Realistic is not the best word. Consistent is better. For instance if in the middle of the film, Tom Cruse had reached down his throat and pulled out a nerf ball that killed the aliens on contact, and played dodge ball to save the world, it wouldn't have been consistent with the character that had been described. EMP is an understood phenomena. Aliens are suppositions. The more obviously an inconsistancy violates known reality, the more it shatters the illusion of the less obvious inconsistancies or suppositions.
See, I notice things like that - and they put you off a bit - but it wasn't nearly enough for me to dwell on once the huge Tripods starting climbing out of the ground, vaporizing people. And that's exactly why WotW wasn't the greatest sci-fi (or even alien flick) of all time, but also why it was still just an enjoyable summer movie (for me). Such things aren't enough for me to get angry and unable to enjoy the other things onscreen. RE: the minivan thing, though...what was it that Cruise's character told the mechanic to replace when the van wasn't working at first?
Actually, in this case I agree completely. I was more amused by it than anything else. I still enjoy watching things like the old 70's flick "Westworld" where Yul Brenner's face comes off and it looks like the inside of a 1950's Fender amp. As long as the "flaw" isn't used to drive the plot, I don't have any real problem with it. It was the solenoid which I don't would actually believe would be affected by the EMP, and neither would the starter motor. The EMP is basically a very strong magnetic field with a specifically abrupt gradient. If you remember high school physics and "the left hand rule" you know that magnetic fields running through something like a wire result in electrical charges. This very strong, very abrupt magnetic field induces a very strong very transient electrical current that essentially melts things like transistors and microchips which can't handle the current. Things like electric motors & solenoids as well as equipment with vacuum tubes can take the electric current. Cars with microchips and things like fuel injection would die. Cruz's Mustang wouldn't have died. You can also protect things in a faraday cage, which is essentially a metal mesh cage, would survive as well. The things on the minivan which he replaced wouldn't have fused, but other stuff which would have been much more difficult to replace would have fused.
Saw it last night. Great special effects, horrible movie. I liked the first way better. The only scene that I really loved from the whole movie was when the people attacked Tom in the van down by the river. Everything else was pretty much a waste. There was a lot of stuff that I took exception to, but something that really shocked me(esp taking into consideration the dumbing down aspect Spielberg attatched to the movie) - ***spoilers*** they didn't even explain what happened at the end. Yeah, I get it, because I saw the first movie, I've read the book, hell, I even remember some of the tv series. But I was with people who weren't exposed to that material or any spoilers and they didn't know wtf happened to make the aliens lose.
i read the book about 8 months ago..in my recollection, they didn't explain much there, either. the book closes with the lines read by morgan freeman..."God in His infinite wisdom" created the microorganisms that would ultimately save the planet"..something like that. when you say you liked the "first"..what do you mean?? this movie has been made many times.
There is no speech like that in the book. They do mention the exact cause of their death, though it is brief. Wells goes more into detail about the threat of another invasion rather than concentrate on what bacteria killed them. And by first I mean the only other movie with that name, the old black and white movie.
***spoilers*** Well good for you. I was with several people who thought the aliens shields just stopped working. Wouldn't be a bad conclusion to jump to considering the other gaffes in the movie.
i'll have to break out my book...morgan freeman's speeches sounded very familiar to me. you're right..Welles did talk about the possibility of another invasion..i do remember that. that we'd always be looking to the sky in fear. actually, there have been 4 War of the Worlds movies as I understand it. but the black and white one is from 1953...and that's the one i assumed you meant.
SPOILER except that the ships and the aliens are turning to dust...like the red plants overtaking the planet...and cruise says, "they're dying."
There is only 2 movies with the name war of the worlds, as far as I know. I know Independence day was loosely based on the work, but I don't really connect that to war of the worlds, just a movie using the same concept. except that the aliens and ships aren't shown to be turning to dust. Cruise says "they're dying", but he's talking specifically about that red weed. And the red weed in that particular area no less. We aren't really given a reason to believe that the alien shown dead was killed by anything other than the bazooka shots. For all we know, the machines just stopped working, maybe because of some anonymous "microorganisms" that Freeman mentioned at the end.
SPOILER the alien is dusty..he's grey and clearly sick. but it's pretty well explained by the narrator's voice over. not in great detail. but you don't walk out going, "what?? i have no idea how they died!!" do you??? you'd have to be tuning out Freeman's narration to think that.
I disagree, he's not "clearly" sick. And even if you do think he's greyer and dustier than normal ... it could simply be because he just got blowed the **** up. And once again, I don't think Morgan Freeman's narration(which I usually like, but the choice of him in this narration was shoddy imo) explained what happened, that's my whole beef with the conclusion. And the ending isn't THE reason I think it's a bad movie, I'm just shocked that a relatively dumbed down movie geared towards the masses has what I think is an ambigious ending. Most people like a clear resolution.
Rewatching Mars Attacks would fit as a good parody to this movie. Signs used the same concept but had a personal slant to it. The aliens from Mars Attacks were probably the smartest by default. The ID4 invaders couldn't recognize a 35 yr. old ship. The Signs aliens invaded a planet that has water covering 65% of the earth's landmass. The War of the Worlds aliens invaded a planet crawling with bacteria, and if I believe Speilberg, buried their spaceships thousands of years ago (bacteria predates us, but we can assume they don't believe in Evolution on earth) without any testing of the atmosphere that they wanted to colonize. Inconsistency...bleh. I liked all of the movies except Signs.
As someone who has had TCC problems in his car, I could see how the EMP affected the solenoid. The solenoid engages for economy fuel and if it locks, the car will not run. The EMP caused it to lock.
Nitpicky nitpicky...I thought it was a great adaption of a classic movie. It was a nonstop thrill ride. However I wish the son had stayed dead. But I am cruel like that. Your buddies who thought the aliens lost because their shields started to fail....were they drunk?
Have to agree with Max here...I can understand a lot of the nitpicks, but the ending is pretty clearly spelled out by Freeman... Besides that, when the alien flops out of the ship, he pretty much wastes away...goes all gray and dry. His eyes practically crumble up. Not too mention the ships are literally stumbling around (acting 'erratically' (sp?) I think the army guy says) like drunks filing out of a club at 2am.
