Anyone see this yet? Was it any good?

I was wondering the same thing.

It's decent if you leave the theatre as soon they run into Tim Robbin's basement. By that point I was rooting for the aliens.

Mom, the movie reviewer, saw this on Tuesday. She said it was a good popcorn flick (effects, action), but that Speilberg missed the mark on the "save my family" drama. 3 out of 4 stars she gave.

Hey, if the aliens promise to consume what lil remains of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon's dignity and intelligence....they'll starve...


But I'll still bless the effort!!

Fandros

For someone who bashes Cruise a lot, you seem to have a ton of interest in seeing this movie.

Tom Cruize .... he rocks in Risky Buisness!!! Did he do anything after that?

I liked it, but I tend to like cheezy action sci-fi type flicks. The other three people with me hated it. Lots of plot holes, and the story drags on after a while. Still, very impressed with some of the film work in it - but that's purely from a directoral standpoint. Worth seeing in my opinion, just don't get your hopes too high.

Of course, the fact that Morgan Freeman opens automatically makes it a cool movie.

Everything involving the alien tripods apearing and blowing shit up was awsome. The first time it comes up from the ground, with the music blaring, just gave me chills.

The actual 'story' parts of the movie are just meh. I don't blame anything on tom cruise, every actor in the movie was pretty damned bad. The worst was the girl. Jesus christ was she annoying. I'd give it a 6/10. It's worth seeing for the effects, audio, and about 10-15 min of awsome music.

So its matinee material and not full price worthy eh?

Though matinees are still $7 around here, bastards.

Wow... everyone here pretty much summed up what the entire group that I went with thought of it. We all gave it a 6 / 10.. agreed upon some huge plot holes.. and hated certain aspects of it.

One of the biggest things that irked me about it, was how the crowds of people acted. Something just felt... unrealistic about it.

Some of the camera work / directing was very good, however. I thought Cruise did an ok job acting his role. The Tim Robins character bothered me... as I guess it was supposed to. The little girl... I don't remember the actresses name... anyway, her big thing is acting older than she is / looks. It didn't work for her in this movie, especially since they tried to flip it half way through and turn her into a helpless 5 year old.

One of the things I did appreciate about the movie, though, was the fact that they didn't give too much away about what the aliens / alien technology looked like prior to release (at least I don't remember seeing most of that stuff in the previews), so the beginning of the movie was pretty exciting. Sadly, it got old pretty fast after that.

The girl's name is Dakota Fanning. I first noticed her in the Spielberg produced mini-series Taken, where she did a respectable job passing off 7th grade "deep thinking" as life affirming philosophical musings throughout much of the series. She's got talent and precocity to a degree characterized as "spooky," but she's becoming ubiquitous. Dakota needs to cut back on the production schedule before she becomes a parody of herself.

I'd read that Spielberg reduced her to a screaming ninny deeper into the film. While I'd expect a young child to be a screaming ninny in a "the world is destroyed -- lollipops and cookies, too" -- situation, it makes for dull characterization. Sounds like Cruise's line, "There's nothing living in that direction!" could apply to Spielberg's crafting of the film, but I still plan to see it. If you've never seen the 1953 version with Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, highly recommend it. Great effects for the era.

Dakota Fanning was really good in Man on Fire, I thought.

She's a good actress no doubt. But I agree with Thor she needs to cut back. As for this movie I guess I'm going to go see it, I'm a schmuck for SciFci flicks.

I have not seen it and two of my friends said not to bother to see it. They said they barely could stand staying to the end and as they left people were muttering how bad it was. My sister said she can not believe that Spielberg put his name on it. :( Heck, I did not know it was a Spielberg film.

It sounds like Tom Cruise might be going into real estate for his next venture...... as in selling it, since he can no longer sell a role in the movies.

Personally I thought this movie was excellent. Just went to see a matinee of it. The plot was pretty good, acting decent, and the action seemed accurate in a mass-panic sense. It's worth a see.

SPOILER QUESTION: How did Cruise actually kill the Tim Robbins guy, with the shovel? Why did he even want to kill him if he was perfectly happy digging and talking to himself? Wasn't Cruise's character planning on leaving the place anyway? Minor things but they just bother me, lol.

I thought it was pretty weak. After all the hype, it really let me down. They did do a good job of hiding 100% of the actual alien technology on the previews though. I had no idea what to expect at first, but it got pretty boring quickly after that.

SPOILER QUESTION: How did Cruise actually kill the Tim Robbins guy, with the shovel? Why did he even want to kill him if he was perfectly happy digging and talking to himself? Wasn't Cruise's character planning on leaving the place anyway? Minor things but they just bother me, lol.
I think he killed him to keep him quiet. Noise seemed to attract the tripods, and Robbins wouldn't shut up after he saw the thing doing whatever it was doing to the people.

I thought it was pretty weak. After all the hype, it really let me down.

