The War of the Worlds (2005)

Director:

Timothy Hines

Writers:

H.G. Wells (novel)
Timothy Hines (screenplay) ...

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Action | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

We can't stop them

Plot:

Martians launch a deadly attack on Earth.

Plot Keywords:

English | 1900s | Battle | Mars | Destruction

Cast

Anthony Piana	...	The Writer
Jack Clay	...	Ogilvy
James Lathrop	...	The Artilleryman
Darlene Sellers	...	Mrs. Elphinstone
John Kaufmann	...	The Curate
Jamie Lynn Sease	...	Miss Elphinstone
Susan Goforth	...	The Writer's Wife
W. Bernard Bauman	...	Henderson

Also Known As:

Classic War of the Worlds (International: English title) (recut version)
H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds' (USA) (complete title)
The Great Boer War (USA) (fake working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sci-fi violence/gore, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

179 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:Unrated (unrated)

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Pendragon Pictures

Trivia:

The copyright notice, despite being wrong in conventional Roman numerals, is actually correct in a more obscure (and disused) version of the system.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: After the narrator flees the pit after the Martians' first attack, the train that passes in the background is a late 20th century Americal diesel model rather than a British steam locomotive.

Movie Connections:

Version of The War of the Worlds (1953)

Stick to the 1953 version, or wait for Spielbergs rendition

I am currently sitting here, forcing myself to finish this. I figure I blew 6 bux on the VHS, might as well suffer for it. I remember about 4 or 5 years ago doing a search on the internet for "War of the Worlds" cause of the rumors of the Spielberg movie at the time, and I missed the old TV series from the early 90's. The website make it out that this was a multi-million dollar budget rendition of the classic book. It was going to be a "perfect translation". Perfect CRAP is more in tune with this film.

First off, the video on this movie was glitched! It looked as if I was watching the Full Motion Video from an old mid-90's PC or Playstation CD-Rom video game. Sadly enough, the color quality was similar. The acting made Shatners classic "dramatic pause" look damn near Shakespearean in quality. The CG rendering of various scenes was horrendous, and green screen sequences were worse than those seen in old Dukes of Hazardd scenes.

Secondly, it is slow and terribly drawn out. I sat thru 45 minutes of the video (no promo's at the beginning) before the cylinder actually Opened to reveal the first alien. After that, the alien was a terribly constructed CG squid. I am now an hour into it and the most of the alien weaponry I have seen is a spinning silver disk (crappy down even) attached to a mechanical arm. The dramatic scenes are murdered with overly done instrumental's. The last thing on that, for an alien invasion in the turn of the century 1900's NO ONE is concerned for their life. It's like they have no concept. Even though media was slow, word of mouth spreads fast and people would have known. The "illusion" of day and night was shoddy at best. Simply changing the color around the people to purple, blue or green does not signify NIGHT TIME. Perhaps some lighting and actual night time shoots would have given a MUCH better illusion. THere is a lot of wasted sequences throughout the film of just watching the "hero" gallop around or walk down silly roads. Get on with the film. I know how people get around, you do NOT need to be so in-depth.

Now, finally an hour and 5 minutes into the film and they show the alien machines. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had better looking effects. Even the skeletons of vaporized humans looked as if animated by a freshman high school computer app class student. The animations do NOT match up to the scenery at all.

In closing folks, if you want "The War of the Worlds", do one of four things. 1) Watch the 1953 original, 2) watch the early 90's TV series, 3) wait for Spielberg's rendition to be released shortly, OR 4) Read the frikkin book (something we all probably did in elementary English class). AVOID THIS MOVIE. IT IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY.