Super Spoiler 7. 2019 War of the Worlds (Topic)

At the end of the year, in the same month - October, we witnessed the release of two whole series based on the novel by H.G. Wells "The War of the Worlds". After watching both, we decided to comment on what we saw and share our impressions of watching with the public.

A super spoiler is a super spoiler to contain spoilers. To be more precise, this is a short retelling of everything that happened in the picture. Therefore, if you are going to watch these tapes, you better refrain from reading our material.

Although, many, on the contrary, like to first read the descriptions and reviews, and then check them against what they saw and draw conclusions on how much the opinion of the "commentators" differs or coincides with their judgments.

The nature of the War of the Worlds sequels

In fact, since H.G. Wells was the first person to describe the possible invasion of aliens from outer space to our mortal Mother Earth, all other novels and films filmed on this topic can to some extent be considered a kind of "rewrite" of his "Wars of the Worlds".

But many connoisseurs of the genre may disagree with this scenario. Take, for example, the same "Independence Day". Here, like Wells, aliens attacked Earth with the aim of capturing it for needs known only to the aliens themselves. But fans will object:

• "Yeah, they flew there from Mars, and here from another solar system!"
• "They used to walk in three-legged huge machines, but here they fly in flying machines!"
• "They flopped to the ground in a cylinder, and here they flew on giant ships!"
• "Microorganisms killed aliens there, and here - people, with the help of technological tricks and computer programs!"
• "Everything happened there at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries (although the year is not exactly indicated there, the level of technological development and other things speaks, just about this time), and here - at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries!", and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately, all these arguments are not the criteria by which full-length films such as "Skyline", "Independence Day", "Alien Invasion: Battle of Los Angeles" or TV series like "Descended from Heaven" or the same "Visitors »Can be deleted from the category of films based on the novel by H.G. Wells.

After all, the "war of the worlds", as such, is present in each of these films. Moreover, this war is not between two different races of aliens. This is a war of the species - aliens against humanity. What they flew on, when, and by whose hand they died - this is already a question of the third order.

And the fact that the creators offilms about aliensand the alien invasion pass off their creations as the original source and do not indicate that they were filmed "based on the" War of the Worlds " ", That's their problem.

Past War of the Worlds Films

But let's not be so critical. Let's take for the films based on the novel by H.G. Wells only those films whose creators have directly admitted this. There were several such in the history of cinema, and the most successful of them are considered to be the full-length War of the Worlds by Byron Haskin in 1953, War of the Worlds by Steven Spielberg in 2005 and the two-season TV series of the same name in 1988-1990.

Let's discuss them in passing to know how to compare our "new and improved" versions. Although, let's start, nevertheless, from the source.

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, Model 1897

In an incomprehensible year (the author did not indicate the exact date), astronomers detected a number of outbreaks on the surface of Mars, after which strange meteorites began to fall on the Earth. The first of these landed in Horsell Wasteland, Surrey, near the town of Woking, where the unnamed narrator comes from.

Onlookers, who ran to look at the miracle that fell from the sky, saw a cylinder, the lid of which was unscrewed, after which octopus-like aliens with tentacles instead of limbs climbed out of there. Once in the pit, they made a device there, with the help of which they began to mow onlookers to the right and left. Later they mounted walking machines - tripods, on which they began to walk around poor long-suffering England, exterminating people with their ingenious "heat ray".

This is how such a car looked like according to the artist Enrique Correa, who drew a number of illustrations for the novel of one of the 1906 editions.

And this is how, according to scientists of the 20th century, based on Wells's description, the aliens themselves should have looked.

In total, a dozen spacecraft fell to the ground. During the entire confrontation, three tripods out of ten people managed to incapacitate, while the rest of the Martians died on their own, falling ill with some kind of earthly disease.

By the way, they really ate "human flesh" in the original novel. Maybe human flesh and the microbes contained in it killed them, because they consumed it raw. After all, nowhere is it described that they cooked something there, fried or steamed. Our hero sat in the vicinity of their lair long enough not to notice.

But at the same time, they managed to inflict a terrible defeat in the south of England. They also brought their Martian vegetation with them to Earth, which was soon replaced by terrestrial plants.

By the way, Wells's Martians even managed to make some kind of flying machine. But they were not destined to fly over the Earth on it.

In general, the aliens failed to capture anything. But the message was clear to everyone. People, with their narrow-minded technical tricks, would have been exterminated as a species, if not for the interference of the terrestrial microfauna, annoying for the aliens and saving us.

There was another message that, like, not knowing the ford, do not poke your nose into the water, but this is at the discretion of those who like to speculate on social topics. To the American Indians, by the way, immigrants from the Old World who sailed to them on the continent with firearms, also seemed like people out of this world.

