Yesterday we watched one of my favorite movies.. War of the Worlds. Man i love this movie. That 2005 Friday evening was a very magic evening. Nature truly applauded the release with a lightning storm of its own. That summer i went to the theaters a total of 3 times to see it. Later on, i downloaded it from the internet and watched it quite a bit more.
I hadn't seen it in a while, so i needed my fix. War of the Worlds falls into the same category as other great films like Matrix Reloaded, where the movie itself is very shallow. It won't win any awards, but there are many aspects of the movie that are rich in substance.
I really seem to like these movies. They appeal to my manic adrenaline side, but still offer more than that outside of the film. I think that's why i don't really like Crank all that much. There's really nothing there..
One of the things i noticed about War of the Worlds were the death machine designs compared to the alien design. The aliens themselves, are 3 legged creatures with 3 fingers on each hand. They can also walk on walls, which suggests the tip of their fingers have suction cups or something like that. Their torso's are quite small compared to their leg span. They have tiny little arms, and their heads fan out kinda like a spoiler.
The death machines can be described in the exact same way. 3-legged machines with tiny bodies. Small little arm instruments on that body with a fanned out head.. So these alien death machines are actually alien mecha, machines built in their creator's own image. Much like how anime such as Gundam model their massive machine after the human body. It interesting to see a alien race so bent on vengence and rage would adopt one of our most arrogant traits. It's quite... human.
When i was in Japan, #five and i got onto this subject somehow and he was telling me about an article some guy wrote about the movie. It dealt with the time periods in which these movies were made. For the original War of the Worlds books and movies, it was always about the aliens coming to air. Flying their air ships from the sky, and zapping all the humans. All those remakes came at a time when war was waged between countries. The threat was always external. Fear of invasion.
In the new War of the Worlds, the aliens were always here. Underneath us.. biding their time. They didn't come from the outside. This parallels the wars that are waged today. The war with terrorism. The threat isn't external: it is internal.
This really makes the 2005 War of the Worlds an adaption, not a remake. ^_^
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Anywho, this movie is all manor of kick ass, so if you haven't seen it you must. I was rather surprised that one of my roommates hadn't even heard of it.. That was actually the real reason behind watching it.
A while ago, i developed the War of the Worlds drinking game which is both simple and works quite well. All you have to do is take a drink when:
1) Someone asks an unanswered question.
That's it. It worked quite well on Niehaus the first night he decided to drink. I've got pictures hidden around this site if you're interested ^_^