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FFS ... going cheap on special effect are we ... 😡
Just wasted 1 hour of my life waiting for alien tripod to show up only to see all those Jibber Jabber bloody romance ...
FFS this is science fiction Not some bloody romance.
Evaporate that bloody journalist FFS! 😡
But it’s not designed for people who have a brain...
Not a fan then chewkw?
Agree about the low rent effects though. And IIRC that was the reason it was delayed since last Christmas!
I wasn't expecting much, giving how little publicity I had seen about this, and I wasn't disappointed.
But it’s not designed for people who have a brain…
He still didn’t enjoy it.
But it’s not designed for people who have a brain…
It's not supposed to stress people up watching it either.
Not a fan then chewkw?
Am a fan but just not a fan of those bloody romance when I want to see alien tripod.
What a load of shite! I never thought they might get spilt up. Lucky they knew where to meet in case they got split up!
I enjoyed when he climbed of a whole house that had been piled up on him.
What a load of shite! I never thought they might get spilt up. Lucky they knew where to meet in case they got split up!
They can finish a sentence in few seconds but they dragged on and on and on ... FFS! 😡
I enjoyed when he climbed of a whole house that had been piled up on him.
That is another stupid scene as he should be half dead or dead. 😡
Lucky they knew where to meet in case they got split up!
richmars
Subscriber
I wasn’t expecting much, giving how little publicity I had seen about this, and I wasn’t disappointed.
To be fair, the chances of anything positive coming from Richmars, was a million to one, they said.
I thought it was a bit poor in comparison to what preceded it.
Ha, yes. I immediately thought, bloody hell, he's stong. Those beams would have been a few hundred weight each.
And Mrs Poldark was definately riding a pop eyed hobby horse.
Still, it's only telly.
The end scenes suggests that doesn’t go too well.
How hard can it be to meet at the same place unless his brain was fried but that did not happen ...
How can he got lost in those days? FFS!
They might all have a cup of tea ... tea sir? Tea Madam?
Still, it’s only telly.
Yes, but at least take some effort to create something "realistic" ...
LAME. Very LAME. For me it fell apart with the whole spinning globe bit.
I do like the red head though (Mrs M, also the red head will murder me to death if she finds out😂)
I do like the red head though (Mrs M, also the red head will murder me to death if she finds out😂)
Did not notice the red head at all. i.e. the hair but I noticed her high cheek bones and big eyes. 🤔
Spoiler alert: The Martians all succumb to earthly bacterial infections and die after blowing the crap out of Woking.
And it’s War of the Worlds (plural).
Yes, but at least take some effort to create something “realistic”
They should definitely have got real tripod alien spaceships from Mars to play the baddies, not those CGI ones 🤣
I'm not disagreeing with your sentiment though, or opinion on Ms. Tomlinson.
Could alway watch IACGMOOH.
Spoiler alert: The Martians all succumb to earthly bacterial infections and die after blowing the crap out of Woking.
Were they at the Pizza Express ? pretty sure they would remember if they were 😜
It's watchable, but why are they not just being true to the book?
"To be fair, the chances of anything positive coming from Richmars, was a million to one, they said."
bravo. coffee/laptop interface.
Martin, Very good, shame only people of a certain age will get the reference.
Also, what was all that about the bloke trying to get a divorce? Is that in the book?
I'm hoping all the Special effects have been saved for...
... Thunderchild!
Have to agree it was a bit meh.
The opening speech just wasn't the same without Richard Burton....
Is that in the book?
No, we don't even learn the narrators name, and he's married, I think the first we learn of his wife is when he tries to leave Maybury after the Martians use the heat ray on the Soldiers
Is this the version where Captain Poldark kills the Martians ?
Also, what was all that about the bloke trying to get a divorce? Is that in the book?
H.G. Wells is one of my favourite authors.
There are characters like those two in some of Well's other books (the non science fiction ones) - but I doubt the script writers bothered to read any of his other stuff. I suppose they thought they were being clever and "woke" rather than referencing well known 1900s/10s/20's social commentary.
I quite liked Robert Carlyle as a gay Ogilvy
But the Martian invasion bit just doesn't feel right, and those flash-forwards wiht the re-head wondering around in a red landscape just don't work.
And bodies floating down the Thames past Parliament - they would all get caught up in the locks and weirs up-stream.
Allegedly it's partly a reflection of Wells' own life - he moved to Woking after starting a relationship with a younger woman while he was already married, and they lived together for a bit when that wasn't the done thing.
