Duck and Cover

anybody seen it? i did, and i liked it a lot, despite some 'huh?' moments like when people are snapping away pictures on their digital cameras a few minutes after an EMP blast. other than that, it was pretty damn terrifying at times, and tom cruise wasn't too terribly annoying once he got out of the way and let the martians steal the show. so there. discuss?

I'm completely talking out my ass but I believe that an EMP blast would only affect electronics that are currently on.

And I liked it quite a bit because it's a visually stunning movie.

I am eagerly anticipating the real thingâ„¢, so I decided against viewing the film.

I'm sure it was a definite gas, however.

I liked it up until the stupid, sucrose, impossible ending. I'm not referring to the way the aliens bite it, but the way the family reunites at the end. That was lame. What with everyone undisturbed inside their little house in Boston, pies cooling on the windowsill, Grandpa in his best sweater smoking away at his pipe, and Cruise's son who by no chance in hell could've been alive stopping by just in time to be reunited with his father. Lame.

Martians steal the show? lol. It was all about tom cruise.

The martians weren't even really explained. They just showed up and died the next day.

That's the way it should be.

They should've fallen from the sky in giant cyllinders. That would've been more plausible than being buried underground for millions of years and conveniently coming up right under major cities.

Coincidentally, I read volume two of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen just before this movie came out. I can't begin to tell you how much better it was.

people shouldnt have to read the book to understand the movie thats supposed to be the super blockbuster of the year.


I didn't get the whole blood thing, or the roots and shit. THe martians themselves had a weakness in that they couldn't see the humans, yet it was never explained.

Lunchmeat wrote:Coincidentally, I read volume two of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen just before this movie came out. I can't begin to tell you how much better it was.

You're damn right. This movie absolutely needed a scene where Mr. Hyde rapes the Invisible Man to death.

Spazmo wrote:You're damn right. This movie absolutely needed a scene where Mr. Hyde rapes the Invisible Man to death.

Uh. What? That sounds more interesting than War of the Worlds - which, incidentally, I've been told sucks.

Shit, I shouldn't have read this thread, now I know the martians are ants

The movie was great, to bad about the typicall stupidass american ending. That was just lame. Also the aliens did all that work millions of years ago, then technollogy came to a complete stop and they could actually be defeated by you not who. Screw that.

PS League sucks

Rakalen wrote:The movie was great, to bad about the typicall stupidass american ending.

That was written by an Englishman around the turn of the 20th century?

Haven't seen either of em, but didn't the new most recent movie modify the ending? Or so I heard.

I dont think its a remake of the older movie, its more of just another take on the story like what Independence Day was. Its probably more accurate to the book than any of them.

Independence Day > war of worlds

Independence Day was awful. It's probably a cultural thing (i.e. mine isn't CRAP), but I hated all those "listen guys it's JULY FOURTH okay we will fight the aliens with American spirit just like we kicked those Nazis ASSES! HUAH!" speeches.

Well it wasn't patriotic enough to be supported by US Military (ie. they wouldn't borrow jets, tanks etc.) unlike most of Hollywood war films, sci-fi or not.

Again, awful pacing.

1)
"-Bitch, eat this peanutbutter."
"-I'm allergic and not hungry"
"-Well, I guess neither of us will eat anything else for the rest of the film!"

2) ( and this happened like 10 times? )
"-Go to sleep, screaming girl!"
"-Well ok..."
SHE SLEEPS FOR 2 WHOLE SECONDS, AND THE MARTIANS ATTACK! The waking up of Tommy boy in his ex-wife's basement was so goddamn fast, I didn't really understand if he slept any at all, or if daylight came 2 seconds after the attack. And what about "Hey, retarded son, take the wheel. I'm gonna sleep for 2 days." scenario? 1 milisecond later they run into an angry mob! Oh boy, and the girl just keeps on screaming.

Yep, the screaming girl screams her way through the whole film. The best part was when they were trapped, and she finally shut the hell up. I initially thought that Tommy would pull out all the pins right there and then, just to get rid of his awful, noisy daughter.

The daughter annoyed me horribly, up to the point of giving me a headache five minutes after her appearance. Would've liked to have seen the tanks and choppers duking it out with the tripod things a bit more, rather then just seeing 5 seconds of them firing.

I did enjoy it though.

The boy was an asshole. I wanted to bitch-slap him the first scene I saw little swell guy.

Oh, and no working class man like Cruise's character would tolerate that kind of behavior in his family.

Exactly, in reality he'd drop them in a heartbeat. We, the audience, wanted him to do it, but no - oh no. He can completely ignore folks wanting a ride ( even doh he has 3 empty seats to offer ), he can shovel-slay a would-be war hero, one that offered him shelter - thats ok with Mr. Moralis - but not ditch the kids; 'Thats just cruel!' says angry man with hat.

The whole kid-priority thing fucked everything up for me. It took the focus off of the whole invasion thing, and put it on 'family values'. They could well have made the threat to be what ever - a homocidal maniac, something in the water, angry drugged up mother, court orders, rabid hampsters - you name it.

If Mrs. Annoying Wife took the kids at the beginning of the flick, instead of leaving them, we'd have a completely different story. Lone wanderer guy, gets mixed up in an alien invasion, his main goal is driving to his ex. to warn / save the family. No annoying screaming, no "Oh fuck, got to save my stupid children from aliens again", less moral cookies.

And it'd put the tempo straight as well; on 1.40h with only one main goal, he could very well chillax in some scenes, actually try to rest, hide out in a basement for an actual amount of time, drink some scotch, help some people etc ( show both sides of the character ), before getting thrown into insane, brainless action yet again.

Maybe its just me, but I really need some variation to enjoy a film; even if its just some easy lobby music and a smoke, 10 mins before apocalypse strikes. Here, shit jumps at you in a constant wave of seizures, with such a minimal pause, that you just get bored of it.