*** spoiler warning *** Comments on Cruise's latest flick, "War of the Worlds."
A person in my sci-fi club asked me, "On a scale of A to D, how will you grade the flick (before and after viewing)?" I was underwhelmed. Overall, I'd give the film a D-. I'd give the film an A for special effects, which were consistently in-your-face the whole film. We got to see plenty of people vaporized... and human blood used as fertilizer. And wow, look at those strange storm clouds. Boring... The plot was so-so, perhaps a C-. Too much went unexplained. For example, with today's infrared imaging technologies, no governments or scientists on the entire planet were able to see the buried machines? And we saw the aliens far too soon in the film for any significant tension to have been built. All Dakota Fanning did thru the film was scream. So, now the screaming female lead was a child instead of a woman. Boring... I'd give the film an F as far as any romance. There wasn't any. More importantly, I learned in scriptwriting class that poorly-made films use voice-overs; that it is far better to tell a story by showing rather than by speaking. The voice-overs by Morgan Freeman at both the beginning and the ending of the film contributed to this poor rating. (Freeman did a credible job, but that is not the point. The voice-over shouldn't have been necessary.) Frankly, I prefer the 1953 version. Much more tension from the unknown and far better character development. The tension in the 2005 version seemed to have been based more on "what different method will the aliens use next to kill humans?" If I hadn't seen WOTW, I wouldn't have missed anything. If you must, it is better to see it on DVD rental. I wish that I'd seen "Wedding Crashers" instead. George Captain The USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/