For a start, RR, I said it didn't matter- I specifically said it was just a film; I said the point was that my original criticism of ID4 had faded because I later realised that the original was no more credible.
Secondly, yes I do think the Humans fighting back is very important. It was an important part of the book and it should make it into the films. Simply having the aliens as totally indestructible- as opposed to merely ultimately unstoppable as they were in the book- actually reduces the impact. It's also rather juvenile to have an invulnerable, as opposed to a powerful, enemy; any five year old can imagine an invulnerable being; Wells' original aliens are a more intelligent design than that.
In fact, in the original, the aliens use of chemical and biological warfare- extreme concepts for the tme Wells was writing in- were in direct response to the humans fighting back, because they could be fought conventionally (although it was extremely difficult) and there were, after all, far more humans. This was a demonstration of how unready humans were for new types of warfare. The journalist (whose role turned into Tom Cruise's) who is the star of the book has the fortune of observing (or hearing from his brother) these things first hand, right over to the centerpiece fight of the martians against the Thunderchild, the famous picture of which adorns the front of the musical version.
Removing that is a change which I think weakens it.
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Last edited by Ushgarak on Jul 31st, 2005 at 10:55 AM
i liked war of the worlds better, because in independance day, the humans kinda were an equal match and did a pretty good job of defeating the aliens, which prolly wouldnt really happen. in WOTW, it was how pathetic how the humans sucked, even with our advanced technology, which is how it would prolly really happen. so, i loved war of the worlds!
You really need to ask that? just to name a few off hand. One, this alien species that is technologically superior in every way happens to operate on the same computer program as we do. A computer virus...serisouly now . An alchoholic drunkingly accepts to an invintation to fly an f-14, he jumps behind the controlls and and pilots the damn thing like he is tom cruise in top gun. An average jet pilot, for some reaosn or another has the divine knowledge on how to fly and alien spacecraft. He jumps behind the controls and explains to all of these scientists (which had been studying the ship supposedly since rosewell) that piloting this ship is no more complicated than finger painting. A tank...only so many meters away, is unscaved by a nuclear f*uck explosion. just to name a few.
Ush, maybe spielberg diddnt want to illustrate the book on screen, maybe he wanted to make a movie that was focused more around humanity, using the book as a refference. I think showing how easily the humans took down the aliens at the end, got the point across. You say creating somthing that is invincible is childs play, but what is more frightening than somthing you KNOW you cannot destroy? I enjoyed that aspect of the flick, becuase the only thing that was left to do was to survive, hope is fleeting when you know you cannot harm what is attacking you. Like the orginal, the movie is about looking cool, and living out outlandish situations.
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I liked War of the Worlds better, even though I enjoyed both films a lot. I liked the fact that War of the Worlds had aliens that were really unstoppable and that the human's had no real hope to cling on to. It was a much darker and more realistic film IMO, even though they both had their plot holes. I don't really mind the fact that Speilberg didn't follow the book that closely. I read the book a few years ago and looked forward to something different and more modern so that I could identify with it and see his vision of what an alien invasion would be like. He also made it more personal too. War of the Worlds focused on a family, so people could sort of identify with it a little more and care a bit more about the characters. Don't get me wrong, however, I still like Independence Day and think it's great, but overall, I liked WOTW better...
?Same computer? When was it said that their computer used the same program as we do? Heck, it was a computer expert that tested it on an alien craft. It wasn't like he didn't know what he was doing. Plus, the computer he used was in Area 51, where the scientists had spent decades studying. It was their computer. He didn't just go up into space and all of a sudden pull out a deus ex machina ending.
A computer virus which he himself said would temperarily put down the shields. They then nuked the flagship to make the solution perminant. It wasn't like the virus infected all the ships and they blow up and thus the end. Hell the shield want down and that only gave them the chance to hurt the alien ships. It wasn't the final solution to taking them down.
Did you missed the part where he flies that plane every day? That he was an actual pilot. Or the part where a military personnel asked for pilots and then he explained to them how to fly one? It ain't like all of a sudden he jumps into a jet with no flight experience at all and became top gun. Heck, he even had problems when he first want airbone with that jet.
Average? He was average? You mean he wasn't an expert? Everyone gets blown up in the first battle; he, however, outmanuevers one and takes it out and you call him average? And when did he explain everything? Hell, he was show boating to them. The controls in it were labeled for him by the scientist.
Missed that part. Which part are you talking about? The nuclear explosion happened in the sky from what I remembered.
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One more thing, I got my answer to the question of how Cruises' son survived and got to Boston, on another board. It makes alot of sense.
See, when the explosion of the hill side killed everyone. Said same explosion also blow Robbie to Boston...unharmed.
...Heck, atleast this is an explaination, instead of non given by Speilberg.
Last edited by Beyonder on Aug 1st, 2005 at 10:10 AM
No, I disagree again. You get the exact same feeling of not being able to fight, only survive, in the book as well, just with less childish invulnerability of the aliens. And it is still totally focussed around humanity- none of the sparse fighting back (it is a WAR of the Worlds, after all) detratced from that at all.
ID4, which was in turn basing off the original WOTW film, had a similar issue, and then made the aliens way too easy to beat at the end... still not important, though, just a little irksome.
Of course, somehow a rumour got about that the war machines being able to survive nukes came from the original book. Wells was ahead of his time but not THAT much.
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When it comes to "aliens attacking the earth" movies, Independence Day is a blast. ID4 was such a perfect summer popcorn movie with incredible special effects.
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I personally thought they were both kiss ass movies but i did prefer inderpendence day
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Jul 31st, 2005 10:42 AM
. An alchoholic drunkingly accepts to an invintation to fly an f-14, he jumps behind the controlls and and pilots the damn thing like he is tom cruise in top gun. An average jet pilot, for some reaosn or another has the divine knowledge on how to fly and alien spacecraft. He jumps behind the controls and explains to all of these scientists (which had been studying the ship supposedly since rosewell) that piloting this ship is no more complicated than finger painting. A tank...only so many meters away, is unscaved by a nuclear f*uck explosion. just to name a few. 
