Post by EvilNerfherder on Jun 18, 2005 23:58:34 GMT
Evilnerfherder’s Asylum’s WotW review.
HEAVY SPOILERS!!!
Please before reading this, take note of the SPOILER warning.
I just got hold of a copy of Asylum’s new DVD ‘H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds’ AKA ‘Invasion’. Here is my review. Once again, note there are HEAVY SPOILERS in this piece, as I will go into detail about the plot.
The film begins after a few entertaining trailers for other Asylum movies. Must check these out!
THE START.
As the titles roll, we appear to be looking at Mars from the point of view of a Mars Rover. The landscape slides by a sort of heads up display with numbers and dials on it.
Now, back on Earth we are in the house of scientist/astronomer George Herbert (nice reference!). After a glimpse (!) at the lovely Mrs. Herbert (Tinarie Van Wyk-Loots) we enter the lives of the Herberts on an ordinary day. George (C. Thomas Howell) and his wife have a bit of an argument and she leaves with their son (C. Thomas’ real life son Dashiel) under a cloud. George is called into work in D.C and he climbs into his car. Earlier, George and his son had spotted a ‘meteorite entering Earth’s atmosphere via telescope.. as another goes overhead, George’s car dies. There is an explosion and George rushes to investigate. He finds a crowd gathered around an enormous cylinder, one of them approaches him and asks him to help as her boyfriend has fallen into the pit.
As the man tries to scramble out, he shouts that there is something in there with him. Suddenly he is dragged out of sight by a tentacle and the crowd scatters.
As the people run, George sees a massive ‘Walker’ exit the pit. 60 feet high, the machine rampages amongst the crowd. People are grabbed by claws, vaporized by a ray of heat and spiked by the sharp ‘feet’ of the machine. As the machine stomps off, George realizes that he has escaped.
THE WALKERS.
A quick note about the machines, before I go on. They are , as I said, 60 feet high and fully rendered in CGI. They have a rough, verdigris type finish and look like giant crabs crossed with tanks. If anyone has seen the tanks in the anime movie Appleseed, imagine those and you wouldn’t be far off. They have extendable claws on tentacles and the ‘hood’ or top part, swivels on it’s axis. Their main weapon is a green ray of heat which strikes it’s victims and you get a ‘skeletizing’ effect, like the ’53 Paramount movie. They have another weapon which I will mention later.
GEORGE'S JOURNEY.
Power returns temporarily, as do phone signals (cell phones had been previously rendered useless) and George speaks to his wife. They pledge to meet in Washington and George packs a backpack and starts on his journey by foot.
As he walks, a local tells him that ‘terrorists’ have hit cities around the U.S. A troop of soldiers engage another walker and George narrowly escapes with his life again. In a nod to the book, a walker’s foot narrowly misses pinning George to the ground.
GEORGE'S FIRST COMPANION.
Here George meets Sgt Kerry Williams (Andy Lauer). The two take shelter in a wooden shack (loved the way they got in! ) whilst they wait for the coast to clear.
Presently, they hit the road, as they walk they see soldiers horribly burned pass them with other survivors. Another group of soldiers meets them, this one led by Lt. Samuelson (Jake Busey). Samuelson already has ideas of forming a new order to rebuild civilization. He thinks George, being a scientist, will be useful. George declines and he and Kerry go on their way.
As the two travelers pass through a town, Walkers appear. This time, one stops and an alien climbs out of the top. The creatures are just as deadly out of their machines as their tentacles split and they can spit a noxious substance out of them. If this stuff hits human skin, it dissolves it, literally melting the victim’s flesh.
Soon, they meet George’s brother Matt (Peter Greene), another soldier.. trouble is Matt is half the man he once was and after some dialogue, dies.
As the Walkers attack again, George boards a dingy on the river and is separated from Kerry. Once again, he has had a narrow escape.
GEORGE GETS RELIGION.