War of the Worlds 1953

Here, the developers of special effects, after consulting, agreed that the Martians on flying machines will cost the creators of adaptation much cheaper than on giant tripods. And they will look more believable. At that time, it was only the middle of the last century, and no one had even thought about any computer graphics. Everything had to be sculpted from cardboard, papier-mache, rubber, chewing gum and other improvised means. Giant tripods crafted from a set of visual effects would be no good. Therefore, we replaced them with simpler, curved from two edges, saucers.

A huge number of alien ships (if you can call them that) flew here. News of aliens came from all over the world. But the film only tells about the adventures that unfolded around the ships that fell in the outback of California.

Meteorite, onlookers, flat jokes and shoveling at a meteorite - everything is as expected. But the joy of the audience ended when a device emerged from the unscrewed hatch cover of a freshly cooled oblong car and began to burn everyone left and right.

After the landing site was cordoned off by the military, the car apparently unscrewed an even larger lid in diameter, since from there, somehow, as many as three aircraft of quite impressive dimensions rose into the air. And how come they burn the warriors right and left! After the destruction moved to the cities, where the Martians made a rustle, which can only be compared with the devastation after World War II in the European part of Eurasia.

I would especially like to dwell on the appearance of the current version of the Martians. They looked so stupid that you could tear your belly with laughter. They resembled a massive (from a large pig) shapeless carcass with thin limbs and a huge tricolor eye.

According to the same principle of "tricolor", a video device was made, by means of which an alien from his plate could survey the interior of human dwellings. One such “video device” was cut off by the protagonist from the tentacle (you can't call it anything else), on which it held and moved.

Everything stopped as corny as it began. The Martians fired and fired, until, suddenly, their saucer sharply crashed into the building and fell onto the roadway. A three-toed limb with suction cups at the end fell out of the opening hatch into the light, and it ended there.

Like Wells, here too, humanity is protected by microbes. Only here their presence on Earth was given a more divine meaning.

War of the Worlds 1988-1990

We will not dwell on this masterpiece for the simple reason that even though the credits indicate that the picture is based on the novel of the same name by H.G. Wells, there is nothing even close to this novel in it.

The showrunners of the project simply set out to come up with a continuation of the story, filmed in 1953. According to their version, not all aliens died. There were cunning ones who figured out how to cope with the "earthly infection". Now they are hiding from the eyes of people, taking the form of all the same people, in order to destroy these very people by hook or by crook. Such is the pun.

As for us, Paramount Television did not come out very well, and the rating of 5.3 on KinoPoisk for the masterpiece is quite justified.

War of the Worlds 2005

Many of those who started watching the series "Shameless" were haunted by the thought: "In what movie have I seen Fiona's first boyfriend before?" Yes, indeed, you saw Fiona's first boyfriend in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The petite Dakota Faning, who at the time of filming was only 10 years old, also lit up here. But now the conversation is not about that, but about how the adaptation of Josh Friedman and David Kepp differs from previous versions and from the version of H.G. Wells himself.

Spielberg, who, in his own words, in his childhood was deeply sunk into the soul of the film of 1953, perfectly understood what the metamorphoses in aliens are connected with, or rather, why that time they did not "walk", but " ". And now, when computer graphics allows you to recreate what your heart desires on the screen, he decided to correct this nuance and put the Martians on their feet, while trying to keep the main line of the last film as much as possible. Even the "video tentacle" of the Martian made it as similar as possible to what was in the 1953 version.

But, meanwhile, the differences came out huge. For example, at that time, the creators emphasized the main idea of showing the powerlessness of terrestrial technology and weapons in front of alien technologies. Immediately clashes faded into the background. The first was occupied by "the relationship of fathers and children", because of which, in the first place, the film was criticized from all sides. But, if you do not pay attention to the family drama, he looks quite at the level. The tripods are awesome.

People here are burned (or split?) very spectacular. But in this version, the Martians were on Earth for a long time, and they were awakened to life by a mysterious impulse that flew in from space. There are also differences in the “family composition” of the protagonist and the presence of his wife's husband from the second (after divorce) marriage. Wells' main character was not married and had no children. Moreover, he personally took his beloved wife to Leatherhet, away from the main battles, and returned to the long-suffering Wyndham only to honestly, as agreed, return the cart he borrowed from the merchant.

Overall, the film came out bearable. Still, the asshole-daughter performed by Dakota would not squeal, but the dumb-snouted son would be less patriotic, in general it would be super.

War of the Worlds 2019 by BBC One (UK)

We got to the latest versions of the current year. And the first in the list is the adaptation, according to the authors, the closest to the original source. It was this fact that we bought into, and immediately clung to the TV screens.

Our disappointment, alas, knew no bounds. The plot is spelled out to such an extent crooked and obliquely that one can only wonder who trusted these “homemade” guys to mock the masterpiece? Yes, the time really coincides with the original source - the end of the 19th century. The location is also in the south of Great Britain not far from London, but the swamp, into which the first metal ball fell, does not at all resemble the Horsell Wasteland.

