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Jul. 5th, 2005 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockHad a thoroughly lovely weekend, despite watching War of the Worlds, and even got to be mildly social yet still find time to hermit. Go me!
I am a snob about certain genres and works, War of the Worlds is one of them. I've loved the original film since I was a child, hell I was even addicted to the admittedly awful t.v. series that ran very briefly back in the 80's. My god I even worked security at a WotW convention held in Upstate NY. So I'm saying my snobbery has a rational basis (or at least a lovely rationalization).
This film started out ok, if you don't mind Tom Cruise playing a rather sleazy asshole with a perpetual smirk affixed to his face. But you get through that phase because you know it won't last and he'll go from disinterested dad/man-child to heroic uber-father and then there will be the running and the screaming and the disintegrating. And there sure was, though the inconsistencies were making me a tad nutty. Cars, everything electrical, and even watches stop running after the aliens arrive, but camcorders still work just fine...sure. People are getting zapped not two feet away from Tom, but for some reason the aliens can't hit him even though he's RIGHT FUCKING THERE. Fine.
I liked the scene where he staggers back home after the tripod attack and freaks out when he realizes he's covered in dead people dust. I also liked the fact that he spent the film not trying to strike back at the alien menace, rather doing what most of us would do, running like hell. He was heroic on occasion, but not stupidly action-hero heroic and he was dragged kicking and screaming into each action. I also liked the fact that in order to ensure his daughter's survival he's willing to do just about anything, including murder. That rang quite true.
I was buying into a good deal of the film, but the very end managed to destroy all those positive feelings in one brainless move. So dad is trying to get the kids to Boston and their mom, it is his only goal aside from survival. Fair enough. However, the son gets seperated and it is done in such a way as to make it clear that he is dead. They blew up the hill he was on, there was no way he could've survived. Ok, I begin to respect the writers, killing off a kid takes balls. Now where they lost me is that the refugees are staggering into Boston where there are still tripods rampaging. Yeah, head for a huge urban center that's really likely to attract the alien attackers, why not? Only the thing is that just parts of Boston have been destroyed. See there are huge areas of pricey townhomes that have been left completely untouched. So much so that they even have power, believe it or not! So Tom staggers up to his ex wife's parent's place and it hasn't even been scratched. Everyone's inside looking like they've been doing nothing more strenuous than playing Go Fish while the world was being invaded. Mom is joyously reuinted with daughter, and then...out comes son who has somehow defied all the odds and not only survived, but gotten to Boston before dad and sis.
Oh my god it was so fucking cheap I can't even tell you.
But I will give one nod to the filmmakers as they seem to have cast the two stars of the original film (I know that was the actress who played Sylvia as she also appeared on the t.v. series) to play ex-wife's parents, and this amused me greatly.
Anyway, the costume workshop went well despite nobody really showing up and we sold Alyne on dancing to some music from the BSG soundtrack and were mightily pleased with ourselves. Aelf, P-, E-, LA, C- and I then headed for dinner at our favorite Malaysian place (mmm, crack curry!) and stuffed ourselves silly. Yum! Then back to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elo_sf's place for some games, I actually won the dog one, then we played a couple of rounds of Eye to Eye and everyone else fell in love with the game as well so I may really have to pick up a copy now. Then over to tersa's for a couple of rounds of LOTR Trivial Pursuit. I always get spanked at TP and sadly this was no exception, though I made a reasonable showing in at least the first game. By the second my brain had shut down and I was finding everything far too funny.
Monday was cleaning day, yay! It started when I went out to get the litter from my car and noted that my neighbors had set out a gorgeous chest of drawers with a little free sign on it. I noted its size, looked at the space in my bedroom and determined it would fit if I got rid of the plastic drawer thingies I had been using. Enlisted Aelf to help me lug it inside and damn it fit perfectly. Re-organized the whole bedroom and fit way more into my new piece of furniture than in the three I was using before. It looks so lovely too, all grown-up and stuff. The plastic units I managed to fit elsewhere and they're now being used for costume stuff and craft supplies. I have craft storage, woo!
Spent the rest of the day cleaning and organizing and my apartment looks so much better I can't even tell you. For the first time I'm quite content with my little place.
