One cannot help but think of terrorist attacks while watching Steven Spielberg's update of the classic sci-fi fantasy THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. While the H.G. Wells story dates back... more
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Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writ...
Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writ...
WAR OF THE WORLDS
One cannot help but think of terrorist attacks while watching Steven Spielberg's update of
... more
the classic sci-fi fantasy THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. While the H.G. Wells story dates back to 1898, and has inspired previous adaptations, this particular version f...
WAR OF THE WORLDS
One cannot help but think of terrorist attacks while watching Steven Spielberg's update of
... more
the classic sci-fi fantasy THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. While the H.G. Wells story dates back to 1898, and has inspired previous adaptations, this particular version feeds off its 21st century audience's fear of a terrorist-induced apocalypse. Even if the sight of tall buildings crumbling to the ground and crowds running fearfully away from their demise doesn't trigger post-9/11 paranoia, dialogue such as Is it the terrorists? will. Disgruntled, divorced father Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is struggling to connect with his estranged kids, who have been dropped off by their mother for the weekend, when a severe and unusual lightning storm leaves his New Jersey neighbourhood powerless. Over the course of the next few hours, it becomes obvious that this was not a storm at all, but rather the first sign of a worldwide alien attack. Emerging from the ground in multi-legged tripod-like machines that have apparently been stored beneath the earth's surface since before man's time, these aliens begin the process of waging a long-planned war on our planet. While WAR OF THE WORLDS follows Ray's growing closeness with his two children (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) in the face of imminent disaster, and his transformation from lousy father to hero, their story is used mostly as a vehicle for illustrating an unending series of horrific scenarios. The human element of the story is also briefly explored with Tim Robbins's portrayal of a crazed, alien-fighting recluse. Sticking closely to Wells' original descriptions of alien warfare, the film focuses mainly on visuals and succeeds through impressive special effects to create two hours of thrilling, frightening, realistic terror.n
War Of The Worlds Worktext
Bring The Classics To Life. These novels have been adapted into 10 short chapters that
... more
will excite the reluctant reader as well as the enthusiastic one. Key words are defined and used in context. Multiple-choice questions require the student to recall specific details, sequence the events, draw inferences from story context, develop another name for the chapter, and choose the main idea. Let the Classics introduce Kipling, Stevenson, and H.G. Wells. Your students will embrace the notion of Cruso ... [view complete description on our website]
Advantages: Great special effects, fantastic start Disadvantages: Tim Robbins part of the film, still has a anticlimax ending.
War of the Worlds, the classic Victorian tale of Martian invaders by HG Wells, that was re-imagined memorably by Orson Welles as a radio play that caused panic across New York in the 30's when listeners believed what they were hearing to be a newscast.
In 1953 the first film was made of the story, updated, modernised and again set in America. The images of the Martian machines raining rays of red striking a chord with 50's paranoia.
In the late ... ...holding the copyright to THE War of the Worlds that the Spielberg film is missing the THE and only called War of the Worlds!
I have to say that I went to see WOTW expecting to see a vacuous Hollywood summer blockbuster, all special effects, moralising and not much more. This feeling was enhanced by Tom Cruise being the star, I have never thought that much of him as an actor, too much reliance on his pretty boy looks than acting skills. His range ...
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06.12.2005
War Of The Ferriers Review ofWar Of The Worlds (Special Edition)by
tehfincheh
Advantages: Mass scenes of humanic destruction for the cold at heart Disadvantages: Poor characters, we want them to die
War of The Worlds represents Steven Spielberg's latest summer extravaganza of over-the-top entertainment. His hunger for the Hollywood big bucks shines through brighter than ever and Tom Cruise is thrust in to the spotlight as Ray Ferrier, the hopeless father with a hell of a lot of parental responsibility coming his way. This is very much a post 9/11 production. Making the most of the public's uneasy fear over an imploding society, Spielberg cranks ... ...novel of many moons ago, War of The Worlds is the latest pretender to the throne of which picture can inject the greatest chill down the spinal cord of it's suspecting viewer. The opening, taken from the novel itself, leaves us in no doubt as to what we're about to see.
Aliens are coming. And man, these guys mean business. I can't help but feel that somewhere, in a dark shadowy corner, Independence Day is cowering in to a ball and quietly wishing ...
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Advantages: Exciting, spectacular popcorn fun Disadvantages: Silly ending, sentimentall slop
...really good - and in War of the Worlds, he is frequently very good. Visually, the film is exceptional. Yes, big budget special effects are prevalent, but Spielberg's ability to be subtle is never lost and there is spectacular set piece after another. A horde of fleeing civilians runs screaming and shouting towards a railway line but is stunned and silenced when a runaway train hurtles past, every carriage on fire. A motorway flyover is ripped to ... ...the same scale - and War of the Worlds fulfils.
