War of the Worlds: The Attack

Of all the incarnations of War Of The Worlds...this one is by far the worst.

The way the go from the Martian invaders wantonly killing everyone...to chilling in their house...or going on leisurely bicycle rides, generally unscathed...is patently ridiculous.

We find ourselves following three random kids, who-for some reason- are important enough to care about.

Even if that reason is not particularly clear.

Less it be that they are "the chosen ones", who need to be "saved" by an especially hypocritical, hardline, religious zealot (so he can repopulate the Earth with their female friend), or whatever.

The whole thing is about 90% childish drama, and 10% action...when it clearly needs to be the other way around.

Despite the fact that all the action is rendered with CGI (albeit, better than you might expect from a production of this caliber- think, akin to Monsters, or Nope, to get an idea).

The plot structure is absolutely horrible.

Because you get all this inane drama...followed by a ridiculous twist, that comes out of nowhere.

Used to abruptly wrap up story...without any explanation...or any attempt to connect it to the rest of the storyline.

Which doesn't make much sense.

Especially considering the aliens seem more mechanical than biological in nature.

Plus...for a film about the end of the world...there's never really any sense of urgency employed by any of the actors.

Who are really quite nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

So stuff happens.

Then it's suddenly over.

Without going into detail about any of the connecting factors...

It's just bad storytelling, overall.

And kind of stupid, to be honest.

So do yourself a favour, and just pass on this stinker.

Because it's simply not worth the time.

Unless you are looking to waste it.

2 out of 10.

This is the worst adaptation of war of the world. The acting was atrocious. Wooden and so cringe. The actors literally reading the script like a rehearsal. Non of the characters were believable , from the police officer to the army guy. Very amateurish. I couldn't stand the accents. The 3 kids were suppose to be university students but were so immature they acted as if they were in primary school. Nobody was remotely likeable. My brain couldn't take anymore after 15 minutes. This was the most boring film I have watched in awhile. Whatever possessed the directors to make the film is beyond me. I do not recommend if you want to keep your sanity.

... but I just couldn't stick it out.

The acting was so-so but the story was a no-go, as were the special effects. Some of the special effects were so 1980's - think "War Games" with Matthew Broderick.

The writing and direction were so sub-par that a school production could have done much better.

Early on in the movie there's a scene in one of the lead characters mum's kitchen. It was probably one of the worst acted scenes I've ever seen in a main stream movie. It should have been cut and left on the cutting room floor. Actually it was so "wooden" it could have been cut with an axe.

I've given it a very generous 3/10.

We saw this on Amazon prime and I assume the trailer enticed my wife to purchase this. Terrible acting, terrible storyline, terrible dialogue and terrible fx. The acting is genuinely wooden and it is laughably bad at points. The explosions and fx look worse than 80s films; Whoever funded this should have accepted that £20 would not be a sufficient special effects budget for a sci-fi movie and saved all involved from this embarrassment. The worst thing is that it cost my wife £4.99. The real tragedy is that she made me watch it all and it starts poorly and gets worse.

Do not waste your money on this absolute garbage.

No name actors, with a no name script. The only saving grace of this film is the fact that it keeps some of the elements of the original novel. The good, the beginning and ending of the movie is lifted almost directly from the original HG Wells novel, the Martians are depicted almost exactly like Wells describe them and the tripod walking machines are almost exactly as described in the 1898 novel.

The bad, most of the movie focuses on three youths and their typical teen angst. Most of the movie is simply the young characters simply traveling from place to place boringly, very boringly. There is nothing redeemable or captivating enough to make you connect with any of them in any way shape or form. You could have taken the first 15 minutes of the movie and the last 10 minutes of the movie and shoved them together in a 25 minute webisode and had a more enjoyable watching experience, for the hour in the center of a movie nothing happens except walking around and arguing.

Sticking close to the original novel was interesting, but the execution was sorely lacking, I've seen better high school productions.

My rating of three stars breaks down as follows, one star because you can't give any less, one star added for the look of the machines in the aliens matching the original novel, and one star added for keeping the beginning and ending of the novel intact, that's the best I can do.