Reply With QuoteUsing a movie review to plug youth rights
http://www.oneandfour.org/archives/2..._the_worl.html
War of the Worlds - Ratings are Meaningless (spoilers)
I went to see War of the Worlds today, as is the tradition (to see a movie) on my birthday, and it wasn't at all what I expected. I was thinking a light, kinda cheesy, action packed, summer popcorn movie. Like Independence Day or Armageddon. Or like other Spielberg movies. Jurassic Park, or ET or something.
That was not this movie.
No plucky comic relief. No romance. No inspiring, uplifting glimpses at the best of humanity. No cheesy speeches or impossible scenarios. Quite the opposite. This was a PG-13 horror movie. Better acronyms to describe it are dark, grim, horrific, and gruesome.
In fact this movie was more difficult to sit through than 95% of the R rated movies I've seen. Which is why ratings are really quite stupid and meaningless.
Unlike some cheesy slasher pic, this didn't have fountains of blood. This didn't have some lame looking brain spill out of someone's skull. That stuff is about as scary and difficult to watch as Wiley Coyote getting an Acme safe dropped on him. That those movies are rated R is just a joke. War of the Worlds is much worse.
For those who don't know, War of the Worlds is a book written by H.G. Wells like 100 years ago. It is about an alien invasion. Aliens land (or rise from the ground in fact), and proceed to exterminate humanity. Cheerful premise.
Now of course this is exactly the same premise as Independence Day, yet the two movies couldn't be more different. In Independence Day big ships positioned themselves over big cities, fired a big laser, and wiped out the whole cities. Horrible to think about, but a very sanitized way to present it. Like a modern American war you can sit back and munch popcorn while watching. Distant and removed from the real people and the real damage being done. That is how the movie presented it too. You never really got up close and were brought face to face with what being exterminated feels like.
Continue reading "War of the Worlds - Ratings are Meaningless (spoilers)"... »
War of the Worlds does that. Instead of sitting in their spaceships, the aliens this time were in huge tripod walkers that moved through cities killing individual people and buildings. They weren't just big flying saucers, they were these grotesque, awkward looking exterminators. Very different feel.
Anyways, the worst parts -- for me -- were the scenes not with the aliens, but with the remaining human population. September 11 showed us the best of humanity in a crisis, War of the Worlds showed us some of the worse. Just some really hard to watch scenes of crowds of people who know they are going to die and throw off the constraints of civilization as they grasp for any faint hope of saving themselves. Brutal behavior and indifference. Not just by the mob, but by Tom Cruise's character too. Moments of heroism were rare.
Moments of levity are not present at all. Its nonstop death, destruction and full on extermination. Very few moments even of pause where the audience can catch its breath. Now in a fast paced (and fun) action movie, that can be alright (sometimes). But in something as heavy as this, boy we needed some breaks. Of course that wouldn't be realistic. Being exterminated is a pretty serious thing.
While the story centered more on a family just trying to run and hide, there were some scenes where we saw parts of the attempt to fight back. But there was no fighting back. Its like trying to fight a US air force and tank corps with blot darts and rocks. Futile.
So yea, not a light happy movie. Yet it is a PG-13. Apparently MPAA doesn't have a rubric for human extermination and the worst of human nature. Though of course if it said the F word -- holy ****, definitely an R. Or showed a nipple. Nipples are evil, certainly. Or if someone's head got chopped off and a 6 foot geyser of blood gushed out. Those are all things that fit under the ridiculous rubrics of the MPAA that win them R ratings. Yet this movie which is far more difficult for me to watch (not a squeamish person) is given a PG-13.
Go figure.
Just get rid of the damn ratings, or revise them to actually provide some information about the movie instead of neat categories that are absolutely meaningless. If I were a parent, and if I were a parent that thought kids should be shielded from certain movies (not really), then I'd much prefer my kids to see some lame Rambo movie, or Schwarzenegger movie than War of the Worlds.
Before I close, one small tangent. I am a bit disappointed in this movie from a youth rights context. Throughout most of the movie the father, Tom Cruise, tried to hide the reality of the situation from his kids. Outside the world is coming to an end, and buildings are being destroyed and people are being killed by the hundreds, and the girl rightfully is pretty freaked out. Especially when her dad starts yelling at her to get in the car, don't ask questions, don't look around, just do what I say. As if that is going to calm her down. She, and especially her older brother, deserved to know what the heck was going on. Not only because there were huge things happening and they had a right to know what, but their very survival would, I think, depend on it. Keeping them in the dark does no one any good.