Next - the main characters. If in the original source the narrator is a man who took his wife away from the horrors of interplanetary conflict, then here in the main role is his wife (by the way, pregnant), whom he did not take away anywhere, but, on the contrary, sent to the capital, from which (an idiot could have guessed ) you need to stay away. After all, the enemy - and absolutely anyone, in the first place will try to defeat the enemy's headquarters.

Another main character here is the astronomer Ogilvy, who, according to Wells' book, died when the aliens first appeared from the cylinder. Here, on the contrary, he lived to the bitter end, and also tried to put some experiments on the aliens' weapons. What for? It is still not clear.

The man who was supposed to be the storyteller, in general, somewhere in the twists and turns of fussing with aliens (just fuss, you can't call it a war) got lost.

In general, if from the three episodes of the mini-series were thrown out unnecessary dramatic nonsense, idiotic flashbacks and moronic pauses with reflections, from which in the end there is absolutely no sense, as well as half of the first part, in which the whole world and, in particular, the British were reminded once again that the USAs have always been an aggressor who haunted the inhabitants of the whole world, maybe it would have turned out to be a tolerant full-length film. But ...

In general, as a result, the Martians were killed by bacteria again. With vegetation, they came up with some kind of worthless and second-rate drama, which finally finished off the already naive and tasteless story. Only those who have not read the novel, but have not watched any of the original versions will like this masterpiece.

War of the Worlds of 2019 by Canal + (France)

We got to the French masterpiece. From the first episodes, when “cyborg-dogs” had just appeared in the film, we could not get rid of the thought that we had already seen it somewhere. After some discussion, we decided that this version of "War of the Worlds" looks more like a hypertrophied hybrid of "Skyline" and "Falling Skies" than "War and Peace" by H.G. Wells.

Just like in Skyline, here the main combat units of the aliens are machines with a living biological brain built into them. And just like in Skies Crumbled, the main antagonist (apparently the humanoid we were shown at the end of the first season, and whose brain is connected to the alien ship), can influence the brains of teenagers from whom he needs a child.

Here the aliens came not from Mars, but from deep space. They are not living beings, as you already understood, but cyborgs, whose brains are connected into a single collective mind (or its semblance). Apparently, they have a central "brain", but the pain inflicted on one of the "combat units" is simultaneously felt by everyone. The version of the collective intelligence in the film skips, but the presence of the main thinking core at its center, if you look at it, refutes this theory.

Ships of aliens landed in great numbers around the globe and sent the bulk of the population to the next world with the help of some kind of tricky radiation. The survivors, who thought of in time to hide from the "visual fluids" rising from the horizon into caves, basements, bunkers, metal containers or cisterns (like one of the main characters), began to be cleaned out like robotic dogs mobile devices equipped with means of destruction .

What prevented the aliens from re-launching the wave? It is not clear. It is equally unclear how the kid survived, whom an incomprehensible extraterrestrial intelligence wants to mate with a blind girl (another heroine) in order to obtain the human cub he needs.

Yes, in the original source, the aliens killed earthlings, including due to the fact that they "took them for food." Right there the "cyborg-dogs" if they eat somehow (they have a biological component), then we were not shown this.

But they showed that they steal human babies for some purpose. What are they doing with them? In the first season, they didn't really explain to us, and we don't know how to guess on the coffee grounds.

It all ended when the disparate protagonists finally came together. They showed us a humanoid, embedded in the neurosystem of a ship, babies alive and well, which they pull out from the wombs of pregnant women - and that's all. The curtain. To be continued next year. And even then, if with such a rating the project will be extended at all.

The beginning, as usual, was for a ruble, and the continuation was for a penny. The plot is bogged down in drama, as is the case with The Walkers. Only if there the drama began to heat up by the fourth or fifth seasons, then here the hassle got out after the third or fourth episode And, so that I wanted to watch on rewind.

So, clarification will have to wait. As well as the similarities with the original, which we did not see here at all, even though the credits indicate that the film was based on the novel of the same name by H.G. Wells. It is unlikely that in this version one has to hope that the cyborgized creatures will die from some kind of terrestrial virus.

Conclusion

We look forward to hearing from the filmmakers the next rehash of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. It is very interesting which of the greatest minds will make the adaptation, in his opinion, more interesting, and in our opinion - dumber.

Why not just shoot one-to-one version of the original source? After all, everything is written there, the author has already invented everything, nothing needs to be redone. No, you have to be clever and build yourself up as geniuses, and then wonder what these viewers still want? Why are ratings and views so low? After all, such a masterpiece was forgotten!

In the meantime, we wait, we will enjoy what we already have. And we'd better get on cool films and TV shows. And then the swamp is already tired!

And nevertheless, let's ask the main question constantly rotating in the language: "Since they are so smart, these Martians, why didn't they think of spacesuits?"

The Topic of Article: Super Spoiler 7. 2019 War of the Worlds.
Author: Jake Pinkman