Reply With QuoteUndoubtedly true, but the off button is quite handy also ;-)Originally Posted by Artistmike
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Let's be honest, beating your head with a brick beats watching Downton Abbey !
Undoubtedly true, but the off button is quite handy also ;-)
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It was dull.
Haven't seen it yet, though from comments on here it sounds like its following the book,
if so it does get better but Hollywood it isn't.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
In same boat, not seen it yet, but from the comments it seems the production value is a bit lower sadly. This seems in contrast to 'His Dark Materials' which in my opinion is getting better by each episode. I've not read the books, so cannot comment on that but great to watch!
Well it was ok, better than 'World on fire' but that was so poor. As to Jeff Waynes album, god I hated that... I was listening to the Stranglers and Buzzcocks at the time.
And of course Dr Feelgood! Be seeing you.
Wait - there was a sphere. Where in the book is the spacecraft a sphere? It was a cylinder which unscrews. then someone falls into the pit. Cue PANIC!! The sphere somehow disappeared and people started going up in flames - that wasnt in the book. The tripods carried a heat ray 'camera' originally.
It wasn’t a cylinder in the artwork for the musical version but it’s still great artwork. You can’t beat the stuff from 1906 though for sheer eerieness, in particular the shadows on the clouds
I thought the Martians spinning sphere area defence weapon was a fairly cool departure from the original.....
I could have written that, back in the night down on the jetty when I was going back home.Well it was ok, better than 'World on fire' but that was so poor. As to Jeff Waynes album, god I hated that... I was listening to the Stranglers and Buzzcocks at the time.
And of course Dr Feelgood! Be seeing you.
Theres a harmony down in the sewer
Same music taste
So far - prefer Tom Cruise version. Maybe it’s a slow burner...
Mmmm - Pretty negative responses.
I thought some of it was pretty good, quite eerie at first, but then there was no reveal, just a tripod stomping on everyone.
The flash forward were a bit confusing initially, too, is there any of that in the book?
I'm on the fence, less negative than most, but it needs to pick up in the next episode for me.
I'm of the Stranglers/Buzzcocks era (more of a Clash man myself), but I've always found the Wayne album intriguing and finally bought a copy about 10 years ago and really enjoyed it (not having read the book, to be fair).
From the trailer it looks like more Edwardian conflict is in upcoming episodes, so I'll remain hopeful.
M
The only positive for me was, it took me back to my days of walking through the pinewoods where it was filmed. Happy memories of many enjoyable walks right on my, then, doorstep.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Yeah, I thought it could have been better, but it's not as bad as everyone has been making out. Will definitely watch the next part.
Not exactly, it's clearly the "red weed" but the book doesn't jump around the timeline like that.
One thing I noted when I read the book was that the alien technology didn't seem all that advanced. It's all a bit steampunk/retrofuturistic (as you might expect from that time) rather than ultrafuturistic, or indistinguishable from magic. I was hoping they'd have kept that aspect closer to the book. It's been a while since I read it but I especially remember the description of the heat ray being a bit odd: something like a spinning mirror on a stick. It's a shame they didn't try to reproduce that aesthetic, or else something close to the Jeff Wayne album art.
I think perhaps one reason people have been a bit disappointed with this is that their expectations were in the wrong place. People tend to remember the Tom Cruise film being about a 5/10 or a 7/10 at best. But that's the average. Really it's a weird mixture of some pretty dire 2/10 stuff and some absolutely outstanding scenes (the initial attack in the street, for example). I don't think anything is ever going to top the impact of that scene, so anyone hoping this series would do that was only setting themselves up for disappointment.
Incidentally, if you haven't read the book, it's in the public domain so Project Gutenberg has it for free, here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36/36-h/36-h.htm
(other formats)
Another thing you notice about the book - and I'm in two minds about how this should be handled in a modern interpretation - is how laid back everyone is about the "men from Mars". It's really only when they start blasting everyone with a heat ray that they are anything more than a curiosity. But the thing is, we've had decades of sci-fi training us to assume aliens = whatever it is, it can't be good. But for HG Wells, that was a completely new idea. I think this version captured some of that naivety, but they missed a big chunk of it too.
Watching it tonight.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Well watched it. Was passable. I totally disliked the whole jumping around the timeline, though I do think making the aliens so futuristic works extremely well in the Victorian period setting. I mean the aliens are so advanced that they can reach another planet!
Let's see how episode 2 is, but I have been reading it ain't gonna be great.....
What I had in mind was the idea that the Martian technology would be somewhere close to where we are now, rather than so far ahead that some things make no logical sense.
With enough effort we could reach Mars today. Imagine there's a Victorian-era bunch of martians living there. We've messed up the environment so badly we need to colonise their planet in the next couple of years or we're screwed, so we throw all of our resources at it. The book is basically that in reverse. Well, the Martians are supposedly super-intelligent, but their technology isn't presented as anything more advanced than HG Wells imagined would be feasible within 50 or so years, given the apparent rate of progress at that time.
That might have been a more interesting route to take, closer to the book and further from either of the movies. Technology that's maybe 10 years ahead of today, but completely imaginable. Rather than 100+ and at best, improbable.
