videoguy

Is anyone else out there disappointed that War of the Worlds is set in modern times?
I've heard about the making of this movie since before september 11, and WAY before Spielberg and Cruise got on board. This movie's history had it flip-flopping from the novel's 1898 setting to a modern setting. Would have been FAR more interesting had it been faithful to the novel's setting. Instead of seeing ANOTHER disaster movie with multitudes running away from the tripods, we could have better experienced this fear through a simpler society ignorant of today's technology and knowledge of science. Besides, Independence Day, with its ending being an homage to War of the Worlds, has not faded from the public's mind yet. My only hope is that Spielberg will capture Wells' (author of novel) common theme in many of his writings: the danger of technology and that nature will always dominate technology.

But this story has always been done again and again as modern: The radio play by Orson W. that freaked people out, and the 50's movie version that strayed very far from the novel. And all the other attacking alien movies. None have taken place in a historical setting. Shame, that would have been unique and much more interesting and imaginative.

PopcornTreeCt

I'm not really disappointed. Independence Day came out and I stopped wanting to see an aliens destroy the world flick.

FinkPish

Actually, I'm glad they are going modern. I really can't see it being very interesting to have the British army and navy going up against the aliens. The point of the book was that the greatest martial force on the planet (at the time) was destroyed outright on their first attack against the aliens. That was meant to be absolutely shocking, and I can't see how that would still be shocking to a modern audience.

I'm certain the themes will remain, but I can't see how a straight adaptation would be of much interest, other than to purists.

(Also, it would be more imaginative to just do a straight adaptation of the book than to write something new? Hmmm.)

Artman

It does appear to be an old-fashioned looking town in the new movie, which I like. Plus it looks like we aren't going to get a lot of military, political scenes - just mostly from the POV of the regular, ordinary citizens. With that in mind, I don't mind so much. The idea of the aliens coming from somewhere other than space is an interesting one, we'll have to see how that plays out.

FinkPish

If you want a faithful adaptation of the novel, check this out: http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWKEY.html

It's supposed to be completely awful: http://plan9timbo.tripod.com/reviews.html, http://plan9timbo.tripod.com/index.htm

jaeufraser

Honestly, setting it modern stays MORE faithful to the intent and themes of HG Wells book...his book was written as a modern story, not a period piece, and the dynamics of the tension and story work better when placed against a contempory setting.

As for it being just another ID4...well, nothing seems to indicate this'll be a rara B movie action film with heros versus the aliens. EVerything seems to indicate this'll be nothing like that film. So I'm not botehred at all. Anyway, given ID4, I'm excited to see a modern alien invasion film that might actually be good.

PopcornTreeCt

I think it's impossible to make a decent aliens take over earth flick. Why? Because the ending has to be where the aliens win. There's no way around this. That's why Independence Day and Signs endings were quite unrealistic. I do not have much faith in a movie that shows dramatic scenes of aliens destroying cities and then somehow "loses" the war. Am I wrong?

FinkPish

Maybe. The message behind Wells' original book was that technology has nothing over nature; the aliens were destroyed by a natural force, which even they could not defeat with their superior technology. As for having entire cities destroyed, England had its ass handed to it early in World War 2, yet still eventually won the war.

And obviously, all alien invasion movies are going to be unrealistic, because we all know they only abduct one or two people at a time anyway.

videoguy

Any historical war film done right will succeed in getting the viewer emotionally involved despite the huge difference in times from the film's setting to modern warfare. If filmed from the novel's time period, it could be made easy to see that the alien's weapons would be no match for even today's technology. Besides, the alien's speed in which they would attack would lead to their effectiveness.

I'm not talking about the script or plot when I say it would be more imaginative in the novel's times. I'm talking visually. We've already seen so many movies, etc. modern scenes of aliens attacking. (yawn.) The moment you show impressive modern-looking aliens against a backdrop of 1898, now that's different!

videoguy

Exactly! because you are bored of seeing disaster movies which are all set in modern times!

FinkPish

That's a nice assumption, but I think you should check to see if that's what he actually meant. Did you just start this thread to get people to agree with you?

FinkPish

Visually, it would be very interesting, but once you get past older shit blowing up instead of newer shit blowing up, its the story that really counts.