I am a snob about certain genres and works, War of the Worlds is one of them. I've loved the original film since I was a child, hell I was even addicted to the admittedly awful t.v. series that ran very briefly back in the 80's. My god I even worked security at a WotW convention held in Upstate NY. So I'm saying my snobbery has a rational basis (or at least a lovely rationalization).
This film started out ok, if you don't mind Tom Cruise playing a rather sleazy asshole with a perpetual smirk affixed to his face. But you get through that phase because you know it won't last and he'll go from disinterested dad/man-child to heroic uber-father and then there will be the running and the screaming and the disintegrating. And there sure was, though the inconsistencies were making me a tad nutty. Cars, everything electrical, and even watches stop running after the aliens arrive, but camcorders still work just fine...sure. People are getting zapped not two feet away from Tom, but for some reason the aliens can't hit him even though he's RIGHT FUCKING THERE. Fine.
I liked the scene where he staggers back home after the tripod attack and freaks out when he realizes he's covered in dead people dust. I also liked the fact that he spent the film not trying to strike back at the alien menace, rather doing what most of us would do, running like hell. He was heroic on occasion, but not stupidly action-hero heroic and he was dragged kicking and screaming into each action. I also liked the fact that in order to ensure his daughter's survival he's willing to do just about anything, including murder. That rang quite true.
I was buying into a good deal of the film, but the very end managed to destroy all those positive feelings in one brainless move. So dad is trying to get the kids to Boston and their mom, it is his only goal aside from survival. Fair enough. However, the son gets seperated and it is done in such a way as to make it clear that he is dead. They blew up the hill he was on, there was no way he could've survived. Ok, I begin to respect the writers, killing off a kid takes balls. Now where they lost me is that the refugees are staggering into Boston where there are still tripods rampaging. Yeah, head for a huge urban center that's really likely to attract the alien attackers, why not? Only the thing is that just parts of Boston have been destroyed. See there are huge areas of pricey townhomes that have been left completely untouched. So much so that they even have power, believe it or not! So Tom staggers up to his ex wife's parent's place and it hasn't even been scratched. Everyone's inside looking like they've been doing nothing more strenuous than playing Go Fish while the world was being invaded. Mom is joyously reuinted with daughter, and then...out comes son who has somehow defied all the odds and not only survived, but gotten to Boston before dad and sis.
Oh my god it was so fucking cheap I can't even tell you.
But I will give one nod to the filmmakers as they seem to have cast the two stars of the original film (I know that was the actress who played Sylvia as she also appeared on the t.v. series) to play ex-wife's parents, and this amused me greatly.
Anyway, the costume workshop went well despite nobody really showing up and we sold Alyne on dancing to some music from the BSG soundtrack and were mightily pleased with ourselves. Aelf, P-, E-, LA, C- and I then headed for dinner at our favorite Malaysian place (mmm, crack curry!) and stuffed ourselves silly. Yum! Then back to
elo_sf's place for some games, I actually won the dog one, then we played a couple of rounds of Eye to Eye and everyone else fell in love with the game as well so I may really have to pick up a copy now. Then over to tersa's for a couple of rounds of LOTR Trivial Pursuit. I always get spanked at TP and sadly this was no exception, though I made a reasonable showing in at least the first game. By the second my brain had shut down and I was finding everything far too funny.Monday was cleaning day, yay! It started when I went out to get the litter from my car and noted that my neighbors had set out a gorgeous chest of drawers with a little free sign on it. I noted its size, looked at the space in my bedroom and determined it would fit if I got rid of the plastic drawer thingies I had been using. Enlisted Aelf to help me lug it inside and damn it fit perfectly. Re-organized the whole bedroom and fit way more into my new piece of furniture than in the three I was using before. It looks so lovely too, all grown-up and stuff. The plastic units I managed to fit elsewhere and they're now being used for costume stuff and craft supplies. I have craft storage, woo!
Spent the rest of the day cleaning and organizing and my apartment looks so much better I can't even tell you. For the first time I'm quite content with my little place.
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Date: 2005-07-05 08:22 pm (UTC)And it's got Brent Spiner! At least briefly...
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Date: 2005-07-05 08:38 pm (UTC)