Ok. Review over.
post comments here, please:
http://www.oneandfour.org/archives/2..._the_worl.html
Captain of Team Apolyton - ISDG 2012
When I was younger I thought curfews were silly, but now as the daughter of a young woman, I appreciate them. - Rah
Using a movie review to plug youth rights
Good review Ozzie.
If I were a parent, and if I were a parent that thought kids should be shielded from certain movies (not really), then I'd much prefer my kids to see some lame Rambo movie, or Schwarzenegger movie than War of the Worlds.
Trust me - when you have that three year-old staring openly at everything and anything on the TV, you'll want to shield your kids.
However, if they were old enough to see Rambo/Schwarzenegger, then I'd prefer they watch WotW. It's just a better movie. Too dark? Eh, at the worst they'll have nightmares for a couple of weeks - it's part of the fun of being young.
The idea of Cruise barking out orders and keeping the kids ignorant was to show that he wasn't a good dad, not that "ignorance is bliss" is a valid parenting technique. However, I wouldn't have told a child Dakota's age that her mom was dead, especially not that soon in the war - she'd come to the realization eventually.
I cross-posted that to your blog. The one that forces you to use the HTML paragraph tag to achieve even the most basic of essay structures - the paragraph.
Even if they messed up this one rating, it's better to have a slightly flawed rating system than none at all. You deal in absolutes.
Only a SITH deals in absolutes, Wiglaf.
"You're the biggest user of hindsight that I've ever known. Your favorite team, in any sport, is the one that just won. If you were a woman, you'd likely be a slut." - Slowwhand, to Imran
Eschewing silly games since December 4, 2005
Originally posted by Wiglaf
Even if they messed up this one rating, it's better to have a slightly flawed rating system than none at all. You deal in absolutes.
Read.Just get rid of the damn ratings, or revise them to actually provide some information about the movie instead of neat categories that are absolutely meaningless.
Captain of Team Apolyton - ISDG 2012
When I was younger I thought curfews were silly, but now as the daughter of a young woman, I appreciate them. - Rah
Wiglaf, Chancellor Palpatine is EVIL!
Oh, and Ozzy
Using a movie review as an excuse to plug Youth Rights
"You're the biggest user of hindsight that I've ever known. Your favorite team, in any sport, is the one that just won. If you were a woman, you'd likely be a slut." - Slowwhand, to Imran
Eschewing silly games since December 4, 2005
No, the ratings are fine and very simple. Either you need to be 18 to see the movie or you don't.
This is very effective at keeping the potentially dangerous crap, like a movie glorifying violence/orgy/school shootings/etc, out of the young minds.
And having seen War of the Worlds, I don't think there's too much in there that glorifies violence or sex parties. It harps on human nature, 9/11, martians, and vampirism - you might have a point on the vampirism - but that's about it. I don't think your case holds water., youth advocate.
Only a SITH deals in absolutes, Wiglaf.Originally posted by Wiglaf
No, the ratings are fine and very simple. Either you need to be 18 to see the movie or you don't.
"You're the biggest user of hindsight that I've ever known. Your favorite team, in any sport, is the one that just won. If you were a woman, you'd likely be a slut." - Slowwhand, to Imran
Eschewing silly games since December 4, 2005
I hold elected office , I have dealt with radio attack ads calling me a bad parent - but wait, I don't have kids.So I'm no stranger to those kinds of false intimations.
About the youth rights movement :: for Ozzy and his priests to call their organization the "Last Civil Rights movement" is borderline insulting. Civil Rights movements are created of acknowleged oppression.
First of all, few kids care about youth rights at all, so there goes acknowlegement. The youth organization has relatively few members.
Second, and most important, preventing a 16 year old from watching brains spilling everywhere is hardly oppressive (I'd say it's beneficial), especially considered the scope of evil past civil rights movements have had to deal with.
All this talk about lowering the voting/drinking age 2-3 years under the guise of a legitimate crusade for the rights of the comman man is sort of hokey. It's kind of funny to cruise the forums and find "f--- ignorant adults who don't treat us fairly" and even Ozzy's avatar, "FU Ageist."
Susan B Anthony and Frederick Douglass could've used some of your guys' vocabulary.
Beautiful self-pwnage.Originally posted by Wiglaf
This is very effective at keeping the potentially dangerous crap, like a movie glorifying violence/orgy/school shootings/etc, out of the young minds.
Where do you live? If ever there was a good cause in need of extra donations, this is it.Originally posted by Wiglaf
I hold elected office , I have dealt with radio attack ads calling me a bad parent - but wait, I don't have kids.
