War of the Worlds: afterthoughts

http://www.waroftheworlds.com/

A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells´s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind(…)


I found the film to have many things in common with Encounters…, and it does very well in creating an atmosphere which I hadn´t seen for ages in these kind of films. In my opinion, it has many great moments, my favorites those where the desperate masses are shown as being as dangerous and scary as the extraterrestrials themselves. The sound is great (I loved the impressive sound the big machines make), and the music fantastic, as it not only supports the action but stands on its own and deserves being heard alone.

However, though the tension rises constantly throughout the movie, I found the end to be disappointing. In my opinion, it comes abruptly, like if a big chunk of the movie had been removed from the edit: all in a sudden, the extraterrestrials die and the happy ending comes. Even though there´s a surprising twist of the plot a few moments before the end, as for a while the main character realizes he´s fulfilled his mission only to end up alone (thus giving a deeper meaning to the plot), the director soon insists in the happy ending through an unexpected appearance of the missing son out of nowhere.
In the end, I think I would have liked the movie more if I had taken it as a B- movie with better special effects (though I saw a flock of birds which looked terrible): Nevertheless, I believe that´s a fault of the film, since it is misleading about what it tries to be.

Suggestions: Mars Attacks, The War of the Worlds (the classic one), Independence Day.

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