FILMS: Pendragon's "War Of the Worlds" FINAL REVIEW!

Hi Everyone,

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Well... we finally finished Pendragon's "War Of the Worlds" and both Diana and I decided to give the film these ratings:

Diana: 2.5 out of 5

Maksim: 2.5 out of 5

Diana also added that if I loved her I should never make her watch that film again! LOL

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CONs:-
The film was WAY too long!
- They could have easily edited out an hour to an hour and a half of the film and had a better product...
- The pointless "running through the woods" scenes were pretty tiring...
- The use of colored camera lenses made for a very quick progression of time: night, day, night, day, etc. ...sometimes it seemed as if day and night switched every couple of minutes...
- The annoying opera singer was simply terrible!
- The music lulled me to sleep on several occasions...
- Some of the film's dialogue seems as if it was taken from the book VERBATIM... this made for some awkward dialogue in spots...
- The blue screen filming was often PAINFULLY obvious...
- Many of the actors played two or more roles in the film...
- The acting quality on the film wasn't always very high... for example:

The big "Thunder Childe" scene (Martian Tripods versus a pre-WWI naval dreadnought) was like watching a tennis match:

- Pan to characters' faces with incredulous looks...
- Pan to CGI special effect's clip...
- Pan to characters' faces with incredulous looks...
- Pan to CGI special effect's clip...
- Pan to characters' faces with incredulous looks...
- Pan to CGI special effect's clip...
- On and on, etc., etc.

That "CGI to actors back and forth" sequence characterizes much of the film.

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PROs:
- More accurate to the original H.G. Wells novel than any other WOTW film...
- In fact, at times, it seems as if the film EXACTLY mirrors the book's chapters...
- Interesting visualizations of the Martians!
- Cool retro special effects that were pitiful at times but very nostalgic of early sci-fi pulp novels and films...
- The damned preacher always had his mouth stuffed full of bread! He was just as annoying as the book seemed to intend him to be!
- The annoying opera singer who was simply terrible got eaten!
- The period clothing and hair styles were oustanding... Love the curls!!!
- They remembered to feature the Martian "black smoke," but it seemed to be very sparsely featured (I seem to recall that "black smoke" was what defeated the British navy at the Battle Of the Thames... not in the film... ).
- They actually remembered to feature the elusive Martian flyers!

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OVERVIEW:
I can't recommend this film for entertainment value, but the alien visualizations are great. Only a very serious fan of WOTW would like this film. The average Joe will be bored to sleep... and maybe a few serious WOTW fans as well... I plan to look at paused stills of my favorite special effects and even a few of my favorite scenes, BUT... I will never ever watch the entire film in a single sitting again!

I do not recommend Pendragon's "War Of the Worlds" film.

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Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.