No Drama Whatsoever - Emotionless

Rating: 1/10 (12 January 2006)

This is a monumental waste of $3.95. I kept watching this movie waiting to feel something... nothing. Spielberg has (long) lost his touch for drama! The ending was a relief. Some scenes are very faithful to the original. (It didn't have to be - it just had to be a good movie, but it wasn't even that.) There are nods to other scifi's like Godzilla - but Spielberg had to borrow the drama in that scene to get some drama into his own. As I said, he's definitely lost his touch.
((In fact if you watch the original you FEEL something - you will care about the characters, the people, the city, THE WORLD! You will fear the aliens... etc. Watch the original. It will become - if it hasn't already - an American classic. This thing will be forgotten next season. I'll never watch it again.))
While watching this I thought to myself: "Tom Cruise cannot act - at all!" And then I thought... "well, how do I know that?" I knew I needed some piece of evidence to prove my point.
THEN Tim Robbins appeared (he plays 'Harlan Ogilvy'). I immediately saw what a real actor can do with any role. I use to think I could act ... seemed pretty easy. No way - no how. Watch Tim Robbins. THAT'S ACTING! Mr. Robbins made me forget he is Tim Robbins... Mr. Cruise ... well, he is very attractive.
((PS: about Mr. Cruise at this point: during the movie in my heart I groaned "has he done anything that is good/worth watching?" and after the movie ... I channel surfed and saw "Jerry McGuire." He was good in that. But if you watch the "money" scene, you will see that his heart (ironic - like the footballer he is an agent for), is not in it. Nonetheless, when that is on I usually watch it because it is a good movie, sans Mr. Cruise in the leading role.))
_Double_major_props_ (kudos) to the special effects crew! Holy mackerel! Special Effects will rule scifi movies from now on. Since there are no talented scifi directors anymore (Kubrik blew us away with "2001: A Space Odyssey") no one has a sense of drama, then no one will be around to make the movie worth watching - sans the special effects crew.
Which reminds me of a 100% computer animated "special effects" movie worth watching: "Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within" (get past the "gaia" psychobabble and you'll be OK.) I "predict" that one day CGI will rule the entertainment world! (NOTE: "Ark" is not as good as... hec, it doesn't even come close to "FF:TSW" but it is all CGI and is a good watch. (The animation on the people is so weak that it detracts from being any better than just a good watch.)
Back to "War of the Worlds" - Steven Spielberg ... I don't like his movies anymore or ever since "Raiders" and "Close Encounters." (Did you see his "AI"? - all unemotional detached meaningless empty ennui pap - bleh. I couldn't care less for all the characters and care even less for this movie. I started to read the short story this is based upon... totally not like the movie and almost as boring, but a better read than the movie is a watch. Rent/buy "Caddy Shack"!) Why is this movie so unemotional? I think it's b/c it's 2005 - I mean it's just a sign of the times - modern man and all that.
What I am trying to say is that the Bible says that in the end (meaning when the Lord is getting ready to return) people will be lovers of themselves, but have no love in them. So this to me is a sign of the beginning of the end. People are just too withdrawn from reality; breast fed on the TV signal from birth till death people have lost touch with what it means to be alive. Now they only go to the movies. I remember seeing a few times ... on TV ... when a newscaster asked a local witness about something that just happened: "how did you feel?" they reply: "you know, like that time in that (movie)."
It isn't the movies, it isn't even Hollywood - it's people. Did the TV turn itself on? No, we all did. I watch fewer and fewer TV shows nowadays. I watch movies and the Discovery Channel. Maybe one day I will have the strength to turn it all off and just listen to the wind. ...funny, and I use to laugh at "country folk." May God teach us all His ways... in Jesus name, amen.
-Zafoid
PS: 1/10 (since there are no negative scores)
-Z