Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or the traingle-head shaped ones of this movie and Independence Day.
What happened to the marshmellowy shaped aliens? Or the snake-like aliens? Or the rodent aliens? Did they refuse to join the union?
Anyway, the ships were cool and scary. The movie felt very in-your-face. A very visceral, tangible experience. 3-D glasses would have probably killed me. Visually and in terms of pace, delivery, and tension, it's reliable old Stephen Spielberg deft skill.
The plot... that's a bit weaker. First there's this family. Dysfunctional, of course. If they were functional, after all, this would be Signs. Anyway, there's this family. Tom Cruise plays a totally self-centered and inept father, who'd like to think of himself as a decent dad but can't even be bothered to fool himself on that lie for more than about 8 minutes. Which makes me fear what a child between him and Katie Holmes might be in for. Anyway, they're hanging around and aliens attack.
And they run.
And run some more.
And run some more.
And run some more.
Basically, there's a lot of running. I found the movie a bit exhausting, actually.
Cruise's character Ray grows up over the course of the film, becoming a decent father in the physical sense that he can't be in the emotional sense. Though he improves a little at the emotional stuff too. You get the feeling that it's not some kind of wisdom or learning from tragedy that makes him grow into the father role, but just the fact that he realizes he really does love his kids and that there's no one else around to be the adult, so he's going to have to manage.
Dakota Fanning was cute and wide-eyed and mildly snarky. She screamed well. She stole every freakin' scene in the whole freakin' movie. I invariably found myself staring at her whenever she was on screen as opposed to Cruise, Robbins, or the kid playing her big brother. Freakin' scary, that girl. Definitely my vote for Luna Lovegood in the fifth Harry Potter movie.
Speaking of the brother character-- he actually looked kinda like he could be Tom Cruise and what'shername's son. Nice bit of casting there.
Overall, I give the movie a B. It wasn't instantly classic cinema, but it was exciting and scary enough to leave an impression after watching it. Definitely worth seeing in the theater as opposed to home tv.
