WAR OF THE WORLDS Discussion - Page 3

How many ways can you approach the destruction of civilization by alien armies?

They would blow shit up, lots of shit.

P.S. Guys, they're still shooting this movie. When OhioJones mentioned that he heard it wrapped over Christmas, that was just the New York section of the shoot, as far as I know.

No matter what they do it'll be compared to ID4. The only way it'll stand out is how the aliens actually attack. I seriously doubt they'll show up in big ships and then waste everything.
Something is obviously different ("They're already here.") in the way he plans to introduce these aliens. They may have a completely different method of attacking if they're already here and part of the environment in some way.


Just came across this behind the scenes segment which aired on ET. No earth shattering news but some good footage from behind the scenes and small interview with Steven.
The Movie Box ET footage

...and only ET can bring you the behind the scenes news. Only us. Us. Us. Oh, look, we're out of footage. Us. Watch us, no one else. No one else has the superhuman ability to bring you sexy footage from this movie. Oh, here's what everyone else saw yesterday.

Seriously, though, thanks for the link.

I hate ET MM good stuff.

It would be interesting if Speilberg's ultimate 'twist' on the story is that the aliens arent the bad guys, we are. Hence, fooling everyone who thought he suddenly decided to change his outlook on aliens. (he's an alien-lover, you know it)

Or the aliens win after half an hour and the rest of the film is like an alien 'Animal House'.

Seriously though, the voice-over on the teaser, straight from the original book, makes 'good aliens' highly unlikely.

while we're on the subject of 'ways spielberg is going to make it different to ID4', How's this for a horrible thought: Tom teams up with a lone, dissenting, 'sympathetic' alien who nobly sacrifices itself towards the end?

other twists:
- survivors get captured and are taken to Mars as slave labour. the final half hour is a slaves revolt.
- the aliens win but right at the end they get blowd up by the sudden arrival of some even bigger aliens.
- during the climax the film suddenly jumps a few hundred years into the future where Tom is allowed to spend one whole day with L Ron Hubbard.

-Tom Cruise defeats aliens by giving them the AIDS.

Glorbnax House is on double secret probation.

"Tom Cruise defeats aliens by giving them the AIDS."
Well, it's a virus...
Seriously, I think Speilberg is going to keep the Aliens kick mankind's butt but then they die of germs plotline; that is too much a part of the original WOTW for him to drop it.

My point was that the "wave of Destruction" in the trailer was too much like ID4,particularly in the way it was photographed.. The final film might well be different, but I still maintain they are going to have to sell people on the idea this is NOT a ID4 clone to make it the huge blockbuster everyone is expecting.

One word: Propoganda.

But, yeah, I know its very unlikely we're the bad guys, but it would be fun if Speilberg fooled everyone into thinking he hate aliens now.

But, the film's called 'War of the Worlds', so humans win after a long protracted action scene lasting most of an hour. It really is ID4 but with a different director to be honest, different action scenes, different aliens, maybe different method of killing them, but ultimately via a 'virus' of some sort. I'm really suspecting a patriotic post 9/11 vibe to all this too, this smells of war time Capra-esque propoganda filmmaking, though I hope I'm wrong.

You do realize that ID4 was riffing on War of The Worlds, Earth Versus The Flying Saucers, and the Mars Attacks card series, right? With a dash of V.

Of course, but ID4 wasnt set in the period the novel was set, and neither is this movie, and you'll notice the world now doesnt look that different from when ID4 was filmed, hence the comparisons. Would have been much more interesting in Victorian or Edwardian times or something.

Nobody wants to watch that period shit. That's why Sky Captain flopped.
I think there have been enough earth battles aliens stories to keep people from linking this to ID4.
And even if they do, come on. It's not like it has big shoes to fill. ID4 was crap.

WOTW question

New to this but I have a question. Was I smoking something when I heard that WOTW was going to be a trilogy? It doesn't sound like it and I just wanted to be sure.

You might be thinking of 'the tripods'.

I can't wait till this fucking movie comes out so we can all look back through this thread and laugh.

