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William D. Randall's Blog (of no particular interest to no one in particular)
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"We Have Just Begun to Fight...." Winston Churchill "Audentes Fortuna Juvat" - "Fortune Favors the Bold"
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Thursday, June 30, 2005
Movie Minute: "War of the Worlds" Probably seeing my last movie of the summer, I went to see "War of the Worlds" at my local Cineplex. I was really interested in seeing how Steven Spielberg could retell an H.G. Wells classic after his last three movies, "A.I" (kind of stiff), "Minority Report" (great original story, good overall acting, and philosophically deep) and "The Terminal" (I'll see it eventually) and his great HBO series, "Band of Brothers" all were somewhat successful. If you are not familiar, "War of the Worlds" is loosely based on the original H.G. Wells novel of the same name that tells the story of Earth being invaded by beings from Mars. Devastation ensues and humankind is left to its own devices to fend off the suffocating Martian offensive. The Martians can figure out how to fly through space, focus death rays, and terrorize billions of people, but they never figured out that a little antibacterial soap and some hand washing (or tentacle washing) could keep them from getting sick and dying, halting the invasion of earth. The movie follows this same basic plot, with Tom Cruise (needs to see a shrink) going to and fro in his daily life. The blue-collar man trying to do the best to make a living while taking care of the kids during his court allowed weekend. The usual son hates dad, daddy's little girl who has a few issues of her own trying to survive while the world crumbles around them story grafted into the H.G. Wells story, except this time it takes place in an area that keeps getting its ass kicked, the greater Tri-State area. The movie did not "wow" me as much as "Minority Report" only because of the imagery employed in the film. The acting was as good as it could be considering the high budget special effects it had to contend with, but the imagery kept me from really getting into it. I kept thinking of the events of 9/11 every time a piece of clothing fell from the sky, the scenes of memorial walls throughout the towns and cities, and the pressing need to utilize a military response without a full consideration of options. (On a side note: I wanted to see the U.S. go in to kick ass and take names of those who were responsible for the attacks, but in Afghanistan and wherever else Osama is hiding and not a war in Iraq that is just to finish a family project.) The imagery kicked up some of the 9/11 images in my head and made watching the film uncomfortable. The film is not a feel good movie, as nearly 2/3rds of the film deals with the worsening predicament of the main characters, a dark spiral that ends when the Martians are afflicted by earthbound organisms. The Tenth Mountain Calvary literally comes in to save the day by conducting a mop up operation in Boston. In all, "War of the Worlds" seemed like a 21st century mash-up of many of Spielberg's previous films, and the tripods looked like something out of City-17 in "Half-Life 2". I would recommend the movie only under the pretense that you have no expectation of feeling good afterwards. Overall rating: RRR/RRRRR (5 R's being the Highest)
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