War of the Worlds

Saw War of the Worlds today and enjoyed it.

For those who may be curious, while watching it, I couldn't help but think of the whole attack as a cross between September 11th and what the US is doing to Iraq. Pictures of missing family members posted on fences and walls reminded me of the walls in New York after the towers fell. And it was made clear that the alien had come to Earth for something they wanted and just rolled over the native population. Of course, in the end Earth is freed from its conquers, I don't see that happening to Iraq anytime soon.

How does it stack up to the other versions? It's not as good as the book, but that almost always is the case, isn't it. It's better than the 1953 movie. And it's really different from the Wells radio broadcast.

Heard lots of people complain about the ending, but other than the fact that Boston is nearly untouched (I guess even evil aliens are scared of the rich people who live in Brown Stones) and another thing that may ruin something if I wrote it here, I liked the end. It was the end of the book, which is a great twist, if you don't know what it is.

I'm being careful not to spoil this movie for you, but I do want you to know that I had other problems with the movie, but not enough to destroy my enjoyment.

Oh, one that I can tell you about is Morgan Freeman doing the voice over at the beginning and ending of the movie. They could have found a more intense voice actor for the roll. My choice would have been Keith David (Goliath in Gargoyles and Spawn in Spawn), he has one of the best voices out there.

If you want to know more and don't mind spoilers, let me know.