an insult to the great H.G Wells

Rating: 1/10 (27 July 2005)

Yet again I see Hollywood has taken a masterful piece of British literature and ruined it beyond recognition. this is so far from the original story Spielberg may as well have called it something completely different.
why change it so much??? I can understand the dumbing down part. How else would the Americans understand the film otherwise? But almost change the plot completely and remove characters is inexcusable. Does Spielberg think he is better than the great H.G. Wells??? I honestly think that that is what he thinks. But I have to disagree. For those of you who are too ignorant (or lazy) to pick up a book let me shorten it for you. The aliens landed in England at around 1900 and I don't mean 7 o'clock I mean the year. The battles raged on Horsell common before moving to Shepperton.
The aliens arrived by space craft NOT lightning. And they built their tripods using our resources which they plundered in their invasion. THE TRIPODS WERE NOT PUT HERE MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO LIKE THE STUPID FILM MAKES OUT. And as a side point if they could send their machines here millions of years ago then why not have invaded then??? We were just cavemen if we were around at all. NAH JUST WAIT UNTIL THE GUN TOTTING YANKS ARE ABOUT THEN WE WILL INVADE! The preacher was an important part of the book as was the service man but in his wisdom Spielberg tried to make the characters one person and failed to bring the tension to the film. The book was much better.
And now my biggest gripe "THUNDERCHILD" for me the most exciting part in the book were maybe, just maybe all was not lost and the human race was doing exactly that. Racing to build technologies ahead of their time to combat the alien threat. Not just "oh look the birds are on the roof of the tripod "gun ho" lets blow it up American style.
No black smoke. No chemical warfare. NO FLYING MACHINES. The aliens looked nothing like as described in the book and the whole film just ruined it for me.
The greet H.G. Wells wrote this book 1898. Over 100 years ago and the details to robotics and electrical engineering were amazingly accurate to what has become reality today. The book had gallantry, honour and in a whole made you feel good about yourself as it gave you a sense of nobility.
THIS FILM HAS NONE OF THOSE CHARACTERS AND IS MORE A SHOCK ELEMENT. A COMPLETE LOAD OF CR*P THAT IS AN INSULT TO THE MEMORY OF H.G. WELLS.
NEXT TIME Hollywood WANTS TO TAKE SOMETHING OF OURS AND TWIST IT TO MAKE IT YOURS KEEP IT OVER YOUR SIDE OF THE WATER AND Don't RAM YOUR CR*P DOWN OUR THROATS.