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Post by ScarletFeelers on Apr 5, 2005 15:59:37 GMT
Dunno, but why's that FM in the background waving a big string of sausages about for?
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Post by themotile on Apr 5, 2005 16:01:44 GMT
Come on it's not that bad. I really think they are going for an art house look rather than the tripods looking real time. If anyones seen the incredibles they do the same thing, snippets in black and white. I just wanna see the film now, see how it all fits together. If the new meaning of the term 'art house' is 'shoddy, crappy and down right child like' then your spot on. Stare at it for a few seconds, it starts to give you a headache! Its completely without perspective, the legs are just big bendy nobbly things, for a film that is supposed to be amazingly close to the book these monstrositys are pretty bloody far of the mark.
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JonT
Full Member
Posts: 120
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Post by JonT on Apr 5, 2005 16:13:33 GMT
the more i look at this picture the more i realise how ugly these tripods are! the mechanical tentacles look like strings of sausages! they are way to fat, not sleek and elegant as how i imagine them to be.
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Post by the Donal on Apr 5, 2005 16:59:51 GMT
The trouble is, Rob, that yes, the impression of the film so far is that it will have a very strong 'arty' look, but Tim Hines also said that he wants this to be exactly like the book.
Tim Hines in an interview said that they had read between the lines of the book to get a picture of what the tripods looked like and that they discovered things that noody had thought of before- that we would get a few surprises and different insights into how Wells imagined them.
Well, if this is the finished design, it does appear that he did indeed read in between the lines. Not at them.
The overall picture of the huge machines from the book is, as we have all discussed before, ambiguous and alluded to through the eyes (and perspectives) of the story's observers throughout the book. But there are some things that are very clear. They had domed shaped hoods ("crawling about under a dish cover"- or "going to and fro under a big shield that unfolded into a huge walking machine" (I don't have my copy of the book to hand for dead on word for word transcription here but this is the general gist). The tripod had a complex body of machinery from which glittering cables dangled, with a metal basket on its back. Green puffs of vapour shot out of the joints of the legs (and, if I remember correctly, a cylindrical chimney shaped object behind the hood again ejecting green smoke). The heat ray is a camera like object with green light glittering about it's case, on a kind of mechanical arm.
So- let's take a look at the picure again (said in best Lloyd Grossman tones)- it's got three legs, the heatray is indeed on a mechanical arm, tentacles hang from the body. There are martians inside them. That's about where the similarities end for me. This is more 20,000 Leagues Beneath The Sea. Looking at the legs again, it looks very likely that what we have seen on the trailer could swing from beneath the machines in this picture.
I am surprised at myself getting into a rant about this- I have refrained from doing so on other threads- we are not certain at the moment that this is what the machines in the film will look like (but my certainty is growing). I think that really starting to see the growing gulf between what Tim Hines has said about the film and what he will actually be delivering. I was really hoping for something a little more special with the tripod design. Having said that, it is huge departure from the design of the handling machine, so it could still be old concept art (fingers tighly crossed!)
I only hope that the story is kept accurate and well told cinematically. I still won't judge it completely until I see the film, but my worries are growing. Just holding out for storytelling now folks.
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Apr 5, 2005 17:09:02 GMT
If we are to presume that is the Heat Ray attached to the arm protruding from the top of the hood, them Tim has used the books description of the first assult upon humans and left it at that. HG describes a mirror raised upon a apex that 'spun with a wobbling motion' - Surely this device is not that, mistaken as the Heat Ray. H_C
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Post by DaveJames on Apr 5, 2005 17:11:12 GMT
Well to be fair, that is a pretty bad scan that's online right now. The real picture looks much better (although the FMs still look like toy models).
As for the designs themselves, I agree it's not very consistent with the book. They DO have a very Victorian/classic scifi sort of look to them which I like though. The Jeff Wayne tripods aren't remotely close to the book either, and everybody seems to love them.
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Post by the Donal on Apr 5, 2005 17:18:17 GMT
Fair points H_C and Dave- but I am disappointed nonetheless. The design, if looked at independantly isn't bad (though legs seem over complicated), but toylike indeed. The book does state a camera like device for the tripod's weapon.