More surprisingly, however, is that Spielberg makes everything seem so frightening. In Independence Day, Will Smith kept things very light and despite the fact that thousands of people were being slaughtered, it was really just an effects-laden romp. Did you ever really fear for your existence? I'm guessing the answer to that would be no, but if you watch War of the Worlds, then the answer might be ...
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Advantages: Spielberg magic with great special effects and genuinely scary in places... Disadvantages: Faithful but weak ending...
...to write a review for WAR OF THE WORLDS as it was a film that really left an impression on me when I saw it on the big screen last year.
To be honest, I was excited about this film from the moment I heard that Spielberg was onboard to direct. We already know through Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and E.T. that Spielberg can pull off a story with aliens in it. The question was: how well could he remake the classic H.G. Wells novel?
Following ... ...low budget film of (The) War Of The Worlds made at around the same time as Spilberg's version. This version was pretty faithful to the time period etc of the original novel but trailers for it made the effects for Doctor Who (which I also like - before fans of the Doctor crucify me!) look like the best thing ever...
Anyway... here I go again - drifting away from the point!!!
So... I think it's ultimately a good idea to have set the film in today's ...
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Advantages: Special effects are quite spectacular, true Speilberg style Disadvantages: Weak story line
"THIS IS NOT A WAR - ITS AN EXTERMINATION"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg/Dream Works (aka God of the film world) and Paramount Pictures have got together to produce this film. This is going to be good, isn't it? With the epic " WAR OF THE WORLD" re-mastered I busted more than a gut to go and see this at the cinema. I was also given this special edition 2 disc DVD set as a Xmas prezzie from a friend this year. So what ... ...the population. The three legged war machines take off and fire at all and sundry below. Not even the army can bring them down. Birds take off in abundance; even they don't want to hang about. Bundling his son and daughter into his car he fights for a way out of the town. His daughter is freaking and his son has to console her best he can. They make their way out of town and the roads become calmer. Ray drives to his ex -wife's house but the reprieve ...
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Actor(s): Tom Cruise, Miranda Otto, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, Justin Chatwin, Morgan Freeman
Director(s): Steven Spielberg
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Classification: 12 years and over
Production Year: 2005
Running Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Remake Of: War Of The Worlds ( 1954 United States of America ), War Of The Worlds ( 1954 United States of America )
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT; TECHNICOLOR DIST. SERVICES
Release date: 14/11/2005
No of Discs: 2
Catalogue No: PHE 8883
Barcode: 5014437888334
Screenwriter: David Koepp, H.G. Wells, Josh Friedman
Composer: John Williams
Executive Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson, Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, David Koepp
Author: David Koepp, Josh Friedman, Colin Wilson, H.G. Wells
Languages
Main Language: English
Subtitle Language: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Hearing Impaired Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Revisiting The Invasion, The HG Wells Legacy, Steven Spielberg And The Original War Of The Worlds, Characters The Family Unit, Previsualisation, Production Diaries East Coast, Production Diaries West Coast, Designing The Enemy Tripods And Aliens, Scoring War Of The Worlds, We Are Not Alone, Photo Gallery
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Dubbing Sound: DTS 5.1 English Dolby Digital 5.1 English
DVD Description
One cannot help but think of terrorist attacks while watching Steven Spielberg's update of the classic sci-fi fantasy THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. While the H.G. Wells story dates back to 1898, and has inspired previous adaptations, this particular version feeds off its 21st century audience's fear of a terrorist-induced apocalypse. Even if the sight of tall buildings crumbling to the ground and crowds running fearfully away from their demise doesn't trigger post-9/11 paranoia, dialogue such as Is it the terrorists? will. Disgruntled, divorced father Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is struggling to connect with his estranged kids, who have been dropped off by their mother for the weekend, when a severe and unusual lightning storm leaves his New Jersey neighbourhood powerless. Over the course of the next few hours, it becomes obvious that this was not a storm at all, but rather the first sign of a worldwide alien attack. Emerging from the ground in multi-legged tripod-like machines that have apparently been stored beneath the earth's surface since before man's time, these aliens begin the process of waging a long-planned war on our planet. While WAR OF THE WORLDS follows Ray's growing closeness with his two children (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) in the face of imminent disaster, and his transformation from lousy father to hero, their story is used mostly as a vehicle for illustrating an unending series of horrific scenarios. The human element of the story is also briefly explored with Tim Robbins's portrayal of a crazed, alien-fighting recluse. Sticking closely to Wells' original descriptions of alien warfare, the film focuses mainly on visuals and succeeds through impressive special effects to create two hours of thrilling, frightening, realistic terror.
Professional reviews
Review: The greatest action epic ever. (Daily Mail, )
Watching Steven Spielberg's spooky and playful remake of WAR OF THE WORLDS, you may feel a surge of childlike awe... (Entertainment Weekly, )
Effectively scary and visually impressive (New York Times, )
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