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The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad
Review: I LOVE this film and am saddened at the dvd release here. The format is standard instead of widescreen and the sound isn't the greatest. The picture looks ok but This definitely could use a REAL remastering and overhaul. Not the WORST looking dvd but the full screen format hurts it badly for me. If it gets a new release with widescreen, remastered sound and picture I'll give it a 5.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Entertaining but..............
Review: I am a big sci fi buff. The film is entertaining but as usual does not do justice to the writer H G Wells. Wells was a hard line atheist and the movie does not do justice to his beliefs. Besides, the stereotypical good guys and bad guys, religious overtones, and scientist gets girl is typical drama of the 1950s. The message of the movie is also lost metaphysically....who is the better creature? Man or the Martians? We have wasted the Indians, many cultures, all in the name of religion. The Martians where simply trying to survive. No different than humanity has done to itself by killing. God saved humanity? Please let me know if God did not create the Universe as many believe. God is taking sides now? Please. In the vastness of space and the universe we are insignificant.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No stars.
Review: It's not worth detailing what is wrong with this movie. Suffice it to say that George Pal manages to turn H. G. Wells brilliant, gripping novel into a dull and illiterate religious tract. (Wells was a staunch atheist his entire adult life. See his "Experiment in Autobiography".)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Overall, not bad at all.
Review: I have seen this movie many times in my life, but just viewed it for the first time in probably a dozen or so years. In sitting down to write this review, I was prepared to give it a fairly low rating. It was, after all, an odd mix of suspense, religion, and stereotypes (pick almost any character and consider the stereotype: the good-hearted but foolish minister; the simple-minded townfolk; the bookish scientist turned romantic hero; the All-American girl who tries to be a trooper but falls apart and has to be taken car of by the guy; the other scientists with German accents; etc.). And the "deus ex machina" (or maybe "deus contra machina") ending is sort of anti-climactic.
But then I thought of a movie made over 40 years later -- "Independence Day" -- and concluded that money blockbuster was also loaded with stereotypical characters, and in general was less believable, far more self-important, and in every way inferior to (not to mention indebted to ) "War of the Worlds". In that light, this movie after a half century seems to hold up pretty well after all. Four stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Adaptation of the H.G. Wells Novel
Review: This movie is one of the standard bearers for early science fiction. The film is well-scripted and acted, and the special effects are quite good considering the age of the film.

Gene Barry plays the central character of the movie, Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist from Cal Tech. He and two buddies are fishing nearby when the initial Martian invasion ship lands (crashes) nearby. By the way, that must have been a heckuva landing the Martians had to endure when their 'meteors' touched down.

The movie details humanity's efforts to halt the apparently unstoppable murderous Martian invasion force. No pretenses about peaceful coexistence or some sort of misunderstanding here, folks. The Martians want our planet and are willing to kill every man, woman, and child on it to get it. As such, the military is portrayed in a pretty good light in this film (unlike many others). After all, when the alien's first club out of the bag is lethal force, then you pretty much have to go with the flow.

In the end, with atomic weapons having failed to stop the invaders, mankind appears doomed. Saving the day, however, is the most unlikely of allies (and, no, I ain't talking Russia).

Overall, a well-paced sci-fi/thriller with a basic premise that never fails to entertain when it is well done--as it is here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Its allegorical with religious thematic elements
Review: Many 50's sci-fi movies are allegorical, and this one is no exception, especially considering its explicitly religious thematic elements.
You start out with an unimaginable menace, first addressed by fools fitting for the opening scene of a Shakespeare drama. These fools are vaporized. Then the "Pastor" a religious representative tries to deal with the invaders by offering peaceful contact. His disintegration follows, to the sound of one of the most wonderful and horrifically memorable sound effects of all time. Then the army gets a crack at it, ending up pulverized amid a miserable retreat. Then the air force, the flying wing, and atomic weapons are all found ineffective. Nothing can stop the invaders. The scientists organize for a last-hope-for-mankind effort to find some way to stop them. But this effort falls apart amidst confusion and mob violence. For some inexplicable reason the now defeated scientist seeks the woman who had been traveling with the Pastor. He seeks her by going to one church after another until he finds her. All hope is lost, and everyone in the church is merely awaiting their own final moment of destruction. But wait, the menace itself decays. Mankind is saved. But how? By who's intercession?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wires And All- It's A Classic!
Review: Yep, you can definitely see the wires holding up the martian ship models. This is a minor annoyance, as the movie is spectacular anyway. Mars has indeed invaded the earth, arriving in "meteors" that unscrew to reveal the horrid death-machines within! Gene Barry and Ann Robinson are our heroes, battling against time and the seemingly indestructible alien army. The military proves itself useless in it's attempts to defeat them. Even the Atom bomb fails to dent these awful marauders! Watch as tanks, guns, and soldiers are eviscerated! Gasp as a preacher tries to reason with the martians, only to be reduced to holy ashes! Witness buildings, bridges, entire cities blown to pieces! This is the one and only WAR OF THE WORLDS! I loved this movie as a kid and now my son watches it with me. A true sci-fi classic! Highly recommended...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: This film is a very naive and sloppy adaptation of the novel by H.G. Wells. Martians are attacking the world and all our defenses are useless. The earth is going to be conquered after the total destruction of humanity. But a miracle happens : these Martians are not immune to or protected against the bacteriae that have been our plague for centuries, to which our bodies have adapted their natural defenses, and which have been conquered by modern medicine. Fear of the outside world. Fear of extraterrestrials. Fear of outsiders and foreigners and even strangers. Practically no attempt at communicating with them, and anyway the rare attempts are defeated by the absolute aggressivity of these invaders. Primitive reaction and attitude. And by far too many discrepancies to make us suspend our disbelief with any kind of effectiveness.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: very scary
Review: This is one of the scariest movie's I have ever seen. It is great. It is a movie that you will want to watch over & over. Once the machine's come out of the host ship it is very scary.
And then wait until you get to see the Martian's.

Wonderful si-Fi movies. If you haven't seen this movie buy it.
You won't be sorry.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must have for sci-fi lovers
Review: I was born 2 years after this movie's release, and my family did not have a color TV, so my earliest memories of this movie would have been from watching "Chiller Theatre" on a Pittsburgh TV station in black and white. Even on the small screen this movie just blew away all of the other contemporary sci-fi movies. Eventually I was able to view the movie in color, but still on TV. Years later I acquired the VHS version and was able to appreciate the movie in vivid color and sound. This movie is now 50 years old and is still one of the finest of its genre even when compared with its contemporary competition. Along with the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the original Invaders From Mars, Forbidden Planet, and the original Thing, this is simply a "must have" for any sci-fi afficionado.
It just doesn't get any better than this.


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