Woking after starting a relationship with a younger woman while already married, and they lived together for a bit when that wasn’t the done thing.
It still isn't....well maybe in Woking
It’s all a bit.
Mrs Poldark was definately riding a pop eyed hobby horse
Euphemism?
How hard can it be to take a simple, beloved, classic story and just film it? Everyone from George Pal, Steven Spielberg to the current BBC effort have just ballsed it up.
We need Peter Jackson to make the pukka, definitive version!
It reminded me of a Series in the same vein as Dr Who.. but for teenagers instead of children as the target audience.
Theres plenty the BBC could do to relive a story, theres tomes written of fabulous tales of adventure and intrigue .. but Nope, they re-has a badly written version of a story and put on at the same time Tom Cruise is doing the real thing over on Sky Movies...
Sometimes think I live in a parallel universe when it comes to TV and films. We watched the first episode of Dark Materials and soundlessly agreed that it was crap and we wouldn't watch any more. WOTW was not great, but it was not intended as a direct interpretation of the book, and why should it be?
(Tom Cruise? Don't make me laugh !!)
We need Peter Jackson to make the pukka, definitive version!
Like he did(n't) with the hobbit and LOTR?
WOTW was not great, but it was not intended as a direct interpretation of the book, and why should it be?
Exactly.
WOTW was not great, but it was not intended as a direct interpretation of the book, and why should it be?
Then why call it The War of the Worlds? You're just trading on people's expectations of something else.
soundlessly agreed that it was crap
Trying to picture how this looks. Quizzical look, solemn shake of the head, throat-cutting gesture?
WOTW was not great, but it was not intended as a direct interpretation of the book, and why should it be?
Ummm, cos they stole the name?
What next? A book based on the film ?
Yes, but at least take some effort to create something “realistic” …
The original radio show did that..... turned out not to be that good a thing 😀
How hard can it be to take a simple, beloved, classic story and just film it?
Because (if you've ever read the book) you'd understand why. It's told in two parts by a narrator (unnamed) and his brother (also unnamed) as a sort of historical report. It works well as a book..not a great basis for a film. So every film version is made so the action is contemporaneous. The Spielberg version actually sticks pretty close to the book, It makes a few character changes (the curate and soldier become one person, and the narrator's brother becomes his son) but the actions of those characters are pretty much in line with the book. Even the happy ending which many criticise incorrectly as Hollywood affectation when it's actually the end of the book.
For those criticising the love story aspect...That is the whole effing point of the book, the narrator's struggles to find out what's happened to his wife, his suicide attempt when he thinks all is lost, and final realisation that the Martians have succumbed, and fantastically reuniting with his wife at the end. It is a love story!
Then why call it The War of the Worlds? You’re just trading on people’s expectations of something else.
Because it’s based on the book that does not mean it should follow it exactly.
Why was Spall hiding under a delivery from his timber merchant?
And what was with the rising, spinning giant kiwi fruit?
Really disappointed.
Then why call it The War of the Worlds? You’re just trading on people’s expectations of something else
A shit double album that "everyone" loved back in to 70s?
Not watched it yet, but if you want a faithful version of the book, try the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation.
It really is excellent.
Should be available somewhere......
WOTW was not great, but it was not intended as a direct interpretation of the book, and why should it be?
Cause it was the first time something had been made true to the victorian theme. they've made a balls of it tbh. What they've got is watchable, but it could have been great.
A shit double album that “everyone” loved back in to 70s?
😂
Cause it was the first time something had been made true to the victorian theme. they’ve made a balls of it tbh.
By setting it in the Edwardian period, for a start. 🙂
Then why call it The War of the Worlds? You’re just trading on people’s expectations of something else
A shit double album that “everyone” loved back in to 70s?
Yeah, the wife and I were listening to it a few weeks ago... only got 3 tracks into it before turning it off.
A shit double album that “everyone” loved back in to 70s?
The chan-ces of Dez-B liking that al-bum
Were a million-to-one they saaaaaid….
Formative years of rebellion and just getting into Iggy & punk! Wasn't gonna happen was it 😀
they’ve made a balls of it tbh.
