bomopu-54573

This was generally a good movie. An interesting idea - there's a hint of Bodysnatchers in there - some tense moments as we're not quite sure who can be trusted but the budget must have run dry when it came to adding the music. It seems like they ripped off a 60's B-movie soundtrack and got someone to bang two sticks together whenever there was a bit of tension.

I've never known a good film get ruined by its soundtrack before. I'm sure there are others but this was a first for me.

I was thoroughly gripped after the first episode and the first few were very good. This probably just exasperated the downhill slide in the second half of the series. I'm used to movies/TV series adapted from Stephen King novels having below par endings compared to his books but this started deteriorating from before halfway and it took me four attempts to watch the final episode - I had lost all interest in anything that was happening and didn't care about anyone by then. What a terrible waste.

Being the first adaptation to be set in the period the book was based, I mistakenly thought the whole film would be based on the book. Well, based it is but very loosely. I really don't understand why someone would take a very successful story and decide to change it. Obviously a few tweaks to allow for translating to the screen and explaining storylines may be necessary but rewriting the whole thing, changing the overall concept, adding pointless sub plots that don't have any relevance or bearing on the story we're all here to see... I don't get it.

So how does it fare as a film in it's own right? Well, the CGI is good and the period settings and costumes are well done. I found the opening scene actually was well done and had me wanting to see how it was all going to play out. Unfortunately after that it was all down hill. Side stories that were irrelevant and boring; a leading male who's as wet as a damp squid; a leading female who screams too much; political correctness being thrust in your face with monologues about colonialism, women's rights and the integration of refugees - even if you could accept they were relevant to the story, they were too long, boring and unecessary. The tripods looked good although very cliche with the obligatory big blue light thing; but the aliens themselves look and act like animals and not the intelligent beings they should be and (no spoilers) what happens after they land looks like it has been written/ directed by an 8 year old. In addition the story is told with flash forwards' every so often which was really annoying and completely uninteresting.

I had no interest in any of the characters, I didn't care about anything that happened and I was clock watching to see how much longer I had to watch it for.

To put it in a nutshell, they've made a proper mess of this. 3 stars for the period sets, some of the cgi is great and it really did grip me in the first scene. Shame it lost me by the end of the third.