War of the Worlds (2005) (2 Viewers)

[Greg_S_H]

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, but still they come.

 

[Kevin M]

I may have missed something while watching the new version but I was under the impression that it wasn't merely the germs in water alone that did them in but earth based germs in general (in the air, soil, plant & animal life etc. etc.) that killed them as the aliens had no natural immunity to them that we had developed over our evolution. In their lust to destroy life, life destroyed them for their lack of respect for it*, this is why the idea that the machines were buried and therefor they had been here before doesn't work, in the book the martians watched from afar but didn't really know much about our planet as a whole...this was their undoing but Speilberg's aliens had actually been here and should have at least known about the bacteria.

*That IMO was certainly one of Wells' original ideas with the ending (as well as political allegory).

 

[Holadem]

Water had no particular role in the defeat of the Aliens.

Had they? All we know is that their machines have been buried for a long time.

As for the "millions of years" business, just because a character said it doesn't make it true. Could have been 2000 years for all we know.

--
H

 

[BrettB]

Exactly. The more logical assumption from what the film shows us would be that the machines were buried the same way the aliens were inserted into the machines; riding the lightning.

 

[Stephen_L]

The device of microbes being the alien's downfall is not so ridiculous as you might think. I could imagine aliens coming from a biology that does not have death-dealing microbes swarming in the air and water as we do. A technologically advanced species could therefore have a blindspot: i.e. complete ignorance of an element of earth life because of total lack of experience. I'm reminded of the Asimov story "Nightfall" where the people on a world with many suns took ages to learn Newtonian mechanics (the movements of their world and suns were too complex to intuit Newton's laws until late in their development), had pathologic fear of darkness, and because they had never seen stars (a sun was always in the sky), never posited a universe any larger than their own local cluster. Asimov's people were very sophisticated technologically but their situation blinded them to certain natural facts we take for granted. Wells and Spielberg's aliens could have the same narrow area of ignorance.

 

[Holadem]

Whoa, this sounds like some excellent SF, I will seek it out.

--
H

 

[Paul McElligott]

I'm not sure that hiding the machines underground was meant to be "credible" so much as it was to suggest the idea of "sleeper cells". A lot like the 1953 version was inspired by Cold War fears, this version was clearly informed by the events of 9/11.

 

[Robert Anthony]

I'll second "Nightfall" it's a GREAT story.

 

[Stephen_L]

Spielberg made clear his reason for having the alien machines underground. He wanted to avoid a number of "alien invasion" cliches in his film including the alien craft raining from the sky, generals in some command center plotting strategy, classic scenes of armies battling the aliens, etc. I can enjoy the buried aliens and accept the reason as a mystery. The film itself doesn't clearly need to explain everything; just transmit a sense of utter strangeness and panic.

"Nightfall" is indeed an enjoyable read: originally a short story, later fleshed out to a short novel. In the world with many suns, a scientist finally works out the movements of all the suns and worlds in their system only to discover that the planet is due for a total eclipse (no suns in the sky at all), an event that happens only every several thousand years.

 

[todd s]

Sounds interesting...Do they explain how long the eclipse will be? What happens??..In spoilers.

 

[Stephen_L]

Concerning "Nightfall"
An archeologic team discovers that the worlds civilizations have burned themselves to the ground with clocklike regularity every several thousand years. Separately an astronomer has worked out celestial mechanics for this multisun system and determined that for several hours true night will fall across the planet. This event happens only every several thousand years and appears to correllate with the planetary holocausts noted in ancient history. The citizens of this world try to understand what is about to happen and find some way to prepare. A power struggle between rationalists and religious zealots ensues as nightfall approaches

 

[Ira Siegel]

I strongly prefer Mars Attacks.

 

[BrettB]

Heads up

A special presentation of War of the Worlds @ Grauman’s Chinese Theatres on February 16

 

[Colton]

When Ray and the kids arrive at the house and take shelter in the basement - something starts happening outside when the windows start flashing. Rachel says, "Is the lightning back?" and Ray responds, "No, this is something different." We are never told what exactly was going on except later to see the plane wreckage out front. So, what's the story in this scene?

- Colton

 

[Don Solosan]

Colton,

I thought that was when the plane crashed...

 

[Sean Campbell]

When Ray says "This is something else", he's talking about the Martian ( they're from Mars as far as I'm concerned! )heat ray device.
In reference to earlier comments about the invaders' ignorance of Earth bacteria, it's worth noting that in the original novel Wells' mentioned that after the Martian machines had been examined by human scientists, no wheels were found in any of the mechanisms. The implication is that although the Martians were far ahead of humanity in many respects, the different circumstances of their evolutionary development resulted in odd ( by human standards ) gaps in their knowledge.

 

[Colton]

I just wished they showed more carnage.

- Colton

 

[Tino]

Why??

 

[Colton]

Well, I don't think the tripods got enough screen time. I saw some photos of scenes that were deleted from the final film that shows tripods reaching into homes and pulling people out. I thought that would have been a great scene and the image alone haunts me. Also, not to see the battle over the hill made me feel cheated already. How I wish we could have seen the actual "war" of the worlds.

- Colton

 

[Johnny Angell]

I couldn't agree more. I would love to have seen more of the tripods.