The War of the Worlds

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Steve, A.J.

When I first saw this as the age of 3, it gave me nightmares for years after. It also started my fascination with science fiction. I read up on everything War of the Worlds, other H.G. Wells novels, which lead to Jules Verne and other sci-fi adventure stuff. Good times.

What got me, I think, is the idea of being completely powerless against a superior malevolent intelligence. That and the noises those periscope things made. They still freak me out to this day. The Farmhouse scene with the probe and then the creature was always a pretty tense moment too.

The Old School effects are fun to watch now, on my new dvd you can see all the strings that were't visible on VHS. Some cool miniature stuff and an iconic ship design that I was surprised to find pop up elsewhere earlier this year.

You can see Speilberg's love for this film. Not only did he remake it, but there are a lot of references to it in his other film, mainly the alien design of E.T. which is pretty much just these aliens but with more of a face. I actually really love his version of the film to, I should give that a watch again.

This version is really heavy on the religious angle but even so, it's one of my all time favourite sci-fi classics.