I guess I had that on my side - I wasn't really looking forward to it at all and just ended up seeing it for some action and a little storyline, leaving me impressed afterward since I wasn't expecting much despite the Spielberg label.

I suppose the whole point of the basement scene was to get a personal close up of the invaders.. aimed at suspense.

I liked it. Then again I was overseas during the hype phase and I have also seen the original a few times too (Yes, that was a REMAKE, kids. Its a 1950s movie that was originally in B+W and before that it was the Orsen Wells radio program that freaked out millions). I was not expecting much more than a good 1950s sci-fi style thriller and it delivered in spite of the fact that I already knew how the aliens would be defeated. The original was nothing more than what the new one was: An average dude trying to survive. Maybe you might consider the acting to be shit, but hey, Joe Average probably would act just about like that if in that situation. The movie really isn't trying to do much and I was not expecting it to, yet I was still on the edge of my seat at some parts.

I felt it was worth the money. Maybe I am just a simple bastard or alot of you are a bunch of crumudgeons.

I haven't seen the new one, but the old one was great.

I'm good at suspending disbelief for these kinds of movies, but a lot of it was just beyond my abilities. Things like the minivan somehow magically working when he replaced the solenoid (that would NEVER work, after an EMP), and them having a constant path through the freeway and airplane wreckage was just too much for me too handle without stepping back and thinking how ridiculous it really was.

Not to mention the kid running into the massive fireworks and somehow being in Boston when they got there. Come on.

Ah, don't forget the camcorder that magically worked in the middle of the first action sequence ;) (surely that should not have worked either?), but again I liked the movie as a whole and will probably see it again with someone else.

Again I think they picked up the mass hysteria + mob mentality pretty well, especially when they went riding through the town in the van and when everyone wanted on the boat (the last place I would have wanted to be IMO). I think I would have hidden in the woods the entire time.. that or just given up and gotten a quick beam death.

The part that really did not make sense to me was the Manny character acting seemingly oblivious to people running screaming in every direction, getting fried by the beams, and having the time to somehow argue with Tom Cruise about the ownership of the car fixed by replacing the solenoids. I think the whole "fertilizer" thing was kind of unneccessary. Rather gratitious, and they did not do anything more to explain what exactly it was supposed to do. How the one tripod they managed to destroy by "conventional" means, after being the oh so superior alien technology of dooooooom, only took about five stinger missiles before it fell apart. Even with the shielding, wouldn't they have better armor plating than that?

Though granted, the scene where the car gets taken by the mob was well done I thought. Like Cados said, the mob mentality scenes were believable.

I give it about a 6/10, the scenes were well directed and the effects were amazing, but it just had too many things that did not make a lot of sense, or were not explained well.

The birds roosting on the tripod they took down with missles gave away the fact that the shields on the machine were no longer operational, thus they could hit it.

As for the other complaints about things being far fetched:

1) Its a fucking movie produced in Hollywood for entertainment aka FUN that will be shown around the world
.
2) Its aliens in walking tripods for christsakes. Far fetched?

Yah the part with the van's starter was kinda reaching as most all cars have an engine management computer that would be toast and the car would not run regardless of starter. The average movie viewer is not going to know that, though.

My point Lummus is not that the shields were down and the birds gave them away. Its that the superior alien technology (lasers that dust things, the shields) only took a few direct hits from what in theory should be VASTLY inferior human technology since those tripods have been there apparently since before human civilization?

I can basically buy the tripods being relatively flimsy without their shields. They wouldn't need to be very strong with those completely impervious shields, and the added weight of lots of armor wouldn't make sense if it shouldn't ever get hit.

I was kinda disappointed how there was basically no explanation about why they died. You also have to figure if they were that bent on wiping us out, had that level of technology millions of years ago, and had just been hovering over the planet to drop drivers into the tripods; the rest of them would be coming down with a 2005 model tripod soon enough.

The way I figured that Sanchek, though it should have been explained, was that since they had not actually been on the planet for very long at that point in time, their immune systems were not immunized to all of the micro viruses (colds, etc) and they simply could not cope. When a child is born its already building an immunity to the viruses and what not, and the aliens had only had time on earth near the beginning of "time" where for all we know, there were none of those viruses around.

I dont find it to strange that the tri pods were taken out by 5 missles. I mean underneath the metal top they seemd to be squishy and a bio form. And I know its silly but a missle is still a missle, and explosions do a number on metal.

The way I figured that Sanchek, though it should have been explained, was that since they had not actually been on the planet for very long at that point in time, their immune systems were not immunized to all of the micro viruses (colds, etc) and they simply could not cope. When a child is born its already building an immunity to the viruses and what not, and the aliens had only had time on earth near the beginning of "time" where for all we know, there were none of those viruses around.
Yeah, that was pretty much my understanding too, from what the narrator (Morgan Freeman, who rocks) said. It just seemed really annoying that we won by pure luck, and somehow the rest of the aliens magically gave up and left us alone after the first group of them died.

