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Well, I have seen the bottom of the barrel

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My father in law, who loves this crap, forced us to endure Spielberg's War of the Worlds. What a piece of garbage that has to be one of the worst movies I've seen. Why is it one of the worst?
SPOILER alert (for anyone who cares)
Because
1). Spielberg is a far more acomplished director than the movie suggests, ad he failed miserably. I know we can debate Spielberg's auteur, but the fact is he has made high quality films, and this is beyond a mere lapse. Lumbering pace, clumsy sequences, lots of screaming, no attempt to put the story into a larger context, on and on.
2). $135M and this is all they got? Okay, but not spectacular effects, terrible script, useless acting, a waste of some decent actors, and, of course, the ubiquitous Morgan Freeman voiceover to explain everything to you. The "So little was done with so much" effect.
3). The story is incomprehensible. Why were the tripods buried under the earth? Why did no one discover them? Why were they killing people when they needed to feed on them? Why come out now? And that's just the tripods. Where's the character development? The situations of the people in the film were not put into context or fleshed out.
4). Screaming is not dialogue!!!
So the net effect is that $135M budget, Tom Cruise/Tim Roberts as stars, Spielberg as director, and this is all they could muster up? That's why this was bottom of the barrel.
Flame away

Follow Ups:

Several of your objections are to H.G. Wells, not Spielberg. (Just sayin'...) nt - clarkjohnsen 09:29:19 03/15/06 (3)
z
- Maybe so... - jackrandom 09:49:55 03/15/06 (2)
  I have not read the book, so cannot comment, but the questions the storyline left unanswered were tremendous and could have been fleshed out
  - But...wouldn't more "fleshing out" have led to more Spielbergian dialog? Thus more dissatisfaction? Poor guy can't win! - clarkjohnsen 10:01:59 03/15/06 (1)
    nt
    - Re: But...wouldn't more "fleshing out" have led to more Spielbergian dialog? Thus more dissatisfaction? Poor guy can't w - jackrandom 11:08:36 03/15/06 (0)
      Your humor is oddly infecting * <{8^)
      I'm not going to go full circle with your logic...see the movie and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about -- how bad it is
      Then again, how can I possibly recommend you seeing the movie given how bad it is and my diatribe against it? Arrgh!
Yes Spielberg managed to make both the best and worst film of the year... - RGA 00:31:26 03/15/06 (0)
War of the Worlds was well the worst film I saw -- so saying it's the worst film might be a stretch since Deuce Bigelow managed a second film.
And Munich was better than the 4 nominated films I saw and will be in my top 100 all time.
You forgot the weird Tim Robbins scene in the basement... - Steve O 19:52:27 03/14/06 (0)
...I couldn't figure out why that scene was there. It seemed on the verge of morphing into a portrayal of some kind of justified child molestion and subtracted greatly from an already weak production. I left the theatre shaking my head over that one.
Overall, it was on of those films where I found myself checking my watch...frequently...not a good sign.

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