I don't think they have. I think the problem is every-one thinks they know they story, but the "heroes" (the two narrators, the man and his brother) have no "back story" they don't introduce themselves, we don't know what they do (if you think the first narrator is a journalist, that's from the first radio play) all we know is that they are brothers, one s married and lives in Surrey, and has an astrologer friend, so everything about the main protagonist, you have to invent...And the story is historical narrative, so unless you have an almost continuous voice over, it isn't ever going to be a faithful "version"
You also have to fill in a bunch of blacks in the narration, at one point when the second Martian starts with the heat ray, he (the narrator) runs away in terror, it's only in the next chapter that we learn Maybury (his home town) has been destroyed, so the film version has to show that...
By setting it in the Edwardian period, for a start.
Pedantry corner, the book was published in 1898, so it's actually at the fag end of the Victorian period. (Queen Vic died in 1901)
You also have to fill in a bunch of blacks...
Gosh - that must be in episode two, didn't notice it last night.
I was looking forward to it but thought it was utter shit. Too much romance and not enough tripods blowing the shit out of everything. Makes the Tom Cruise film version look good.
tempted to give it a whirl. The apparent absence of people running away from CGI explosions makes it sound quite good IMO
I thought it was a bit meh. May get better.
4 star review in the Guardian thpugh...
You also have to fill in a bunch of blacks
I had heard that WoTW did indeed have a strong anti-colonial message.
The apparent absence of people running away from CGI explosions makes it sound quite good IMO
How are you with people running away from poorly executed CGI explosions, or getting vaporised with heatrays done in After Effects?
How are you with people running away from poorly executed CGI explosions, or getting vaporised with heatrays done in After Effects?
......ah.
ok, i'll see how bored i get!
As a note, BBC didn't make this. ITV's Mammoth Screen made it partly on behalf of the BBC. It's distributed globally and on DVD/Blu Ray etc by ITV.
Not that the BBC aren't capable of producing crap themselves.
Anyway, bit here about the gender bias or agenda that explains the switch to a female lead and naff male characters because a book in the 1890s is obviously unfilmable with a male lead and no female parts of note.
https://spectator.org/the-war-of-the-woke-hollywood-turns-on (gloss over reference to Hollywood. Pretty sure BBC and ITV aren't based in Hollywood).
I like the period costume but they better up their game by incinerating more people in a gory way ...
More cannon more guns more firing more guts and less of the tea drinking I say my good man/woman.
😒
We need Peter Jackson to make the pukka, definitive version!
A nineteen hour version with about eleven false endings that starts off really well and slowly turns to shit?
Anyway, bit here about the gender bias or agenda that explains the switch to a female lead and naff male characters because a book in the 1890s is obviously unfilmable with a male lead and no female parts of note.
I thought this about World on Fire, the female characters were relatively far stronger, more capable and resolute than the blokes, (although Harry did up his game as the series progressed TBF). It's probably about time a predominantly, (though not universally) heroic manly bias was balanced up a bit.
Gosh – that must be in episode two, didn’t notice it last night.
Can't use it in the 21st century.
I think Ridley Scott might be a more suitable director by applying the techniques from Alien.
...the female characters were relatively far stronger, more capable and resolute than the blokes ...
Just give the female the starring roles and get the tripod to incinerate that reporter bloke coz he is a waste of space.
It’s watchable, but why are they not just being true to the book?
Name me one film or TV series that has been. Much of the criticism seems to be based on the fact that not much seems to be happening in the first episode - it’s spread across a number of episodes, allowing for greater exploration of the lives of those involved without too much exposition, which a single episode wouldn’t allow, or a film for that matter.
Oddly enough, that lack of exposition is a criticism levelled at His Dark Materials as well.
BTW, the narrator’s name is George...
My god that was awful, terrible directing with overly long hanging in almost every scene.
BTW, the narrator’s name is George…
Only in this version, in the Spielberg film he was called Ray, in the 1953 film version he's called Clayton.
Watched it, quite liked it!
And Mrs Poldark was definately riding a pop eyed hobby horse.
Now that was funny....
Like the way they've set him up as a flawed character from the start.
Wasn't that fussed about the effects, they did the job.
He doesn't even have a name in the book.
Anyway,the idea was to mix in references to Wells's real life at the time, hence George, and talk about divorce and hooking up with Amy. Soap opera stuff that has nothing to do with the book or story.
Reckon about twenty minutes of that was just reporter dude standing staring at stuff, his survival instinct doesn't seem to exist.
his survival instinct doesn’t seem to exist.
