The only good thing about Spielberg’s War of the Worlds.
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Feb 08, 2012
Cinecast Episode 245 – White People Cure Racism Through Football
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OMG WTF? Is this seriously the original music? This looks SO BAD!!!!!!
Yeah I believe it is John Williams, what a hack
I can’t believe he gets Oscars for this kind of thing.
LOL
The music is classic. But the movie is still fabulous (aside from the last few minutes)
Why don’t people like the end of this movie? I don’t get it.
My question is, regardless of director, why does Tom Cruise spend so much time running in his movies…Is there something about him that says to casting agents and directors. Make him run.
And for that matter why didn’t Cruise play Forrest Gump?
The only time Tom Cruise doesn’t run in his movies is when he is asking someone “What do you want from me?”.
Why don’t people like the end of this movie? I don’t get it.
WARNING: SPOLIERS AHEAD
I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, the ending revealed one of the few weaknesses that Spielberg has displayed from time to time: the need for a tacked-on happy ending. Sure, the fate of the aliens was sealed by H.G. Wells in his book many years earlier, but to have the son survive (after running headstrong into the middle of a horrific explosion) AND make his way to his mother’s family home before his father and sister seemed a bit much to me. The audience had already acepted the fact that the son had died. Our emotions at that point (the half-way point of the movie?) were given over completely to father and daughter, who faced a hell of a lot there on out. Truth is, their survival was all the ‘happy ending’ we would have expected. To throw the son back into the mix turned a happy ending into a sappy ending.
Of course, nothing can top the sappiness of the ending of A.I. That film should have ended under the water, in front of the Coney Island fairy exhibit. To have carried it forward, re-introducing the mother character, was a big, big mis-step for me. I might be able to forgive the ending of War of the Worlds…but that one was too much.
Spielberg is an excellent filmmaker, and shows time and again that he has the stomach for intensely emotional material. Sometimes, however, he just can’t seem to follow it through to the end.
SPOILERZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The film never commits to that character being dead. There’s no body.
Andrew, you don’t think there’s anything good about this film?!?! Nothing?
even with the benny hill music that close-up of the woman turning to dust still disturbs the hell out of me.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The film never commits to that character being dead. There’s no body.
Whether it commits to it or not isn’t the point…we were led to believe that he was dead. He was one of only 3 major characters, and was completely left out of the story from that point on. Audiences can only react to what they’re shown, and everything we were shown led us to believe that the character was killed. If we were somehow expected to accept that he could have survived that explosion, why not branch off, showing him crawling out from under a pile of bodies, or from behind an armored vehicle or something? Why didn’t we see this? Because then we wouldn’t have that ‘awww, shucks’ happy ending. It was complete manipulation where none was required.
That said, I did enjoy War of the Worlds. It was only the ending I had a problem with.
In entertainmentfilm, it’s pretty safe to assume that anybody who doesn’t get their dead body shown on screen is alive. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to have somebody charge an unstoppable invasion head-first and let them live. That’s where things stop being honest, and start pandering to a target audience. Which, incidentally, is what Steven Spielberg does best.
Yea, add me to the pile that hate the ‘sunny boston suburb’ ending to the film, complete with son happening to drop in.
*POTENTIAL THE HAPPENING SPOILERS**
However, didn’t the ending to THE HAPPENING also flip back to Philadelphia being pretty cheery and sunny only 3 months after (one can only assume) 90% of the population suicided? Seemed pretty brisk denouement, complete with daughter being happy to have lost her parents and return to school.
Kurt, I actually think that’s a plot point to the story. With WoftW it was just stupid. With Happening, it’s part of my theory. Will discuss the spoiler on the podcast tonight.
uh, Andrew, you have comments OFF on your Hulk review… are you the last word on the subject.
I resisted going… its the first step in my process to wean myself off shit. Indy 4 was hitting bottom.
Rot, fixed.
Was having some internet issues last night and there was obviously some glitch. However, yeah, I am the last word on the movie.
Rusty,
my review – written opening day:
http://moviepatron.com/moviereviews/w/waroftheworlds.html
@rot. “I resisted going… its the first step in my process to wean myself off shit. Indy 4 was hitting bottom.
All I can say is DITTO. I’ll likely be avoiding “MARVEL” produced films in the future, unless reviews and word of mouth tell me they’ve decided they get more interesting than ‘hero fights bigger and stronger version of himself’.