George has sheltered for the night in a truck and when he awakes a pastor is there with him. Pastor Victor (Rhett Giles) tells George that the aliens are demons. He is an Australian, who has come to America and settled. Victor’s faith is unshakeable, he thinks that God has taken the dead to Paradise and the living are to be left to be punished. The two encounter one of Victor’s parishioners who has had all her family killed. Her diatribe against Victor’s God is a quite powerful scene.
More Walkers appear and now unleash a new weapon. It is a canister that is ejected and, upon landing, opens letting out a green noxious gas. The Pastor and George escape the gas and hole up in a Veterinarian’s office. As they hide there is a tremendous explosion, and the two are buried in the cellar.
Over the course of days, food runs low and the Pastor begins to doubt his faith. As they watch, humans are drained whilst trapped in a web-like substance. George, hallucinating, imagines one of these unfortunates to be his son. The Pastor has to hold him back or he would have dashed outside.
George has an idea. He wonders if the drugs in this prison could give the aliens a deadly virus and he gets to work. A tentacle enters the cellar and George injects the product of his work into it. The Pastor regains his faith just in time to be melted by the toxic spit from another tentacle.
Soon all signs of activity in the pit cease and George leaves. Along the way he finds his wife’s car abandoned.
A FRIEND RETURNS.
George is on the road once more and meets Kerry again. They come across Samuelson once more. The mad officer has promoted himself and leads a mixed bag of displaced soldiers. This time there is a confrontation. Samuelson kills Kerry and George kills Samuelson.
Soon George reaches Washington and spies an alien standing still on some rubble. In another nod to the novel George decides to give his life to it. Instead of turning him to mulch, however, the creature collapses. A man tells him they have been dying for days. Did Georges idea in the pit work? It appears so. George’s son runs up to him and the credits roll.
OPINIONS.
I really enjoyed this film. The acting is top notch. C. Thomas Howell as George does a great job, his despair in parts is most convincing. Rhett Giles as Parson Victor impressed me a great deal, his unexpectedly quiet faith turns convincingly to panic and back. Andy Lauer is also good. Peter Greene doesn’t have much to do, but portrays a dying man well. I expected Jake Busey to chew up the scenery and I wasn’t disappointed. He was very good.
The FX. Well, for a lower budget movie they are very good. The Walkers look pretty realistic and sit in the scenery well. I was amazed to find out from the extras that the broken road George walks on in Washington was CGI. It was that well done. Velocity Visuals can be rightly proud of what they achieved.
David Latt, as regular viewers of this site will know, has a great sense of humour. In places, this shines through in the movie, but never at the expense of the drama. Make no mistake, this film is very respectful of the source material and any comedy is purely intentional.
Favourite amusing line? As the crown gathers around the first cylinder a woman says with disgust ‘Smells Like ass!!’’
Talking of humour, the end credits have some very amusing bits added in.
The serious dialogue is very powerful and well written and very well delivered by the cast.
The music by Ralph Rieckermann is suitably dramatic and the sound is very good. I actually jumped out of my seat once when the distraught parishioner slaps Pastor Victor around the face. The sound came out of my left TV speaker and I was looking around to see what made the noise before I realised what it was.
Oh, and sharp eyed viewers will notice another homage to Wells, the chapter names are based upon the book ones.
EXTRA! EXTRA!
There is both an actor’s and filmmaker’s commentary, which are both fun and full of interesting information about the process of producing a film such as this.
Also there is approximately 30 minutes worth of mini documentaries which give an interesting and fun insight into making the movie. They look like they all had a ball!
THE END.
Ok, that’s my review. I was both surprised and delighted with this film. These guys have proved you don't need a budget like the national debt of a small country to make an entertaining flick. I would thoroughly recommend this movie to anyone who loves the book and also to fans of Sci-Fi. It’s not totally faithful, but there is enough fun to be had spotting the book references. That and the fact it is a thoroughly entertaining take on this great story. Got to be worth a few of anyone’s Earth Currency Units!
I’m off to find more Asylum Films, I know I want to!
Find out more about this and other Asylum movies at ..
www.theasylum.cc
HEAVY SPOILERS!!!
Please before reading this, take note of the SPOILER warning.
I just got hold of a copy of Asylum’s new DVD ‘H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds’ AKA ‘Invasion’. Here is my review. Once again, note there are HEAVY SPOILERS in this piece, as I will go into detail about the plot.
The film begins after a few entertaining trailers for other Asylum movies. Must check these out!
THE START.
As the titles roll, we appear to be looking at Mars from the point of view of a Mars Rover. The landscape slides by a sort of heads up display with numbers and dials on it.
Now, back on Earth we are in the house of scientist/astronomer George Herbert (nice reference!). After a glimpse (!) at the lovely Mrs. Herbert (Tinarie Van Wyk-Loots) we enter the lives of the Herberts on an ordinary day. George (C. Thomas Howell) and his wife have a bit of an argument and she leaves with their son (C. Thomas’ real life son Dashiel) under a cloud. George is called into work in D.C and he climbs into his car. Earlier, George and his son had spotted a ‘meteorite entering Earth’s atmosphere via telescope.. as another goes overhead, George’s car dies. There is an explosion and George rushes to investigate. He finds a crowd gathered around an enormous cylinder, one of them approaches him and asks him to help as her boyfriend has fallen into the pit.
As the man tries to scramble out, he shouts that there is something in there with him. Suddenly he is dragged out of sight by a tentacle and the crowd scatters.
As the people run, George sees a massive ‘Walker’ exit the pit. 60 feet high, the machine rampages amongst the crowd. People are grabbed by claws, vaporized by a ray of heat and spiked by the sharp ‘feet’ of the machine. As the machine stomps off, George realizes that he has escaped.
THE WALKERS.
A quick note about the machines, before I go on. They are , as I said, 60 feet high and fully rendered in CGI. They have a rough, verdigris type finish and look like giant crabs crossed with tanks. If anyone has seen the tanks in the anime movie Appleseed, imagine those and you wouldn’t be far off. They have extendable claws on tentacles and the ‘hood’ or top part, swivels on it’s axis. Their main weapon is a green ray of heat which strikes it’s victims and you get a ‘skeletizing’ effect, like the ’53 Paramount movie. They have another weapon which I will mention later.
GEORGE'S JOURNEY.
Power returns temporarily, as do phone signals (cell phones had been previously rendered useless) and George speaks to his wife. They pledge to meet in Washington and George packs a backpack and starts on his journey by foot.
As he walks, a local tells him that ‘terrorists’ have hit cities around the U.S. A troop of soldiers engage another walker and George narrowly escapes with his life again. In a nod to the book, a walker’s foot narrowly misses pinning George to the ground.
GEORGE'S FIRST COMPANION.
Here George meets Sgt Kerry Williams (Andy Lauer). The two take shelter in a wooden shack (loved the way they got in! ) whilst they wait for the coast to clear.
Presently, they hit the road, as they walk they see soldiers horribly burned pass them with other survivors. Another group of soldiers meets them, this one led by Lt. Samuelson (Jake Busey). Samuelson already has ideas of forming a new order to rebuild civilization. He thinks George, being a scientist, will be useful. George declines and he and Kerry go on their way.
As the two travelers pass through a town, Walkers appear. This time, one stops and an alien climbs out of the top. The creatures are just as deadly out of their machines as their tentacles split and they can spit a noxious substance out of them. If this stuff hits human skin, it dissolves it, literally melting the victim’s flesh.
Soon, they meet George’s brother Matt (Peter Greene), another soldier.. trouble is Matt is half the man he once was and after some dialogue, dies.
As the Walkers attack again, George boards a dingy on the river and is separated from Kerry. Once again, he has had a narrow escape.
GEORGE GETS RELIGION.