Maybe they're just biding their time until they figure out how to get around the atmosphere problems, then they'll launch a second offensive. It'll be called "Extermination Earth".

My big question was why didn't they just wipe out the earth when they originally planted the machines...you know, back when earth tech was even lower? It's not like the movie showed them stealing our stuff, they blew it all up. So...why the long wait?

I did like the way the aliens looked like their tripods. Sorta like all the mechwarrior type games with human looking machines.

In the movie there was a line saying something along the lines of the aliens planting the machines there long before humans existed there.

The wanted a harvest apparently, not just a turkey shoot (surely they'd have advanced video games for that ;)).

Which is why they... turned 99% of the humans into ash? =P

Another BIG discrepancy in the movie (sorry if it was mentioned, I skipped a few posts) was how deep the machines seemed to be burried. The way it was put on film, it seemed (to me) that they were only 50 - 100 ft under the surface... and humans didn't find them, how?

Yeah, they did not seem to be far down, at all. The police in Tom Cruise's home town knew that there was nothing down there...? Maybe they had stealth fields activated :p

Ok, I watched the movie yesterday evening.

What first came to my mind when it was over was "where is my brain?".

Maybe one of the worst plot I have ever seen in a sci-fi movie.
Ok I can "forgive" it's a hollywood movie, that's it's a Spielberg movie.
But come on, why sooooooo many nonsenses!?!?!

The EMP thingy (ahaha the solenoid, the camera).

The "death ray" that can vaporize humans thru building and car, at simple contact, but does nothing to clothes? (fetishist aliens?)

The "death ray" again, which can kill one or two humans at once, but they have that "flame wave" weapon available, or they are even able to blow up a bridge full of cars and trucks!
I can understand that if you have 1 or 2 humans to kill, use the death ray, ok, but you have a running mob in front of you, clean it up for good! (Sadist aliens?)

The plane crash. You have a plane crashing on your head, devasting the street and half the house you are hiding in, but your car hasn't a scratch, and you can drive out with no worry! (good tires if you ask me)

The angry mob in ferry town. It was really well made and realistic (a good "uh oh" feeling while watching it), but what was their point? Get to the ferry with the car? Didn't Ray and his family reach it just by walking? (not to mention there were plenty of cars on this ferry, nothing happened to them...?)

From there it got mind numbing.

Robbie wants to fight/see even if it's pretty clear that army is helpless.

Tim Robbins' basement... Probably the most nonsensical part of the movie.

The "lurker" searching device was retard!! Aliens seem to be able to detect sounds from far, but this one can't detect whispers or footsteps! We have better devices to find lifes in a building. Aliens plotted against us for 1 million years, are able to travel to Earth, have a technology advanced enough to dig machines and keep them operationnal for so long, have weapons that ash a human body is a second, but yet they can't detect heat!!

Tom Cruise managing to chop the searcher's head... An average Joe giving axe hits at a metal tube... Even if adrenaline manages to keep at bay the pain and numbness from your arms, how can you "cut" thru it??

He hides into the car when the tripod attacks him, why not send the car like 50 feet up? Nah just roll it a bit!

Nobody tried to rescue "selected" people in cages before Tom Cruise appeared! They were able at 4 or 5 to pull him out, how can it never came to their mind before he's there?

About the selection, what is the point to select someone, get him out the cage, drop him to the ground, and suck his blood out, can't you do that inside the cage itself? Much consideration for humans remaining there?

Birds give away the shield is down. Why is the shield down?? Even if the pilot is sick, can't he just remember to always have the shield up? Or maybe the tripods are "semi-organic", and got sick too. How can they manage to survive for thousand years then? Water doesn't drip underground anymore?

And of course, the ending, the complete family reunified once again. How did Robbie survive? Why is Boston (a "big" city, compared to the small ferry one I guess) still up?? Why do they all have (beside Tom Cruise, but he did a good job in this movie) an ok face, and are nicely dressed? I mean probably 70% of USA inhabitants are dead. They look like they are about to have tea, and were impatiently waiting for the ex-husband and the daughter!

On the overall, and the aliens' "invasion". We are talking about an advanced civilization, who is able of wonders. Who studied Earth for long. Yet they aren't able to figure concepts like symbiosis or tolerance? There isn't any virus/bacteria on their home planet? And even if they didn't manage to study the late composition of atmosphere, couldn't they get more cautious and give special suits to their people, and special rations? Not like we sent our first men on the moon with a strong sun cream, "just in case"!! And why wait for so long before invading Earth?

And to finish, why this title? Who is making war to aliens here? The flu? Yay for the flu!

I always think I am a good public, and have a high acceptance for mistakes and plot holes. But this movie is just a huge swiss cheese!

Beside Tom Cruise (as always very ok actor) and "mob management", nothing to safe imho. Yuk!

All I know is that I want the noise the alien ships made.

BBBBUUUUUUHHHHHMMM

That was the best part of the movie. I'd love to wake people up with that noise at full blast.