H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005 film)

:Otheruses3|The War of the Worlds (film)Infobox Film | name =H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
caption ="H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds" movie poster
director = David Michael Latt
producer = David Rimawi
writer = David Michael Latt
Carlos De Los Rios
H. G. Wells (novel)
starring =C. Thomas Howell
music =Ralph Rieckermann
cinematography =
editing = David Michael Latt
distributor = The Asylum
released = June 28, 2005
runtime = 90 min
language = English
budget = $1,000,000 (estimated)
imdb_id = 0449040

"H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds" (also going by the title of "Invasion" and "H.G. Wells' The Worlds in War" ) is one of three film adaptations of "The War of the Worlds" novel released in 2005. Much like Spielberg's version, it is a modernized adaptation, but was released by the production company "The Asylum" and whose budget may be more on par with the Pendragon version. No theatrical release date had been planned; instead the film was a direct-to-DVD release. All three were released June of the same year.

The story tells of a man who is separated from his wife and child when a Martian invasion begins. He tries to make his way to Washington, D.C. to reunite with them as the world is torn apart.

The DVD was released on June 28, one day before Spielberg's film, and has a few notable stars including C. Thomas Howell, Peter Greene, and Jake Busey.

The alternate title of "Invasion" is likely for the film's overseas distribution since Paramount owns exclusive rights to the "War of the Worlds" title in the European Union.

Adapting the novel

Writer/Director David Michael Latt (who admits to never seeing the George Pál version) has made it clear that his film has changed certain aspects from the source material outside of the shift of time and location. Most notable is that the tripods have been changed to six-legged crab-like machines called "walkers" (a conception that mainly stems from allowing the effects team creative freedom).

The aliens are indeed Martians (though the film never states this, but this is confirmed by Latt complete with an opening credit sequence over shots of the Red Planet's landscape), but bear almost no visual resemblance to their novel's counterparts. Whereas Wells described his invaders as bear-sized tentacle creatures, the film's Martians are insect-like in their appearance with four legs. These aliens also have the ability to spit acid, which melts entirely anyone who is unfortunate enough to be attacked. They also have an appetite for humans as in the novel. In terms of their military action: the war machines are not tripods, but huge resemblances of the creatures themselves with six legs. By all accounts, their fighting machines do not appear to have heavy protection against modern human artillery, leaving their ability to effectively crush resistance unexplained. The aliens do have a substance vaguely similar to the black smoke, which they distribute in shells of some kind, but is more of a green colored gas with a notable inability to rise above ground level due to a similar density, allowing the characters to escape by getting to high places.

The protagonist of the film is named George Herbert, an obvious reference to H. G. Wells. Rather than being a writer, as in the novel, he is an astronomer, perhaps in reference to the character of Ogilvy - in a related deviation, the film does not attempt the voice-over narration that accompanies other versions of the story. Despite these differences, George nevertheless goes through much of what befalls the novel's protagonist, even up to preparing to sacrifice himself to the Martians, only for them to drop dead of infection before he has to do so. He is also separated from his wife and son with whom he tries to reunite once the invasion begins, and, like the novel, she and their son are alive in the conclusion. George's brother, a ranger, is less fortunate; he is seen only briefly, after being fatally wounded in the trail of destruction left by the invaders. A major deviation from the text is that the protagonist actually tries to produce a means of stopping the Martians, but the film does not elaborate on whether their eventual downfall is due to these efforts, or whether their deaths simply coincided with his efforts. The role played by the novel's Artilleryman is here divided into two characters, rather than being a single developing personality. The first time he is seen (as the character of Williams), he exhibits the initial, defeated status of his novelistic counterpart. He accompanies George as they move to unaffected areas, meeting soldiers oblivious to the danger they will soon face, until they become separated when George takes refuge underwater to elude the Martians. After his ordeal in the ruined house, George encounters Williams again, but the latter remains very much as he was before. Instead, the Artilleryman as he is portrayed in the novel's later stages is signified by another soldier, Samuelson, who both George and Williams encountered earlier. Though in a similar vein to the novel there is talk of recapturing the world, the plan to achieve this is by regrouping with military units in the mountains instead of going underground. In the pursuit of this plan, George is quickly realized as being more valuable to humanity than either Williams or Samuelson, as the efforts of scientists have won many wars before.

The unnamed Curate from the novel is portrayed in the film by a Pastor Victor. While the two characters are very similar (the Pastor mentions his church was rebuilt three years prior to the Martians), the Pastor is depicted as being fairly calm and is sure that the invasion is the Rapture. However, his faith is deeply shaken when he meets a congregate whose loss at the hands of the invaders has her screaming against God, causing the Pastor to question events and why he himself has yet to be taken. Unlike the Curate, the Pastor manages to keep his composure when he's trapped in the ruined house with George as he wrestles quietly with his thoughts. Whereas the Curate caused the narrator to subdue him and then taken away by the Martians unconscious, the Pastor regains his faith just before he is killed directly by the Martians.

The chapters on the DVD are named after the chapter titles in the novel, something also done for the Pendragon and Spielberg films.

War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave

Due to the success of the film, Asylum Production announced a sequel called: 'War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave'. The film was released straight to DVD on March 18, 2008. It starred C. Thomas Howell (who also directed the effort) and Christopher "Kid" Reid.

Plot

Taking place 2 years after the first invasion the aliens return to complete their plan of human domination. Appearing in a town of a few survivors a new type of Martian fighter arrives and vaporises all who come across it. Unlike the originals however these appear to be able to move through space at will. Hiding out in their home that was left untouched in the first invasion George and his son hear an odd sound from the radio used to talk with others. Eventually after reaching his work station George learns that the machines were controlled away from the planet and that the reason they could not see the invasion arriving was due to the use of a type of wormhole between Earth and Mars. Throughout the course of the film George meets another soldier who had his unit wiped out and is even captured as is his son. When the invasion truly begins we see a new group of battle ships used by the invaders including a flying machine and larger metallic machines used to attack Paris. Eventually using new technology and with help from a virus an air force team travels to Mars and destroyed the invaders home.

The movie closes with the noise in the beginning of the movie playing over again in the radio during a picnic. It is unclear what happened to George's wife however she died prior to the movie. If it was due to the first invasion or not is never announced. The ending gives a possible chance for another invasion to be on its way.

External links

* [http://www.theasylum.cc/cgi-bin/showMovie.cgi?id=10 Asylum's Page]
*imdb title|id=0449040|title=H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
*rotten-tomatoes|id=10005602-hg_wells_war_of_the_worlds|title=H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
* [http://www.waroftheworldsmovies.info/ War of the Worlds Movies.info]