C.

See my comments in the thread in Cinemania.


http://worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9981

So 4 people on WOKJ have seen it?
I would like to see the people who gave it an A nad the person who gave it an F give their opinion here.

what page are they on

I give that movie an B+. It's pretty much exactly to Independence day without an explanation of why the aliens came here or what is in their ships or i really don't know. I was hoping for an explanation. The F/X were great and the movie was going strong till the last 5 minutes. How the hell did Robbie survive? Maybe i'll just have to read the book to get an explanation but overall its a pretty good movie.

I screened this last night and its an amazing movie. I was very surprised at how dark this movie is. Many scenes come across as horror and the nice thing about that is the execution of those scenes. They are flawless. The screems/roars that the alien walkers give out runble through the theater and sent chills up my spine for many of the scenes. The action is non stop and the acting doesn't get much better than this. Cruise and Fanning have many wonderful scenes together especially towards the end when there relationship seems to change and Cruise seems more like a father and not some ass hole like he is in the beginning. Also, the action scenes/CGI shots are some of the best I have ever seen. I can't tell whats fake or whats real. The alien walkers are one of the scariest things done in movies up to this point, in my opinion. A+ from me.

I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand it was about the best film I have seen in years for the first 2/3 of the film. Then Tim Robbins shows up and it just lost all of it's momentum and then the end just didn't quite do it for me. I realize this is the way that Wells wrote it, but there just wasn't enough explanation as to what brought them down. It's unfortunate that the film slows down near the end because the first 2/3 of the film is extraordinary. I have full respect for Spielberg as some of the images are indeed hauntinly indelible. But to have it end the way it did...like I said, it's unfortunate.

Spielberg and writer Koepp pull no punches here as people are killed and there is no discrimination in who is killed. Boys, men, women and children are all part of the slaughter and when the action starts, it doesn't let up for about an hour. I am giving this film a similar grade to what I gave Jurassic Park, that being a 7.5/10 or a B+. It could have been so much more but still, a great ride while it lasted.

B-.

And if the aliens need humans to harvest their weird red plants, why were they vaporizing crowds when the tripods come to the surface? Further, the tripods rise out of the ground maybe ten minutes after the lightning strikes. Early in the movie Dakota Fanning watches a news report talking about lightning strikes in Europe and Asia, hours earlier. Did the press conveniently leave out the giant robots that were killing people?

Maybe they were coordinating their attacks. Or, as the newscaster says at Tim's house, after the attacks start, then there is no more footage of anything. I had no problem with that part, I think you are nitpicking things like that, but it does take a nosedive at the end.

Oh, I wasn't trying to nit-pick. It's stuff that just hit me. Doesn't make me like the movie any less.

Very average movie. C.

It seem the movie is all about human relationships with some cuts to show alien stuff. However the human relationships are not well done, they didn't move me. I didn't care for any of the characters.

What WAS well done however was a rarely-discussed aspect in disaster films: the danger that represents a mass in panic.

I won't recommend it to anyone and I won't go see it again.

Not the classic it could and should have been, considering the talent involved, but still good. The ending hurt the overall movie for me.

B

The first hour blew me away. But then as soon as Tim Robbins shows up, it just lagged.

hmm ... i'm reading these reviews and i'm getting some vibe. maybe you guys can help me out.

The grades you all are giving seem good ... B and above ... yet i'm detecting disappointment? Is it safe to say that most of you considered it a good movie but didn't live up to the expectations that one was lead to believe? Thanks.

For me, the first hour of the film was so extraordinary, that it would be impossible to give it anything less than a B. The edning was disappointing but not to the point where it takes away all of the other good things about the film. It could have been longer, and maybe kept up the pace of the first hour, but it didn,'t and that is what takes it down from a 9/10 to a 7.5.

The movie is dissapointing, that much is true.

The problem with this film ... lets see if I can put a finger on it.

It is very much a popcorn film, much like how in Jurrasic Park we feast our eyes on dinasours, here we get aliens. It is a summer blockbuster by every standard, but it is also a dark movie. We are really given no characters to care for.

The film centers around Cruise, but they essentially tell us he is to be hated. We are never told or shown what Cruise did to these kids, but we are made to assume it was something awful. His son hates him, and his daughter tolerates him. The relationships left me wondering where all the hatred and angst came from. He risks his life, does everything to save them, and they constantly disobey him, never really forgving him for whatever he did.

Because the film centers around this character (Cruise) who we can't understand. We go searching elsewhere for who we are supposed to care for. Certainly not the boy, who is just moronicly stupid and misguided. Dakota's character is simply to annoying to be cared for, and we are left with noone.

Now we are left to take in the effects, and wonder if the world will survive.

We see the aliens doing random things, that are vaguely explained, but never delved into the way they should be. To much of the story is just that ... vauge.

I understand speilbergs desire to focus the story on the family, and leave us feeling as they do ... confused ... but if your going to do that ... give us a freaking likeable character to pay attention to.

The movie was very underwhelming, and rather dissapointing.

People say the ending was the bad part of the movie, I was just happy to see it end.

C+

This is nowhere near as good as Independence Day. There is no sense of joy that the aliens are defeated, because it's too poorly executed to celebrate. I gave it a B because I love the subject matter, and there was good stuff throughout, but there was also bad stuff. For instance, it wasn't too bad that Cruise just happened to get lucky and find the only car in the world that wasn't a military vehicle that would still run, but it was dumb that he also found one that didn't require gasoline, no matter how far he traveled. What the hell was that about? Sloppy stuff like that isn't my bag, and Spielberg is better than that.

The ending was pretty lame and anticlimatic. I would say that my fears about this film being rushed so they could make the July 4th date were confirmed.

I agree on the gas part, was completly stupid.

Oh and someone else had to find the people getting zapped by those lasers to be as funny as I did. I was stiffiling a giggle the entire time, it was so freaking stupid.

I was enjoying the people getting zapped, and I don't think I should have been. It should have been a thing of horror, but it was like something out of a 50's B movie, which may have been what Spielberg intended.

Exactly ... it was the corniest damn thing ... I was totally not ready for it.

If they had shown someone get zapped in the trailer ... oh man coulda saved me 6.50.

The more think about it, the more I despise this movie.

Ah well, turn my expectations to the 1-2-3 punch of HP, Narnia, and Kong. At least 1 of them should be good.

You may like Fantastic Four, too. :razz:

I may, but to be honest ... I tend to not enjoy the pure popcorn films as much. i enjoy depth which is why I loved Spiderman and adore Batman.

Fantastic 4 will do great at the BO I am sure (maybe not 60m great but good enough), it just doesn't really appeal to me.

I found the film to be very 50's Roger Corman camp, with massive SFX. The pods were something you would see McFly reading in Back to the Future. The zapping was very retro and I think that was intentional. At the point where they found the car and the gas issue, it didn't bother me because at that point I was into the film that I didn't pay attention to shit like that. But once things starting going downhill, everything began to bother me. It was rushed at the end and they could have used another 30 minutes to make it more intriguing.

I just got back from seeing it, and what has been said above is pretty much the truth for me. It was a fun ride, but a disappointing one. Not nearly as good as I thought it would be about three months ago. The first hour was amazing, but then it just went progressively down hill from there.

Nothing new is displayed in this movie, and really, the plot is just "OH NOES, RUN!!!" I'm disappointed with you, Steven.

And damn did Dakota annoy me. First time I've ever been annoyed by her.

Some of it was that, and some of it was "OH NO, WALK OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF AN OPEN AREA WITH A LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE SO WE ARE ALL EASY TARGETS!!"