Weekend Update

Had a rather low key weekend, while not feeling tip-top. I saw War of the Worlds yesterday, and I think it was better then expected. Well, the story was as expected, but the special effects were pretty amazing.

People who haven't seen the movie already know the plot, and there is nothing more. I don't really consider this a spoiler to talk about. Aliens start attacking. Tom Cruise starts running, and when he stops running, the movie is over.

Pasted on top of that really weak story is a couple of annoying kids. Cruise tries to instruct the kids constantly, and they disregard him constantly. That engages my bs-o-meter and lowers a movie's score on Tom's scale of improbable plot elements. During a time of crises, I would think kids would instantly shut up and do what they're told. Not these kids. They bicker and argue and the younger girl screams at the top of her lungs, making you want to search out some kid in the audience to slap just to get some satisfaction.

Had I had a crack a the script, I would have added one simple line.

Tom Cruise: "Look kids. The entire neighborhood just got vaporized, and everyone is dead. We're going to try and make it out of here, but if you don't shut up and do what you're told, I'm going to leave you. Got it? Now get in the fucking car already."

I think that would have done the trick.

There is an extended scene in a basement that adds Tim Robbins to the mix. There really was no point to the scene, other than to allow the addition of an alien device lifted completely out of The Abyss (which was a better movie). The actors play hide-and-seek with this alien remote camera thing until finally Cruise is compelled to do something that he should have done right up front.

The scene added no value to the movie, and really had no notable visuals. It was just bad dialog. The entire scene should have been cut (it lasts about 15 minutes I guess).

But that brings me to the special effects, and if you like simulated violence, this movie does it perfectly. If you've ever wondered what a tripod like machine, 50 stories tall with death rays, would do to a city, now you know. It's so well done that it looks real. I know that's a stupid way to describe special effects, but compare a scene in a movie like Twister to War of the Worlds, and you'll get my point. The scene in Twister where the tornado picks up the tractor trailer, throws it, and it explodes looks like a cartoon drawing compared to WotW.

The film is shot in a very grainy fashion, lending itself almost to film noir. It seems most films have a color palate now, and WotW is a blue gray. The way these impossible machines, and flying debris fits in, really is astonishing. I always go back to the density factor, and this film has to have the highest density I've seen to date. I'm sure a lot of destruction was done with miniature models, but you cannot tell from looking. You see individual bricks falling, and mortar turning to dust. Unless they created a 5 mile wide city block, just to blow it all up, they had to have used miniatures.

It seemed to me that the movie was more in the horror genre than science fiction. There is a very heavy sense of dread, knowing that nothing that you do is going to change the fact that these machines cannot be harmed, and they kill everything in their paths, and the director shows you everything they destroy. It's just like a horror movie with a psycho killer on the loose that you can almost, but not quite, run from.

The sound effects are pretty amazing also. It's like the machines breath, and when the fog horn sounding thing goes off, it might just give you chills. I expect there was a small army of geeks that created all these sounds and meticulously mapped them into the movie. The music was also pretty effective.

What I'd really like to see is the same filming techniques and direction used in a movie with a plot. But what would really have made this movie awesome - set it in Tokyo and use an all Japanese cast, with English sub-titles. There is nothing cooler then to see a bunch of Japanese people running down a street, getting vaporized by the big monster. No, that is not a nod to the Godzilla movies. Call it a metaphore for nuclear weapons.

As Mic Jagger once said, you get what you give.

I know I've had a hard time rating movies lately. I need to come up with a new rating system, instead of just the total star rating. Something like:

Plot:
FX:
Acting:
TIPE (for tom's improbable plot elements):
Sound/music:
Coolness factor:

So, lets see how I can rate War of the Worlds on that scale..

Plot: 1/5
FX: 5/5
Acting: 2/5
TIPE: 4/5 (an impressive achievement considering the plot)
Sound/music: 4/5
Coolness factor: 3/5

Over all score 3 stars out of 5.

** update **

I forgot to mention that Lance Armstrong won the Tour De France. That's 7 times in a row. Amazing doesn't even describe it.

I read a rather lengthy description of Armstrong when he won his 6th last year. Apparently he's a biological anomaly. His heart is quite a bit larger than average, which helps with oxygenating his blood. He also has a different sort of bone structure that allows him to get more leverage out of his legs.

In any case, he has to be considered one of the best athletes of all time.

** update 2 **

Was just thinking about an effective strategy to employ in the case of an alien invasion. The most important thing is to resist your natural temptation to group together with other people. After all, when you kill an ant colony, your interest is in the largest group of them. You don't really care about the lone ant that is running the other direction across the yard as fast as it can.

** update 3 **

I just remembered... when at the movies, I was standing in line to get a chocolate malt, and they had pipped in music playing. The song is called Arlington - country western. I was very disturbed by it. I'll see if I can download it when I get home later and post it. I mean, it's really disturbing. Most country music is disturbing, but this is really bizzare.