Ignore the Armchair Directors Below - This Film Worked

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2006)

I just can't believe the arrogance of the viewing public nowadays - so jaded, aloof, and bereft of the ability to feel and imagine that they resort to nitpicking and technical assassinations to hide their emotional and intellectual vapidity.
This movie was an incredible display of the utter hopelessness that occurs when the unimaginable suddenly and violently presents itself. What we find in that situation is that yes, people do marvel as one when viewing the instruments of apocalypse; and upon realization of their fate and its inevitability, people don't immediately begin performing the most rational and logical actions until they have a chance to THINK. At no time in this movie were the people on film given that chance, so why are so many on this forum whining about the lack of logic in their actions? As a matter of fact, a recent tragedy experienced in this country illustrated this perfectly. People stare, then they scream, then they run, then they mourn as a group, then they rally heroically, if they can. That is, of course, if they aren't paralyzed by fear, forced into gibbering insanity, or stunned into indifference. All of which were displayed quite well in this film.
Maybe a death ray ISN'T the most effective way of extermination possible. But with the lack of patience and imagination displayed by today's viewing public, it is a heck of a lot more visually effective than a gas induced plague. Plagues and poisoning work in books. Books demand imagination. Movies do not, which explains why theaters are packed in this country while libraries are empty.
Showing the ordeal from the viewpoint of a single family was extremely effective, because it is the only way to personalize the drama. Period. Try to spend two seconds thinking about how successful Spielberg (or anyone else for that matter) would have been, fitting as many viewpoints as there were extras and principals into a two hour movie. Thanks - better luck next time. Would this movie have been more satisfying if shown from a bird's eye view, where the audience was never given a chance to identify with the horror of the events because they were stuck in an impersonal narrative? Doubtful. Then we'd get to read a bunch of reviews whining about the laziness of an impersonal narrative caused by Spielberg's inability to get personal emotion across.
BTW - For the poster below who took offense to the 'breathtakingly beautiful' Miranda Otto being pregnant and 'frumpy' in the movie and making that a condition manufactured by Spielberg, RTFM (the production notes) before talking. Miranda WAS pregnant during filming, so you might want to tell her that frumpy and pregnant was a bad career move.
I was heavily in favor of the omission of many effects laden features, such as the actual battle between the military and the tripods. You know, those same features that posters have claimed were sorely lacking but that, if displayed, would have been called formulaic cop-outs. There was enormous menace in the tripods themselves. Enormous power in the scenes depicting destruction on an incalculable scale. And the sound. The SOUND of those machines operating with those thunderous footsteps; if you could but imagine what it would be like to hear something like that without seeing it because you are cowering desperately in some crawlspace, praying that you aren't discovered, wondering madly what the rest of the planet has become. And then all of a sudden, after getting louder and louder, the sounds come to a crashing halt - right outside your window. It was the most absolutely eerie and frightful movie experience I have had in a long time. Why? Because I used my imagination and immersed myself in it. It was so easy with this movie.
I won't even address comments about the plot holes caused by inconsistent EMP effects (camcorders, lights and such), or even worse, comments by people so unreachable that they noticed that sandwich bread hitting a window on the unbuttered side should not stick. Well maybe just one thing; in the words of Cherita Chen in Donnie Darko, "Chut Up!"
Mr Spielberg, you have committed the unfathomable mistake of assuming your audiences wanted to like your film, possessed sufficient imagination to immerse themselves in it, and most importantly, possessed FAR less directorial and editing ability to handle an undertaking of this magnitude than you did.
I forgive you. Thank you for an amazing theatrical experience. You are hereby allowed outside of the Jurassic Park III doghouse and may remain out provided you never ever do anything like THAT train-wreck again.