Some else clearly has memories of WotW that aren't actually part of the source material. The narrator in the book, mostly survives by employing the tactics of Brave Sir Robin (running away etc) In fact towards the end he realizes there is no hope and runs in front of a tripod hoping that it will kill him. when it doesn't ('cause the martian is dead) it causes him to have a mental breakdown and he spends a good while recovering in a sanitorium before reluctantly (because he thinks his wife is dead) going home. He is not a brave protagonist, but a (mostly) terrified observer.
The random flash forwards didn't exactly help either.
Doesn't look like the rest of the series is going to follow the storyline based on them
The Astronomer Royal was a royal bellend!
@doris5000 yes I did, but then I knew before watching it that it was going to mix elements of HG's life into the narrative (the whole plot line about his unhappy marriage to his cousin) so I knew what to expect, and TBH, every version has come up against the same issues that this one has, in that everyone thinks they know the story...when in reality it's really difficult to translate into another medium without adding and changing a whole bunch of material so that you don't get a weirdly disjointed joint narrative told from 2 completely different people's perspectives
OK, the horse head effect wasn't that "special" but it's Sunday night bath-telly, so I'm happy to overlook. I think it's started quite well, let's see where it goes.
mental breakdown and he spends a good while recovering in a sanitorium before reluctantly
Sorry to be picky, but its not a sanitorium - just the house of "some kindly people", or that's what is says in my version.
so that you don’t get a weirdly disjointed joint narrative told from 2 completely different people’s perspectives
I reckon the best way to treat War of the Worlds and still remain true to HG Wells' vision is to ignore the characters in the book completely. Create four of five different characters who can witness the sudden downfall of the most powerful nation on earth from different perspectives and tell their stories instead. - that's sort of what Wells was trying to do in the book.
My 2p worth...
Me and Mrs Spider watched it last night and thought it was quite good.
We thought it was excellent Sunday night TV.
Fox TV have a version coming out soon:
https://www.foxtv.co.uk/special/war-of-the-worlds
It was a bit crap, thankfully i player has fast forward, the bits filmed in Liverpool where quite good as where the parts filmed in Bunbury Cheshire,and Formby woods was a long night time shoot over many nights says a freind who worked on it, but somebody sort the editing out so the extras are moving before they show them standing still and then just moving,to a shout of move etc.
Also who spent part of the budget on small fires in random places, and polystyrene wooden joists in the house destroyed scene. Otherwise the CGI effects seemed to do the job,but lets see more of the tripods in Liverpool on Sunday, destroying a semi derelict building near the mersey tunnel.
Having been a fan of the original novel for thirty-six years, I found little to dislike about the first episode. WoTW has always been about more than an alien invasion, there's social commentary, the growing paranoia as to the ambitions of our neighbouring countries and the dread of merciless mechanised war that came to pass two decades after it was written. I'm more than fine with Ogilvy being an "outcast", the swapping of Ogilvy in the novel with the Astronomer Royal to fly the flag of futile establishment pratfall and resulting microwaving.
Having a woman co-lead is also fine by me - the scriptwriters wouldn't have wasted the Downtown Abby aesthetic to broaden the appeal of the mini series beyond sci-fi nerds. As others have pointed out, Wells' narrator in the novel mentions that he has an unnamed wife quite casually, certainly the poor woman plays second fiddle to the exploits of the narrator's brother, fleeing towards Maldon.
The change of setting from late Victorian to Edwardian was a good thing too - khaki uniforms instead of scarlet are more relateable for modern viewers post Downtown Abby and Blackadder Goes Fourth.
I know that playing with the linearity of the narrative is a trope in sci-fi nowadays, but the flash forwards' scenes weren't an awful idea. They did at least break up the plodding build up around turn of the century Woking and the Admiralty. The artilleryman was seen, but had no dialogue at the end of the first episode, so I felt that the pacing was too slow in parts.
Anyway, I liked it. As a sci-fi nerd there was plenty for me to enjoy, despite the lack of CGI hulking great Dreadnoughts, Torpedo Rams or whatever steaming majestically and fatefully towards heat ray spewing tripods.
If you want to watch a thrilling sci-fi movie about merciless aliens that invade the planet to enslave and destroy humankind with a little bit of social politics, ultimately with humanity triumphing thanks to humble Earth viruses thwarting the otherwise meticulous invaders' plans then there's Independence Day. Or Mars Attacks.
I enjoyed it & gained lots of house points by spotting Dudley Dursley before my Harry Potter mad OH 😎