Similarly, compare the original version of The Day the Earth Stood Still to the remake. Originally, Gort is just a big-ass robot with a death ray. But in the remake he's some kind of CGI nanobot grey-goo thing, largely just because with CGI you can do anything, so why not? That film sucked. I kinda miss that old, physically reasonable sci-fi of Quatermass, etc. Since they've gone a bit low-key with the pacing, it might have been nice to have stuck with that technological style, but used modern effects to make the technology seem extremely real, rather than extremely advanced.
Much better.
Great Budworth, near Oulton Park?
Ready to give episode 2 maybe 3 a go.
That's the one.
Well I have to say I enjoyed it.
Enjoyed number 1, so will give 2 a go.
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As others I really enjoyed episode 1, It managed to follow the book pretty well and given the limited resources of the BBC I'm left looking forward to episode 2.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Anybody watched part 2 yet? No spoilers please, I'll probably watch it later today. Just curious to know if people thought it was better/worse/the same as part 1.
Similar, story seems quite disjointed to me.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Nope, it's recorded and I'll probably get around to it tomorrow.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Tedious, absolute garbage, won’t be bothering again. CGI, booming music, thin, poor script, half of it seems to be an anguished Demelza Poldark stomping purposely through crowds and gurning at the camera. Don’t remember that or George the reporter wanting a divorce from his cousin in the book. Mind you, I read it yonks ago, it was one of those on the compulsory reading list at school. Rafe Spall seems to be exactly the same as he was in Life vs Pete.
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OK, I'll be going in with low expectations then. Hopefully I'll be surprised it's not as bad as expected :)
I'm giving up after last night. I know there's only one episode to go, but sadly lost interest.
Like many, I grew up with the classic 1950s film, which at least tells the story in order. BBC seem to have an obsession with jumping forwards and backwards, they did it the other week with The Dublin Murders with me continually asking the wife what year are we in now - just stop it.
Very slow...too much world and character building...seems like it should be more like ep2 of 6 rather than it ending at 3 next week.
Will still guts it out and watch it.
Telegraph review today was rather scathing!
"By a quirk of scheduling, the same actor appears in both The War of the Worlds and His Dark Materials on BBC One tonight. In the latter, Harry Melling played an official running the port of Trollesund. In the former he was a soldier who wore the haunted expression both of a man who had just seen his comrades eviscerated by Martians, and one who had realised he was stuck in this BBC stinker."
It ends: " It’s hard to know what would be more torturous – surviving in a post-apocalyptic landscape or slogging through another episode of this."
That's a very VERY kind assessment. I thought it was much worse than that!
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Funny how the lead female is pretty switched on, while her other half is basically a dozy tw*t.
Very unusual for a "woke" BBC drama - not!
Episode 2 had me on the edge of my seat for the last 15 minutes. Not because it was any good. I just wanted to go to bed but didn't want to give up hope that something remotely good might happen.
Can't wait for the last episode when Griffen becomes invisible, and time travels to save the Eloi from the Morlocks...
Very good.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I can not say I have watched it, but I was in the same room whilst it was on.
Each time I looked up I either saw Rafe Spall, looking gormless or horrified or both (it was difficult to tell), the redhead running somewhere or some upperclass man, behaving badly.
Tedious, plus anyone over the age of 45 knows how the story ends.
The BBC should have be done a John Wyndham book. The Trouble with Lichen would resonate quite well today, rather than a book about battling aliens set 100 years ago.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I was rather put out by the scenes of social injustice where Demelza, a posh woman, elbowed and shoved less fortunate people out of the way in the endless scenes of her swimming through the waves of refugees. If anybody deserved a zapping from a Martian ray gun, it was Demelza.
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My TV recorder didn't record the first episode and, having watched 15 minutes of the second episode, I think I know why...it has taste!
What little I saw was dire and has been very well dissected by earlier posters. It did put me in mind of what I remember Doctor Who to be like, the only difference being that no one had very high expectations of Doctor Who.
Needless to say, episode 3 will not be watched or recorded.
I bailed out half way through episode two. This pathetic wokeness is choking everything the state broadcaster does like the red weed.
Watched the second episode last night and although I thought the first one was pants I didn't mind this one. Will be watching the final episode.
Given that all the interpretations on film and TV are 'based on' the book its not such a bad effort.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
bad its terrible but like a mug i still watched it,it make you realise how good the old film was.
Yes, I have to agree with you. The Tom Cruise version is better.
And let's face it, the Tom Cruise version is awful.
What a steaming pile of viscid crud the Beeb have foisted on our Sunday evening.
It has a thin plot. How the hell did they manage that given Well's masterpiece as a template? Read the book if you haven't already, it's pretty clear that the authors of this tele-conversion haven't.
The CG is laughable, clearly the director blew the budget in the pub before shooting started. Perhaps it was done on a Commodore 64. Yes, we understand that you can't really close Tower Bridge for your shoot (episode 2), so choose somewhere else, or employ a proper artist. The beach scenes are just as bad.
The characters are mono-dimensional, I'm surprised at the chasm between the calibre of the cast and the calibre of the script.
Instead of episode three, I think I'll find something more entertaining & less painful to do next Sunday. Perhaps I'll spend an hour extracting earwax with a corkscrew, or maybe I'll just go to the toolshed and write some tasting notes for the garden spades. Anything but another hour of this drivel.
TLDR: I watched two episodes, didn't like it.
its also very annoying.
go back and watch something like the day of the triffids to see how it should be done.
Perhaps they will and then sadly remake a terrible version of that too.
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We've just been discussing this in the office and the concerted opinion is it's too politically correct.
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