The War of the Worlds (2005) - Trailers

The War of the Worlds has even come out, yet based on the trailers, it is obvious that Ron Howard and company are confident that they have a summer hit on their hands. When trailers fail to give away anything but at the same time provide the tone and quality production, it means that either the movie is a total disaster because it doesn't have any content or that its so full of the real stuff that the trailers don't need to do anything but to suggest and lure and provide name recognition leading up to the opening of the movie. In the same vein as The Sixth Sense, Independence Day, the big blockbuster of the war awaits (minus Revenge of the Sith).

Ron Howard? I didn't think he had anything to do with it.

I was disappointed when I realised they weren't putting it in its proper time setting as in the original novel but at least the CGI doesn't look like a LEGO construction set as it did in some of the early trailers. Do you think it'll add anything compared to the previous film (which I thought was excellent considering when it was made)?

Cheers Trev.

When the original War of the Worlds movie came out in 1953, it probably didn't have the proper time setting either when considering the book. The nature of this movie is probably more aptly released and shown in contemporary terms as if it could be happening right now so that the audience can most identify with it. What is going to be delicate is the balance between special effects and the storyline itself, the human drama, the human emotions, fear, turmoil of the unknown while the special effects are supposedly there to make it feel as real as possible, not fantastic.

By the time I really saw the original version, the movie was dated by the next decade, typical of the many of the war movies of the 40s and 50s. The special effects were acceptable and really it wasn't so much the special effects as the formulaic acting that was involved that was distracted for me. The Day The Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet (special effects) still are my top choices for 1950s sci fi movies, and perhaps This Island Earth.

To adapt the story to suit contemporary values and thoughts will leave very little of the original novel written in 1898 or indeed the original movie, values and attitudes have changed a great deal in the last 50 years.

Religion doesn't have the hold that it did and whereas the original novel used the fears of new discoveries, inventions, war in Europe, it was also an attack against British colonisation.

The original film used the fear steeped up by the cold war and of course the first mutterings about space travel, but where do we stand now? Will the aliens be destroyed by some form of s.t.d.? What in this day and age causes fear in the U.S?

Cheers Trev.

Our leaders.

trevor826 response is brilliant, his question effective and relevantly on target.

What is the contemporary value and social mood of today's society that a movie such as War of the World might tap into?

Today the United States and to a lesser extent the rest of the world is at war, albeit, one of the undeclared wars with Iraq, a rather mysterious Country for westerners with strange customs and a drastically different religion. We have foreign terrorist that have crept onto our soil and for the first time in our history we have been invaded by a power that is strange to us. Today global warming appears to have sparked a natural weather rebellion across the globe, indeed these are strange days, terrifying days for many people. Our country is divided and polarized, most of us distrust our President and Congress, our government according new survey polls, perhaps many of us feel helpless in face of the turmoil and anxiety each of us are facing day to day.

War of the Worlds, now presents to its audience, perhaps, an greater explanation, beyond ourselves, our weather patterns, our government, our societies, an explanation of greater terror and uncertainty...perhaps to distract ourselves from the real threat, to assauge our fears with some sort of optimistic message at the end with signs of hope? Today, more than ever, our Country appears adrift without a moral compass, without consensus. Hopefully the War of the Worlds will provide us some respite, some emotional reassurance as both the world in the movie and the world in real life seem to be falling apart for reasons none of us can quite grasp or understand? Who is the enemy? In real life it seems so elusive, so hidden...yet the death toll and pain and suffering seem to keep mounting. Hoping Ron Howard has been able to capture a major movie for our times.

Ron Howard is not involved in any capacity.

A trailer that doesn't have to resort to showing much about the movie it's trying to sell, strongly indicates to me the quality of the movie directed by Ron Howard, regardless of his non-involvement in the trailer. Just by his involvement in the movie he has been able to influence the trailer and those involved in putting it together.

Ron Howard's War of the Worlds is gonna be great! I can't wait to see it.

This will be a stretch for "Little Ronnie"- he hasn't made a movie this epic since Apollo 13.

I hope Fonzie has a cameo...

I think tabuno does...