Also, how many modern alien invasion movies have there been other than ID4 and Signs? You make it sound like we are getting a new one every other year and its somehow a tired genre or something.

videoguy

This is the idea I was thinking about, except, imagine if Speilberg did it, and ILM did the effects, and a studio shelled out a full budget.

Oh well, at least the Time Machine from a year or two ago stayed true to the original time setting of the movie.

videoguy

You're right. and if you read the original book, it's full of story and emotion... set in 189_! (now I'm thinking it was 1896, oh well, close enough! ha!)

Not just alien movies, but all the disaster movies since CGI in movies: Volcano movies, Daylight, Day after Tomorrow, etc. etc.

FinkPish

I agree, the book has all of that, and I'm sure this new adaptation has that as well. A modern film doesn't automatically have to exclude these things, especially one coming from Spielberg. It would be interesting to see this film set in its original time period, but to me, that would be more of a gimmick than setting it in modern times.

There were plenty of disaster movies before CGI in movies: The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport, etc. I don't understand your point. Is it the CGI that bothers you? If they were to set WOTW in the 1890s, they would have to use even more CGI for all the distant backgrounds.

Mr. Cinema

And we all know how well that turned out...

videoguy

good point. I wonder what that person thinks much of the spielberg version will be.

Nah. Just wanted to converse. I expect the spielberg modern version to be good, just disapointed it wasn't going to be the unique film the project originally set out to be. I don't honestly expect to change opinions. There's nothing wrong with expressing one's viewpoint. How come people can't have a friendly debate anymore without someone instantly assuming it is or fearing it will be an extremely emotional fight? Oh, right, that's because there are a lot of people on these forums who do take debated discussions too personal!

videoguy

certainly not simply because of the setting.

FinkPish

No one (else) is getting emotional here. I was just pointing out the fact that you seemed to be taking his words and twisting them to fit what you felt about the movie. That's all. I'm sorry if you felt I was attacking you.

Jackskeleton

I'm one of those who actually likes it because of jaeufraser said. it's a modern day telling of a war of the worlds situtation.

Breakfast with Girls

War of the Worlds was written and published in 1897, and it was set in the early 1900s. Part of the basis of the story was -- here we are, our technology is so great, and we don't even know if there's another civilization on our neighboring planet.

Although I would like to someday see a good period version, a modern version makes sense for reasons that some other people have described (all the modern technology we have is useless against the alien juggernaut). I would go further and say that the aliens being from Mars no longer makes sense, since we've been there and are pretty sure there's no civilization. It'd make more sense to have them be from Alpha Centauri or some other nearby solar system.

I'd like to see a movie where the aliens have won -- and I don't mean Battlefield Earth. If you've ever played the PC game Star Control II, there's a good story there.

RayChuang

I for one would love to see someone do a very good period piece version of War of the Worlds, probably within the next 10 years.

Maybe 4-5 years from now we can convince one Peter Jackson to do such a film?

ytrez

What kind of movie is War of the Worlds supposed to be? From what I've seen from the trailer it looks like a big disaster movie w/ a sci-fi twist rather than a big budget action movie. On the one hand, I don't want another Independence day 2+ hours (i'm assuming) of watching Cruise run and try to find/save his family may be a bit dull. I may be completely wrong, I'm certainly out of the loop on this picture.

videoguy

[QUOTE=I would go further and say that the aliens being from Mars no longer makes sense, since we've been there and are pretty sure there's no civilization. It'd make more sense to have them be from Alpha Centauri or some other nearby solar system.

[/QUOTE]

Definitely. And that is also a reason why I think a period version would be cool. There was more of an innocence a hundred years ago. A period version of WOTW, if done right, could emphasize this and could draw the viewer's emotional involvement.

I must say, this past weekend I saw the newest trailer for WOTW, and was very impressed. This trailer finally shows a lot of the novel's elements: the battles with the army and the aliens, the artilleryman who wants to go underground and start over again, and there is a shot I think of a boat sinking (like the novel?), and another shot at the end of the trailer looking down on someone and the ground is red! YAY! So it looks like it'll be pretty faithful to the book's individual plot elements as well as ideas. I'm looking forward to it much more than I have been now.

darkhawk

Some people thought Tom Cruise's career was going down since his picture is not on the poster for the first time in his career. If you look at the original poster from the '50's, no human was shown. When they were down in Tim Robbins' basement, now that looked like old times from 1898. Kind of the same suspense from Signs.