Get Him, Xenu!
Nothing much to report on today, except that I caught a 10:00 showing of War of the Worlds last night. I wouldn't suggest going to see the movie for Oscar-caliber acting or a well-written script or anything like that; War of the Worlds is all about effects-driven mayhem and destruction. While the movie is light on common sense, it makes up for it with action. However, where the movie fails is the ending. I don't mean how the alien army is defeated at the end (which is faithful to past adaptations of the H.G. Wells novel), but rather something that I don't want to spoil. I've got a self-written rule that I try not to give away a movie's ending here (unless it's unbelievably insulting like The Village or just plain bad like Identity), but there was one little bit that was just so implausible that I'm gonna have to cry "shenanigans" on it.
And am I the only one who's absolutely sick of Dakota Fanning? She's in every single movie that's come out during the last three years, and in War of the Worlds, she's beyond irritating. All she did was scream, whine, cry, and complain, and she was seemingly always doing something to make sure the aliens saw where they were hiding. I was just waiting for someone to either leave her behind or tell her what the five fingers said to the face ("slap!"). They could have used her to kill all the aliens too. Let them abduct her, and she'd have annoyed the aliens until they all committed suicide.
Outside of the grating Ms. Fanning, I enjoyed the cast. Tom Cruise is good and Justin Chatwin is acceptable as Cruise's angst-filled son, but perhaps my favorite member of the cast is Tim Robbins. Despite being in only one portion of the movie, I thought Robbins's "I'm crazy and I'm gonna kick some alien butt" character was quite intriguing, but keeping him limited was probably the best course of action.
One reviewer on IMDB.com has said that the movie was the best alien invasion movie ever made until the third act, at which point the movie tries to shoehorn itself into various summer action movie clichés. I'm inclined to agree, because the movie's vibe changes significantly once Cruise stops acting like the aliens are cosmic exterminators and starts acting like he's going to conquer them one tripod death machine at a time. But all in all, I thought War of the Worlds was a rather exciting way to kill two hours and see stuff go boom. Despite a rather lackluster final few moments, I'll give War of the Worlds four stars. My opinion may change upon a second viewing, but that's how I feel about it right now.
And that's all the news that's fit to print. Sutton out.
And am I the only one who's absolutely sick of Dakota Fanning? She's in every single movie that's come out during the last three years, and in War of the Worlds, she's beyond irritating. All she did was scream, whine, cry, and complain, and she was seemingly always doing something to make sure the aliens saw where they were hiding. I was just waiting for someone to either leave her behind or tell her what the five fingers said to the face ("slap!"). They could have used her to kill all the aliens too. Let them abduct her, and she'd have annoyed the aliens until they all committed suicide.
Outside of the grating Ms. Fanning, I enjoyed the cast. Tom Cruise is good and Justin Chatwin is acceptable as Cruise's angst-filled son, but perhaps my favorite member of the cast is Tim Robbins. Despite being in only one portion of the movie, I thought Robbins's "I'm crazy and I'm gonna kick some alien butt" character was quite intriguing, but keeping him limited was probably the best course of action.
One reviewer on IMDB.com has said that the movie was the best alien invasion movie ever made until the third act, at which point the movie tries to shoehorn itself into various summer action movie clichés. I'm inclined to agree, because the movie's vibe changes significantly once Cruise stops acting like the aliens are cosmic exterminators and starts acting like he's going to conquer them one tripod death machine at a time. But all in all, I thought War of the Worlds was a rather exciting way to kill two hours and see stuff go boom. Despite a rather lackluster final few moments, I'll give War of the Worlds four stars. My opinion may change upon a second viewing, but that's how I feel about it right now.
And that's all the news that's fit to print. Sutton out.
posted by Matt Sutton at
1:00 PM
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