George has sheltered for the night in a truck and when he awakes a pastor is there with him. Pastor Victor (Rhett Giles) tells George that the aliens are demons. He is an Australian, who has come to America and settled. Victor’s faith is unshakeable, he thinks that God has taken the dead to Paradise and the living are to be left to be punished. The two encounter one of Victor’s parishioners who has had all her family killed. Her diatribe against Victor’s God is a quite powerful scene.
More Walkers appear and now unleash a new weapon. It is a canister that is ejected and, upon landing, opens letting out a green noxious gas. The Pastor and George escape the gas and hole up in a Veterinarian’s office. As they hide there is a tremendous explosion, and the two are buried in the cellar.
Over the course of days, food runs low and the Pastor begins to doubt his faith. As they watch, humans are drained whilst trapped in a web-like substance. George, hallucinating, imagines one of these unfortunates to be his son. The Pastor has to hold him back or he would have dashed outside.
George has an idea. He wonders if the drugs in this prison could give the aliens a deadly virus and he gets to work. A tentacle enters the cellar and George injects the product of his work into it. The Pastor regains his faith just in time to be melted by the toxic spit from another tentacle.
Soon all signs of activity in the pit cease and George leaves. Along the way he finds his wife’s car abandoned.
A FRIEND RETURNS.
George is on the road once more and meets Kerry again. They come across Samuelson once more. The mad officer has promoted himself and leads a mixed bag of displaced soldiers. This time there is a confrontation. Samuelson kills Kerry and George kills Samuelson.
Soon George reaches Washington and spies an alien standing still on some rubble. In another nod to the novel George decides to give his life to it. Instead of turning him to mulch, however, the creature collapses. A man tells him they have been dying for days. Did Georges idea in the pit work? It appears so. George’s son runs up to him and the credits roll.
OPINIONS.
I really enjoyed this film. The acting is top notch. C. Thomas Howell as George does a great job, his despair in parts is most convincing. Rhett Giles as Parson Victor impressed me a great deal, his unexpectedly quiet faith turns convincingly to panic and back. Andy Lauer is also good. Peter Greene doesn’t have much to do, but portrays a dying man well. I expected Jake Busey to chew up the scenery and I wasn’t disappointed. He was very good.
The FX. Well, for a lower budget movie they are very good. The Walkers look pretty realistic and sit in the scenery well. I was amazed to find out from the extras that the broken road George walks on in Washington was CGI. It was that well done. Velocity Visuals can be rightly proud of what they achieved.
David Latt, as regular viewers of this site will know, has a great sense of humour. In places, this shines through in the movie, but never at the expense of the drama. Make no mistake, this film is very respectful of the source material and any comedy is purely intentional.
Favourite amusing line? As the crown gathers around the first cylinder a woman says with disgust ‘Smells Like ass!!’’
Talking of humour, the end credits have some very amusing bits added in.
The serious dialogue is very powerful and well written and very well delivered by the cast.
The music by Ralph Rieckermann is suitably dramatic and the sound is very good. I actually jumped out of my seat once when the distraught parishioner slaps Pastor Victor around the face. The sound came out of my left TV speaker and I was looking around to see what made the noise before I realised what it was.
Oh, and sharp eyed viewers will notice another homage to Wells, the chapter names are based upon the book ones.
EXTRA! EXTRA!
There is both an actor’s and filmmaker’s commentary, which are both fun and full of interesting information about the process of producing a film such as this.
Also there is approximately 30 minutes worth of mini documentaries which give an interesting and fun insight into making the movie. They look like they all had a ball!
THE END.
Ok, that’s my review. I was both surprised and delighted with this film. These guys have proved you don't need a budget like the national debt of a small country to make an entertaining flick. I would thoroughly recommend this movie to anyone who loves the book and also to fans of Sci-Fi. It’s not totally faithful, but there is enough fun to be had spotting the book references. That and the fact it is a thoroughly entertaining take on this great story. Got to be worth a few of anyone’s Earth Currency Units!
I’m off to find more Asylum Films, I know I want to!
Find out more about this and other Asylum movies at ..
www.theasylum.cc
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