I don't know how I could get those mixed up but thanks. The effects look good and I excited to see any twists on the original. In between beers on sunday I watched the preview and tivo was very helpful when my vision started to get blurry but I am very much looking forward to this movie. I even think I can get over Maverick being in it.

Nobody wants to watch that kind of thing because nobodys been able to direct it properly, I'm getting horrible flashbacks of Wild Wild West right now. But face it, so far this is looking like ID4 Reloaded.

What I wouldnt have minded seeing was Cruise as a dodgy chancer on the streets of London, who gets mixed up with a runaway kid (Fanning), and they both try to survive the onslaught of an alien race who have technology better than what we have today, the story becomes a straight thriller, a race against time in ye olde England as they try to survive as long as they can, until finally the aliens are defeated by the common cold. Maybe the attack starts a week before autumn or something, heh. Think Oliver! meets Terminator.

But dont get me wrong, I'm not completely bashing Speilberg or the movie, he's more than earned my respect for what he's accomplished in his career, I'm willing to go along for this ride. I just hope I wont be complaining afterwards and going "I told you so! Where's Emmerich, I know he was involved somehow!"

Minor Spoilers!

Here's some stuff from my buddy at ILM who's working on WOW (and Episode III):

SPOILERS REMOVED BY NICK.

I hate the fucking original ending, Aliens leave ships, get sick, die, threat over. If they have that much advanced technology, I'm sure they can innoculate themselves to cope with our atmosphere, or make spacesuits of some kind to wear around. I'm psyched for anything Spielberg does, but I hope he dumps that ending, Joe 6-Pack will be throwing shit at the screen left and right if that's how it ends. Call me retarded, but that ending is just so lame.

uh, that's the whole point of the story. The human race is overpowered, only to be saved by what amounts to natural selection. A brilliant "Twilight Zone" style ending to a great movie.

With Cruises character being Mr. Joe Average, I'd be highly doubtful of him motivating the conclusion. He's meerly our window into humanity's near-extermination.

Any species that is capable of Interplanetary travel is going to be smart enough not to just strut around on an alien landscape without testing it first, that for me, is a HELL of a stretch. If they somehow engineer a virus or chemical weapon to take out the aliens, fine, I'm cool with that, but personally, I'll be dissapointed with that type of DEUS EX MACHINA ending for this thing. Regardless, they still will get my 9.50 because I'm a huge post Saving Private Ryan Spielberg whore.

Who says they didn't test it? You can only test for that which you know to look for.

Ultimately, it's a causionary tale. Technology can't win against nature. As far as we've come since Wells wrote the book over 100 years ago, we still can't prevent natural disasters.

Whether Spielberg decides to go with exactly what is written remains to be seen, but if Aliens are defeated by human means- THAT will be retarded...

And SPR is ALL DEUS EX MACHINA. So what are you talking about?!

Saving Private Ryan had a lot of random chance in it, but it was a war picture, and crazy shit happens in war. I didn't say I'm anti Deus EX completely, but its like the Novel/Movie HOLES, that whole premise is predicated upon a ridiculous amount of coincidences. Never ask an audience to accept more than 1 or 2 fantastic ideas in a story. Aliens whooping our ass with advanced technology, cool, I can accept that, accepting that aliens with death rays and shit have no scientific minded thoughts and are a bunch of brainless fucktards, that's just too much.

Ok, well. Perhaps this mode of storytelling isn't for you, but I would put a point forward.

Not having read the novel in a while, I can't give an exact time frame, but by the time the aliens were subdued by virus, bacteria, whatever you want to call it, they had been here for months. By your rational, how is it that present-day medications make it to market- only to end up having long term side effects? Science is cable of failure to whatever degree the mind that makes it will allow.

Just because a species is capable of interplanetary travel (especially if it's only from Mars to Earth) doesn't automatically make them omnipitant. We could travel to Mars today, but I still forget to charge my cel phone!

And don't forget that the Martians didn't have the luxury of infinite time. Their planet was dying...

I've said it before, I'll say it again, merely having a virus/bacteria end the invasion is just plain stupid.

If we ever master interplanetary travel, and I'm not talking going to Mars, I'm talking traveling light-years away, which is what it would take to find a habitable planet (if there is one), the first thing we would do is protect ourselves against alien virii. THE FIRST THING.

You realize that we take extreme preventative measures to ensure that microorganisms from are own planet aren't brought to other planets when we crash our probes on them? So why would we neglect to protect ourselves from microorganims which may already be there?

By 1898 logic, it was clever, by present day logic I just cannot accept it, unless there's a damn good reason for it; which I cannot currently see.

Oh, absolutely. We do everything within our power to prevent planetary contamination, but who's to say that what's within our means is enough? Who's to say we haven't contaminated Mars, or Titan?

If you're going to assume that an alien race that can invade our planet is infallible on that kind of level, then there'd be no way to defeat them. They'd have planned for every possibility and course of human action. We're dead. Then end.

The point of the story is one of humility. With all that's going on in the world today I'd say that message is more important now than ever. Suggesting that the solution must be a human-made one only emphasises how full of ourselves we, as a race, are. I'll take a obscure but pointed conclusion over the "mankind kicks ass" alternative any day. Maybe the exact cause of the alien downfall won't even be spelled out. What it is exactly isn't the point, as far as I'm concerned. The story is what happens to humanity on the way down, how we react and how easily things can turn us around that are totall beyond our control.

The more you rely on technology, the more it will fuck you in the ass!

You make a good point, but if that's the road Spielberg takes, he'd better explain it somewhat plausibly.

Audiences accepted that Jeff Goldblum could write a virus that could interface (and disable) an alien computer network. Never overestimate the thinking power of the average audience...

That said I think the concept of a passive victory, in which the human race plays no part, will not sit well with the blockbuster audience. At a minimum, Dakota Fanning will have to sneeze on an alien or something!

If Matrix Revolutions can get away with no side beating the other, i.e - PEACE. I'm sure WotW can get away with nature doing away with the aliens. But I've never really seen a 'cerebral' film from Spielberg, if he's trying to be clever, he usually likes to literally spell shit out to the audience, he unfortunately did it alot in A.I which harmed the film for me. It would be cool if this movie had an ambigious end for the aliens, so the audience can leave the cinema discussing how/why the humans survived.

Or something.

Send that to the marketing department. Now!

[QUOTE=cognizant] But I've never really seen a 'cerebral' film from Spielberg, if he's trying to be clever, he usually likes to literally spell shit out to the audience, he unfortunately did it alot in A.I which harmed the film for me. [\QUOTE]

For the last time, AI's final act was in the original Kubrick script.

[QUOTE=mastronikolas] For the last time I'm of the few who liked A.I, but having characters explain the themes of the film to me is pedantic and not needed.

Why do you all think he has so many blockbusters? He has the art of movie making down to a science. He knows how to pull the audience's strings and give them what they want. He seems to choose just the right topic at just the right time and sets the standard in many ways - usually visually (A.I., Jurassic Park). He can't afford to have an ambiguos ending or attempt to put too dramatic a spin on the alien invasion theme. If he does try something new, you can bet it will be literally explained to the audience so as not to lose or confuse anyone.

I don't think the end of AI was spelled out, everyone I know thinks the beings at the end are Aliens, not robots, so how's that for ambiguity, or maybe I'm wrong and everyone else is right.

Editing to say I'm not pissing on this film, I haven't seen it yet, but I really want it to succeed in a glorious way, as this kind of story is right up Spielberg's alley, and I want to see how he tackles EVIL aliens for a change. I'm sure the family stuff in it will be perfect, as well as the awe and rage mankind will display as they get fucked up royally by superior forces, I just don't want him to drop the ball at the end.

No. They're robots. Uber-mecha.

Thanks Charles, I'll have tp print out a couple of responses in this thread to prove my points to some people. Especially the last act being in Kubrick's screenplay, one of my friends refuses to believe that Kubrick would end his story like that.

I really don't understand why people think having nature defeat the aliens in the end will not sit well with an audience.The Martians arrogence and overconfidence in not preparing for that type of thing parallels humanity's arrogence and overconfidence in ourselves and our technology. I guess the average movie watcher wouldn't get the irony. Do we really have to be the ones that are always responsible for victory in these types of movies?

"I just don't want him to drop the ball at the end.
If it was good enough for HG Welles and Orson Welles, I think it's good enough for Spielberg
Spielberg is not doing a original story, he is doing a modernized version of one of the foundational books of Science Fiction. Every Alien invasion story owes a big debt to HG Welles, he originated the concept. I think that Speilberg is aware of this, and he has shown he has a lot of respect when he adapts a book. I am willing to bet that the germs will kill the Aliens. There are ways you can do this even assuming the Aliens have taken precautions Hint:No precaution is perfect.
It's one of the classic endings of Science Fiction literature, and I think Spielberg is smart enough to keep it in, and audiences will have no problem accepting it. Even most geeks will have no problems accepting it.

"That said I think the concept of a passive victory, in which the human race plays no part, will not sit well with the blockbuster audience."
I don't know; the 1953 version was a huge hit and it has the passive victory ending. I think at times we geeks really do get a little on the high horse with our contempt for the average movie goer. It all depends on how it is written and presented.
If anything, it't the SFX "you got to have a big battle at the ending" fanboy element I think will have problems with the passive ending.

I have more of a problem with the beginning than the ending, they might as well have got Hurt to look at the camera and say "This is a film that should make you think about the ethics involved in artificial evidence, here let me define these concepts for you in 5 minutes so you can understand the rest of the film". And then I'm sure Spielberg does it again in Minority Report with Cruise and Farrel basically explaining to the audience how/what they should be thinking about. Its highly irritating, what he should do is show us a story about characters doing things in a movie universe all the while oblivious to us, the viewer. We should discover themes ourselves and debate amongst ourselves once the film finishes, not have characters do it for us.

Just reminds me of a passage I read in a book about book to screen adaptation;

But now I've gone horribly off topic.

I'm looking forward to seeing WotW. That is all.

I hope this thread is still jumping after the next trailer and after the release of the film, some good civil discussion going on here, hope it continues. Needless to say, everyone is wicked jazzed to see this puppy.

I still have a few reservations, but I am always up for a good Alien Invasion....
BTW the Pendragon version seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Their website was down for a few days, and there is no way in hell the film will be out by March 30th as they were claiming. IT seems to be becoming the cinematic equivilant of vaporware.
But the designs for the CGI version of Jeff Wayne's Rock Version look sweet, though....
If you are interested in following the latest info,and wildass rumors about all three film versions
www.waroftheworldsonline.com should tell you more then, at times, you really want to know.

[QUOTE=Hair-Metal Hero]I don't think the end of AI was spelled out, everyone I know thinks the beings at the end are Aliens, not robots, so how's that for ambiguity, or maybe I'm wrong and everyone else is right.
QUOTE]

Aliens? I never thought that for a second. It's been a while since I've seen it, but didn't they actually say that they were robots? The last reminants of humanity's genius? Or something like that...

[QUOTE=OhioJones] I think they were referring to HJO's character, the last remnants of humanity's genious. I'm pretty sure that the things at the end were aliens or the future human race or combination thereof. They were excavating/exploring the planet in an archealogical sense, I think.

**edited to add, I guess they could be future robots though. I really enjoyed AI regardless and often wonder what it would have been if Kubrik had completed it instead.

Grofield,
you're comparing a mere Spielberg movie to the utter genius of Gnaw: Food of the Gods II?
Sacrelige.

(Heavy sarcasm there)

Put another vote for the 'passive'ending. Speilberg can change anything he wants but not that.
As a side, has any material released actually confirmed that trhe aliens are from Mars?

Kathleen Kennedy confirmed today on Dark Horizons that the aliens are NOT martians.

"No they're not Martians. The feeling was that we know so much about Mars now that doesn't really fall into the realm of realistic expectations."

Which kinda sucks. There's a lot of talk of being true to the "spirit" of the book, which usually means "we've changed lots of stuff".

What's the point of trying to make a alien invasion movie meet realistic expectations?

Frankly I think it'd be more interesting if they were from our own solar system.

"They're already here." Hmmmmm...Not martians. THE TREES! THE TREES!