Saw War of the Worlds tonight. It boggles the mind that so much time and money could be spent on creating such incredibly powerful visual/audio effects and so little time and money be spent on writing a decent screenplay.
The constant and overwhelming tension actually made my neck and shoulders sore - which may be a credit to the direction, but as much of that tension was attributable to the dysfunctional protagonist family's constant bickering as it was to the physical action. Tom Cruise's character was unrelentingly obnoxious. And the human part of the ending was so stupid it actually made me mad. As the final scene's voiceover outlined the premise behind the denouement, all effort to suspend disbelief fell like a house of cards. But that's just the short version...
Like Signs, which also factors the absurd notion of God's (seemingly exclusive) benevolence toward mankind in the defeat of the aliens, WotW contradicts it's own pious conceit of suggesting humankind's supremacy in the universe by presenting a sentient extraterrestrial life form to challenge that supremacy.
The constant and overwhelming tension actually made my neck and shoulders sore - which may be a credit to the direction, but as much of that tension was attributable to the dysfunctional protagonist family's constant bickering as it was to the physical action. Tom Cruise's character was unrelentingly obnoxious. And the human part of the ending was so stupid it actually made me mad. As the final scene's voiceover outlined the premise behind the denouement, all effort to suspend disbelief fell like a house of cards. But that's just the short version...
Like Signs, which also factors the absurd notion of God's (seemingly exclusive) benevolence toward mankind in the defeat of the aliens, WotW contradicts it's own pious conceit of suggesting humankind's supremacy in the universe by presenting a sentient extraterrestrial life form to challenge that supremacy.
I thought it was decent. Won't be my favorite film of the summer by a long shot, but a decent job of a re-telling.
I'm starting to seriously look into the remake of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. While the film starring Gene Wilder's a classic in its own right, I'm really interested to see Burton adapt directly from the Roald Dahl work (cue today's SG interview lol)
~Trilo~