Captain of Team Apolyton - ISDG 2012
When I was younger I thought curfews were silly, but now as the daughter of a young woman, I appreciate them. - Rah
Using a movie review to plug politics
Visit First Cultural Industries
There are reasons why I believe mankind should live in cities and let nature reclaim all the villages with the exception of a few we keep on display as horrific reminders of rural life.-Starchild
Meat eating and the dominance and force projected over animals that is acompanies it is a gateway or parallel to other prejudiced beliefs such as classism, misogyny, and even racism. -General Ludd
Awesome movie
One thing I never got about the plot of the Novel and subsequent movies, is that one would think that the question of survival in the enviroment would be the first question an advanced alien power would consider when considering invasion.
I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio
There is already a thread on this.
http://67.15.24.46/~apolyton/forums/...hreadid=135620
Last edited by nostromo; July 3, 2005 at 14:24.
Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy – Lessing
Their point was not invasion, but extinction. I understood it as some kind of sport or entertainment.
OMG!!11Originally posted by Wiglaf
I hold elected office
Nooooooooooooooooooo.....
Only feebs vote.
Yeah. He's been voted village idiot 3 years running!
Speaking of Erith:
"It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith
They probably elected him caretaker of the community's shared gardening equipment and stuff garage...
Did you read the preface in the original novel? The line about 'vast cool intellects'?
It was an invasion plan.
For an extermination-conquest, ID4 is actually (slightly) more realistic. If all you want is to have usable landmass left over, the options given in 'Galactic Civilizations' are much more realistic. 'Slingshot' asteroids, drop camera guided lead bars from orbit (the pentagons 'deep penetrators'), chemical toxins that break down in a few years. Kill off 90%, force the survivors into bunkers where they're irrelevant, and you've won.
It's not romantic, but a real large scale solar system invasion would be decided at ranges measured in AU, with long range missiles and lasers, (much like in the Hyperion novels).
The whole planetary invasion panoply, the drop ships, walkers, battle armour, etc etc, would only be needed (and would be enormously expensive) if you wanted to keep the population mostly intact for some reason (like it says in 'Galactic Civ', "ahh yes, slaves....you can never have enough slaves").
Even in Independence Day it's not as pushbutton as it would really be....if their goal is just to smash major population centres and fixed military bases, why stay in earth's atmosphere where all our weapons are effective? Why not just stay in LEO and use big chunk's o' rock instead of fancy energy intensive beams??!
I love the novel though...the only way they had to take out a walker was heavy artillery at a terrible loss ratio.
"Wait a minute..this isn''t FAUX dive, it's just a DIVE!"
"...Mangy dog staggering about, looking vainly for a place to die."
"sauna stories? There are no 'sauna stories'.. I mean.. sauna is sauna. You do by the laws of sauna." -P.
Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Yeah. He's been voted village idiot 3 years running!
Captain of Team Apolyton - ISDG 2012
When I was younger I thought curfews were silly, but now as the daughter of a young woman, I appreciate them. - Rah
I agree.Originally posted by Lord Nuclear
Good review Ozzie.
It was a great movie.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.
Join Eventis, the land of spam and unspeakable horrors!
As to the why not bombard from orbit deal, Moo3 answers this fairly well, until you get a good sized empire going with lots of technology you just don't have the punch to bomb out a world.
Invading with troops and working the local population to death is the cheapest way to exterminate some group as we've seen here on earth.
Who needs punch when you've got patience? The easiest way, by far, is to let nature do the work for you. If you're a spacefaring emire, then orbital mechanics are a breeze. Just nudge a few comets into orbits that will hit the planet and wait for the dust to settle. The whole plan might take a few decades or centuries but that's nothing.Originally posted by Whoha
As to the why not bombard from orbit deal, Moo3 answers this fairly well, until you get a good sized empire going with lots of technology you just don't have the punch to bomb out a world.
Invading with troops and working the local population to death is the cheapest way to exterminate some group as we've seen here on earth.
Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
-Richard Dawkins
It might not even take that long, if there's one anywhere nearby.
I think the whole bit with the blood was unnecessary & didn't fit into the story. Also the human capitives. If it's an extermination why do they need the humans/blood?
I'm consitently stupid- Japher
I think that opinion in the United States is decidedly different from the rest of the world because we have a free press -- by free, I mean a virgorously presented right wing point of view on the air and available to all.- Ned
I saw War of the Worlds yesterday and I loved it.
I thought it was much better than Independence Day.
This is where an awesome Mark Twain quote would be, but Apolyton says it would be too many lines. :(
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks