Erste Review von Krieg der Welten

[Damien3]

Woohoooooo
Es geht los Freunde, ende des Monats gehts ab!
Krieg der Welten bricht über uns herein.
Hier die erste Review (in Englisch)

I have just seen Steven Spielberg's "War of the worlds" here in Germay. I'm not good at English and I've never written a movie review before, so I won't torture you with one coming from my hands. I also know that Spielberg has asked journalists to wait with their reviews so I'll respect that and simply put down a few lines about my feelings of this movie. I'll break down in a few sections to make it easier for myself:

1 - The story

Well you'll recognize certain elements from the book and the overall plot is also pretty similar to the book, but other than that there are not that many elements from H.G Wells classic. That doesn't mean I didn't like what they did with the movie version, on the contrary! This movie has a tight storyline. It is a real survival story and also remniscent of some of the old disaster movies from the 70s, with a small group of characters fighting to get out of the way of destruction. Of course it focuses mainly on Ray (Cruise) and his two kids and their journey. I read before that this was going to be a very "intimate" story about surviaval and that it is. People who hope to see huge scale destruction will be disappointed. The action doesn't really get any bigger than what you have already seen in the trailers. It is told through the eyes of a small family, and the only action we see is what they see. No swooping helicopter shots of destruction and pulverised landmarks. However we hear about a lot of terryfieng stuff through radios, military and others, and it lets you imagine all these thing if you know what I mean. The action scenes feel more like a documentary, sometimes with handheld camera. It's extremely cool as the scenes seem far more intense. As a whole this movie seems more like a horror movie than an action movie. There are several moments where you are holding your breath while sitting on the edge of your seat. Especially in a sequence when the family is caught behind the "enemy" lines, while the Aliens probe all hiding spaces for human beings. That was truly frightening.

2 - The acting

WOW. This really blew me away. The interaction between Tom, Dakota and the boy playing his son is incredibly convincing. You really care about these persons after a few minutes into the movie. Normally I am pretty cold when it comes to the acting in American blockusters as it is always second hand to the action, but in this movie I felt a lump in my throat several times because I really cared for the characters.

3 - Special effects

It may sound as though there is no big action sequences in the movie, but that is not true. There is plenty of action but it (almost) always takes place "behind" the actors the camera focuses on. This way it feels a lot more realistic. And talking about realism! This movie - in my mind - shows us the best use of visual effects EVER!!! There is not 1 instance where you can tell it's CGI. It looks incredible. When the war machines first appear it looks so real and convincing. I don't know if they actually used models or what but they look incredible. It is also nice to see that houses blowing up etc. are the real deal and not miniatures.

4 - Overall

This is a fantastic movie. It feels sooo "spielbergian" and I truly believe this will end up being my favourite Spielberg movie so far. I just need to see a few more times to see if it really holds up. There is so much tension in this movie and it utilizes some of the best elements of Jaws, Close Encounters and Saving Ryan! Man I suck a writing about a movie, know I will stop. I could just have written 1 word: FANTASTIC!

Call me

[Detlef P.]

So, dann auch Mal mein erster Eindruck.

Ich war vor zwei Tagen mit Murillo im Kino (über den Film schreibe ich gleich noch).
Da saßen wir also im lautesten und kommerziellsten Kino Bielefelds und sahen uns Trailer und Werbespots an.

Auf einmal sehe ich zu Beginn eines Trailers Tom Cruise im Bild rumhampeln und ich denke:" Ah, Krieg der Welten".
Was dann folgt ist kaum in Worte zu fassen.
Tom Cruise dödelt mit seiner kleinen Tochter im Garten rum als scheinbar ein Unwetter aufzieht und es blitzt aber nicht donnert.
An dieser Stelle wäre ich wohl schon weggenickt, wenn der Sound mir nicht das Trommelfell durchgeblasen hätte.
Anschließend wird in "dramatischen" Bildern, die durch spannende, also laute Musik unterlegt sind und ein- und ausgeblendet werden, gezeigt wie Tom Cruise mit ein paar Leuten im Wagen abhaut , die Straßen aufbrechen und hinter ihnen alles auseinander fetzt.
In genau diesem Moment ist in silberner Schrift vor schwarzem Hintergrund auf der Kinoleinwand zu lesen: "A Film by STEVEN SPIELBERG" und ich denke: "Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Wenn ich es nicht sowieso schon gewusst hätte wäre ich in diesem Moment nicht wirklich überrascht gewesen, ja wäre sogar enttäuscht gewesen hätte das dort nicht gestanden.
Schon wirklich sehr originell vom besten Regisseur aller Zeiten einen Film zu machen in dem Außerirdische die Erde angreifen.
Wow, was für eine tolle Idee. Warum ist denn da vorher noch keiner drauf gekommen?
Wäre mir das nur eingefallen, dann wäre ich jetzt bestimmt schon in Hollywood.

Also kurz gesagt, könn wa drauf pfeifen!

[Damien3]

Warum macht Kunrick den aus der Novelle von Schnitzler einen KUNST tauglichen Softporno? Ist das etwa wieder etwas anderes???????????
Das ist unfair da H.G: Wells auch zu den großen Leuten dazugehört! Und wenn sich jemand an diesen Stoff macht, sollte man erst schauen und dann niedermachen! DA werden wir nach Batman Beginns reingehen...sonst komm ich nicht mit nach Batman

[Damien3]

Hier die nächste Review!
Sie berichtet von Regen aus Blut der vom Himmel fällt und anderen sehr makaberen Blockbuster untypischen Szenen ...ich halts net auuuuus!
Will SEHEN WILL SEHEN!!!!

Hi, Harry.

The reason I'm writing you is that I saw War of the Worlds last Wednesday. It was a special screening and I was a guest.

Just a few words about the movie. Being the huge Spielberg fan I am, I really believe that, since that masterpiece called A.I., he's been proving that he is in one of the best periods of his career: Minority Report kicked ass, Catch Me If You Can was just wonderful and The Terminal is one of his most underrated movies.

War of the Worlds is not less good than all those movies.

The action sets in 12 minutes into the movie and, from that point on, it never stops. But it's NOT the typical blockbuster movie like, let's say, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow or Crap Helsing. We never see the destruction of any major city or landmarks: everything we see is through Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning or Justin Chatwin's eyes. There's no hero that saves the day. And the real terror doesn't come from those amazing tripods (or the aliens inside them: yes, we see them at some point!): it comes from the humans. There's an incredible lynching scene that left me speechless. And there's another scene where one character is killed that goes beyond anything we've seen in a Summer movie (while watching it I was thinking: He's not gonna do it, Spielberg, won't do it... And he does it).

Beyond all that, the movie has a few shots that will stay with me forever: Dakota Fanning looking at a river covered with tens of bodies, so many we don't see the water; Cruise and Tim Robbins' faces covered with blood that falls from the skies; a train in flames crossing in front of a bunch of survivors; the facade of a church separating from the rest of it and threatening people around it; the remains of a plane crash... Yes, War of the Worlds has lots of action: it's like Jurassic Park, without all the bad dialogue; and amazing set-pieces: the first attack in New Jersey, another attack to a ferry that recalls Titanic, the sequence in the basement, that could be described as Jurassic Park meets Signs... But it's mostly the story of a father willing to do anything, and by anything I really mean ANYTHING, to save the lives of those he cares about. I'm afraid the Summer audience will be kind of disappointed, because it's more than just a Summer blockbuster. But I think we should thank Spielberg for reinventing the Summer blockbuster. Again.

[Detlef P.]

Du glaubst doch nicht im Ernst, dass ich für so einen Film noch Geld ausgebe

P.S.: Kunsttaugliche Softpornos liegen mir mehr als Actionballermetzelweltuntergangs-Filme

[dr. gnir sinep]

die vorschau sah schon ganz jut aus, aber irgendwie reizt mich das ganze auch nicht... auch die reviews erhöhen meine bereitschaft dazu nicht gerade... wahrscheinlich is der genau so enttäuschend stumpf, wie i. day...

[Damien3]

Lass doch die Sonne ein bißchen schneller drehen ich halts nicht mehr aus!!!

One of the toughest jobs any film has this summer (or year) is not to be upstaged by gigantic mastermind Jackson’s King Kong trailer if it plays in front of it (those 2 minutes were, in two words, pure bliss!). WAR pulls this off and then some! It is absolutely exhilarating to watch such brilliant work from people who are completely free, at the top of their game, having no need to prove antyhing to anybody. There is no wrong turns taken here by the bunch of masters big and small behind this film. From the fuck-me seamless blending of Kaminski’s work with the efforts of Muren & Co. (there’s a sequence when Ray and the kids manage to get away in a car where camera does two rounds around the car, popping into the car, fron seat-back seat, back outside, then pull back to reveal all the chaos with hundreds of cars dead from the alien EMP and it all looks like one continuous take!) to the few touches of humor (which were nothing like the disturbingly wrong joke-notes in Minority Report) this film is a joy to behold, to use an over-used expression here.

Cruise’s Ray Ferrier is a big-time loser who himself just doesn’t seem to get it, sort of a 42 year old fratboy working at the docks, driving his vintage Mustang and living in a shithole of a house. He gets to babysit his kids (Justin Chatwin, looking like a cousin of Jake Gyllenhaal and the scaringly talented Dakota Fanning who after this and Man on Fire will hopefully avoid in the future stuff like Uptown Girls Go Down or Hide and Reek) and he even manages to fuck that up (“It was 8.30, right? You’re saying it was 8? Hmm”). Unlike most of his movies, Cruise’s character doesn’t have all the answers here (hell, the guy usually doesn't even hear the questions). The only bright idea he gets when the intergalactic shit hits the fan is to get the kids to his ex-wife (oh-so-lovely Eowyn Miranda Otto who doesn’t have much to do here) because she has, obviously, always been the one doing all the hard work in family matters. Cruise is doing superb work here, from the scenes where he shows that Ray is less mature than his 10-year old daughter, to the scenes where it starts to dawn for him that there may not be a happy ending to this.

Score by Williams (I’ve been wondering for some time who’s gonna score Spielberg’s films after Maestro leaves us one day?) is used almost as economically as Silvestri score in Cast Away. No syrupy violins to drive the emotion home, no heroic-tragic fanfare&military drums combo when the doomed troops head in the opposite direction as Ray and his kids. There are moments so bleak and destruction so massive that the desperation is on the same level as the ghetto clean-up in Schindler. Numb animal instincts of the panicking mob are on display in another scene that is just perfectly frightening. Or a moment where closing door has bigger effect than that when John Wayne’s uncle Ethan remained outside. Ray simply does what he has to do in order to make sure the survival of his offspring and it’s devastating. I won’t clarify (I hate the fuckheads who think that the only way to talk about the film is riddle their review with spoilers – even though there are times when it’s simply impossible to discuss certain points without giving away some key moments)

This has been told already, but the film is scary. The kind of we’re-fucked-big-time kind of scary, when there might be glimmer of hope that you know will be crushed soon because there just is no escaping these indestructible killer-tripods, sent by a civilization God knows how many millions of times more advanced than ours, making all the efforts to counter-attack them or even defend us totally pointless.

The only problem I have with the film is that we get to see couple of the aliens, because I would’ve preferred if the face of the alien force would have been those merciless tripods. But that’s a minor flaw compared to all that is right here. There is no jeffgoldblum uploading some computer virus up the alien ass nor randyquaid giving them an enema with crop-dusting plane nor brucewillis drilling a hole into their mothership and blowing himself up with it. There are, thank God, no slo-mo “Bay-shots” of children running past JFK murals or the French standing around the Eiffel tower/Egyptians around the pyramids/Londoners on Piccadilly Circus etc, looking up at the threatening skies. And luckily, nobody mentions E.T. (even though there is one small gag with a prop in a basement – or just my imagination running wild). And there’s no talk about “whupping ET’s ass”…

By the way, when was the last time a Cruise film didn’t have big face of TC on the poster? (I’m not counting the Japanese version with Tom and Dakota). When was the last time a Spielberg film ran less than 2 hours? When was the last time that big alien threat in a film was not taken down by the US Army/scientist/deep core drilling team or former fighter-pilot/president? There’s lot to enjoy here. Me and my buddy Bill Kill talked about the film after seeing it for a long long time. Later at home I gave him a call and we talked some more. It’s that kind of film, it gets you all giddy and stoned on the miracle of cinema, it makes you want to sit down and watch 3-4 good films in a row, putting aside such minor luxuries as eating and sleeping. I hope to God both of these guys keep the quality in both Munich project and M:i-3



das nenn ich geil!

[Detlef P.]

*Harhar*
Bei "imdb" haben gerade mal 1200 Leute abgestimmt und der Film hat trotzdem nur eine 6,7.
Hahahahahahahahaha

[dr. gnir sinep]

heute habe ich auf ntv eine dokumentation (wenn es denn so nennen kann), bzw. eine werbemacherei über krieg der welten gesehen...
es wurde über wells als mensch, als auch über seine werke berichtet...
dann wurde das ganze mit interview-ausschnitten (meistens spielberg und cruise) und making off- sequenzen von spielbergs plunder vermischt...
als kenner des alten hörbuchs, das ich früher auf platte (war sogar noch auf english) hatte, mit dem absolut geilen ufo auf dem cover, muss ich sagen, dass der film lnag nicht dem entspricht, was wells werk als vertonung mit supergeiler musik unterlegt mir nahe gebracht hat... spielberg hat hier, so wie es aussieht die ganze geschichte beschnitten und viele dinge reingebracht, die mir wieder zu "hollywood" sind...
als dann lang und breit die "geniale" kellerszene angepriesen wurde, bei der spielberg irgendetwas von psychologischer wirkung faselte und dass das etwas gaaanz neues wäre, das publikum nicht mit effekten zu bombadieren sondern das ganze in einem keller nur anzudeuten, schoss mir sofort der gedanke durch den kopf:"das kennst du doch irgendwoher" und siehe da:"signs" war die prompte antwort... wie innovativ herr spielberg...
anschliessend wurde von roten rangelpflanzen berichtet, die von den ausserirdischen überall gesäht werden und (nu haltet euch fest) sich davon ernähren, menschen das blut auszusaugen...
da dachte ich nur:"ach du grüne neune... jetzt gehts los"... zu wells zeiten fände ich solche ideen noch durchaus verständlich, aber in einem film der heutigen zeit wirkt solch eine pflanze in meinen augen als überholt... mit solchen absurditäten gings dann noch weiter und ich war immer weniger geneigt mir diesen film anzusehen... mann bekam noch einige kommentare des sichtlich genervten drehbuch-autors zu hören und sah tom cruise mit der lästigen kleinen kinderdarstellerin in wasserbecken hüpfen (kinder versauen filme meistens)... letztendlich sind nur die geilen effekte erwähnenswert... die wären auch der einzige grund, mir dieses (sogenannte) epos anzusehen...

so, bis denne jungs...