I also expected the tentacles to look sleeker- like cables, rather than spines, but we all have pictures in our minds from reading the book and no film vision will satisfy all of us. I do like the Michael Trim design as it was very striking at my young age and my first real introduction to War Of The Worlds in any form. But I have my own (incomplete) picture in my head whenever I read the book. I can quite easily keep them all seperate. I will be satisfied with the Spielberg Tripods purely due to the fact that I have accepted that the film will deviate from the book in many ways (but not too many I hope).
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Post by Anthony on Apr 5, 2005 17:20:03 GMT
THe thing that annoys me about the tripods, are the tenticles. Looks like "Bling Bling", chav tripods.
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Apr 5, 2005 17:21:54 GMT
The Jeff Wayne tripods aren't remotely close to the book either, and everybody seems to love them. Yes, because we have had 25 years to grow to like them, were Pendragon, we've had 24 hours ;D
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Post by tinckelly on Apr 5, 2005 17:24:54 GMT
Sorry but this picture is awful.
I can't believe that it's anything more than a concept/animatic piece. If it's seriously meant to be anything more than an animatic, the people responsible should be looking for other careers.
The design is pretty bad, but that is a matter of personal taste and style.
However, there's no way anyone could accept compositing like this, and in this day and age. 1950's Harryhausen film possibly, but not with today's tools.
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Post by DaveJames on Apr 5, 2005 17:44:03 GMT
Having the actual magazine, I can tell you it's not an animatic. It's clearly a real, physical model (cheap looking though it may be).
Oh by the way, I don't know if this was scanned in at eveofthewar too, but in the same magazine it mentions a new WOTW graphic novel coming out in June. Maybe those tripods will be more faithful to the book. The art looked pretty good.
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Post by DaveJames on Apr 5, 2005 17:50:10 GMT
Yes, because we have had 25 years to grow to like them, were Pendragon, we've had 24 hours ;D Good point. ;D If nothing else, they're certainly more consistent with the book than the manta rays from the 53 film! You have to give them that. lol
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Apr 5, 2005 17:52:54 GMT
Oh by the way, I don't know if this was scanned in at eveofthewar too, but in the same magazine it mentions a new WOTW graphic novel coming out in June. Maybe those tripods will be more faithful to the book. The art looked pretty good. This could be the Jeff Wayne comics/graphic novels
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Post by tinckelly on Apr 5, 2005 17:57:49 GMT
That's even more depressing. To think someone thought that design good enough to actually, physically BUILD a model of it, and then allow a phot of it to appear in print.
Luckily these Martians will be easily defeated, by the packs of wild dogs who will chase them down the street. Those strings of sausages dangling from the tripods will be just too tempting. :-)
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Post by DaveJames on Apr 5, 2005 18:38:09 GMT
This could be the Jeff Wayne comics/graphic novels Possibly, but there was no mention of Jeff Wayne in the interview. And the tripod on the cover wasn't a JW tripod.
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Post by Anthony on Apr 5, 2005 19:11:47 GMT
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Post by Stewymartian on Apr 5, 2005 19:29:29 GMT
No, sorry, I don't like them. It looks like lego/mechano models standing in front a picture of Westminster. And sepia! I'm going to be very disappointed if this film is presented in some sort of crap-o-rama sepia effect. I hope we'll see better than this in the finished film.
Still, the appearance of this article does at least show that the project is not yet dead.
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Post by Thunder Child on Apr 5, 2005 19:40:55 GMT
I think that these are not THE fighting machines from the film. I think they are concept designs. they actually look a lot like the ones from the first concept picture from the aborted 2001 version. I find it very strange that they give out the tripod design, while Hines stated in a interview that he wanted to surprise the people when they see the film... Johan
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Post by Anthony on Apr 5, 2005 19:42:45 GMT
Why would pendragon suply CFQ with an abandoned image from 2001?
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Post by FALLINGSTAR on Apr 5, 2005 19:53:57 GMT
The actual design itself I think is quite good and it's certainly better than a lot of the fighting machine designs I've seen. BUT, it isn't totally faithful to the books description like Hines has said it will be and those tentacles DO look like a string of sausages. Not sure what to make of the actual heatray either.
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