War of the Worlds Dvd Review

[Sithlord]

I guess I'm getting in early with the latest dvd reviews lucky me. I just watched WOTW (Region 4) last night and Batman Begins now has some competition in the sound department. Incredible is 1 word to describe this dvd for sound. I hope your sub is ready because this track (DTS) will push it to new boundaries. The opening of the Tripod coming out of the ground at the start is enough to make you sit up and take notice. There are so many scenes where bass is just used perfectly and the overall soundstage is very immersive, it's everything I remember from seeing it at the movies.

Ok as for the PQ some of you are going to be disappointed. Again Speilberg has gone the grainy option like Saving Private Ryan but for me it wasn't a problem as it does suit this movie.

I'm looking forward to what others think of this dvd. Enjoy :T

[George Bellefontaine]

It's not released until next Tuesday in this part of the world. I'll be buying it for sure and will post my remarks after I get a chance to view it. Looking forward to the sound. The grainy PQ doesn't really bother me.

[saurabh]

It's not released until next Tuesday in this part of the world. I'll be buying it for sure and will post my remarks after I get a chance to view it.

The funny thing is that the DVDrip of WOTW was released in the first week of Nov itself :lol: in the P2P. But I will wait for its "Official" DVD release and since my rental store procures it directly from distributors in US, I dont even have to wait till it is released here!!(which takes another few weeks). :T

[Azeke]

Indeed, I saw this at the movies and immediately thought I can't wait for the DVD. I wait with breathless anticipation. Thanks for the early review.

Regards,

Azeke

[NMyTree]

Is there only one version of this movie on DVD, thus far, or do they have some kind of "Directors Cut/Special Edition" in the works?

I haven't seen this remake yet, but I plan on getting the DVD soon.

[Sonnie Parker]

My copy shipped on Tuesday of this week so I hope to have it tomorrow. I seem to get them a little early with DeepDiscountDVD.

I can't wait.

I got Madagascar in today.

[ht_addict]

My copy shipped on Tuesday of this week so I hope to have it tomorrow. I seem to get them a little early with DeepDiscountDVD.

I can't wait.

I got Madagascar in today.

This is one DVD I've been looking to get for a while. Can't wait too see how my new Denon 4806 sounds with it. On another note I have a local dealer who also sells on the net and when he gets his DVD's in(usually 2wks early) he'll sell them too you if you ask. All I have too do is check his website and anything in red is in. Right now I could get Mr/Mrs Smith and Sky High(release 29th Nov) right now. But I think I'll wait.

[Leef DaLucky]

Yowsa! That was some impressive base.
At one point, my hot chocolate mug was almost skipping across the table.
Fun!
good visuals on this disk too.
You're right about the grain though. im not a huge fan of this particular effect.
EASILY a new Bass reference disk, though. wow!

[Lex]

interesting flick. Anybody see the effect of the chiwaua dog hiding it's head? Oh wait, that was on my sofa. Kiwi was scared quite a bit of the movie, lol.

I enjoyed it, but felt it ended a bit short and abruptly.

[Danbry39]

I remember the original film from the '50's. Also have read the book and listened to the Orson Welles broadcast. I wasn't expecting much, but was blown away. The special effects and sound quality were pretty dang good. They did a good job on the story as well, imo. Barely thought I'd rent the thing, but now I'll have to buy it.

[dan87951]

For all you with bass shakers a great movie to scare your date/wife with...

[Chris D]

I saw this for free on TV this past week. Decent movie, but not one I'd want to buy for the story/movie. Tempted to buy it just for the sound, though! I think it would rock in my theater.

[Big Gav]

Well Ill be dammed if that film did not get my DD18 huffing and puffing. What a ride! It convinces anyone who does not see the need of a good sub that they should be getting out the plastic in a hurry. Mark my words this will be the Demo DVD of the Christmas rush and probably CES too!

[Shane Martin]

Considering I have multiple other demo dvds, I felt I would not buy this movie. It is the only reason to buy it. Weak story and overall movie. Worth 1 watch and that's it.

[Kingdaddy]

Can anyone explain why the aliens at first phaser everyone then halfway through the movie they start collecting people and spraying their blood all over the place, I don’t get it. And what is up with the growing veins that the blood is supposed to fertilize.

Was this in the original story?

[Chris D]

Well, found a deal for this one at $14.99, so I picked it up just to see what the fuss is about with the sound in a hi-fi system. (I had watched the movie on a dinky hotel room TV before)

[Nick M]

I saw this in theaters and wasn't excited by it. I'm going to pass, as I have Master & Commander, Episode I, Open Range, and Pixar films for demo material already (along with my 12-25hz 3sec sine wav burst CD!).

Here was my previous review...

Just saw it.

Shane I would agree whole-heartedly with your trusted reviewer.

The first 1/3 of the movie was great with incredible special effects. The casting and acting were excellent.

Somewhere in the middle it lost it's heart-pounding momentum and slowed back down to five under the speed limit. At some point it just became another blow-em up action film that had me yawning. The guy next to me actually fell asleep, I couldn't believe it, he was snoring! :rofl:

Anyhoo, I guess its worth a watch if you're bored. I'd wait for it on DVD though. Certainly not on par with Jaws or ET as some have said (IMHO).

:3: out of :5:

[H.Donald]

I watched it last night....it certainly gave my sub a workout and it had the walls,dog,kids and everything else shaking.I enjoyed it all for the effects......but,overall,not much else.....

[Burke Strickland]

The ending of the 2005 version of "War of the Worlds" reminded me of "Shenendoah" a Civil War tale from the 1960s -- a far different movie, but the final scene had the same tear-jerking kind of closure, with the "how was that possible" questions left for later.

Overall, fans of horror flicks may like it even better than sci-fi fans. Impressive as all get out, but it isn't "fun to watch" like "The Fifth Element". In fact it wasn't "fun" at all. Harrowing, nerve wracking, horrifying not exhilarating. After all, we didn't actually "win" the war, we just survived a virus attack.

Although this was a special effects thriller, most of which were pretty awesome, I felt some of the effects (such as the "spying eye on a snake") were just about as hokey as the parallel effects in the 1953 version (with it's tri-colored lense array). Too much like what an earth-bound imagination would produce with today's technology (which is what it is of course) -- looked like a TV set swallowed by a sea serpent -- rather than something an alien civilization working on it for a million years would produce, and so it was non-awe-inspiring even if it was sort-of like the description in the book in both cases.

That little girl who was the Cruise character's daughter sure screamed an awful lot -- a really disturbed child in a wildly disfunctional family. I don't think they quite pulled off showing a logical reason why she was so quiet when the aliens were prancing around the basement, or when she saw all the dead people floating in the river, when so many relatively benign things set off her siren before. Maybe she was just numbed by it all by then. But if so, then why did she start screaming again before they had reached safety?

I think Tom Cruise has demonstrated once again that in the hands of the right director, he can convincingly portray a persona other than a brainless hunk. The "right dirctor" includes Oliver Stone, Brian De Palma, Paul Brickman, Edward Zwick and Steven Spielberg -- twice. So it's not just a one-time (or one-team) fluke. On the other hand, we can only hope he never crosses paths with Roger Donaldson or Tony Scott again. :>)

The DVD looks great via my front projection system. Proper contrast beween light and shadow, plenty of shadow detail, life-like colors and clear images worthy of the modern release that it is. The sound is very intense. In a perverse way, that''s a compliment. The soundtrack was very effective in underscoring the horrific events on screen -- you knew something bad was about to happen when the bass started rippling the carpet on the floor of my HT. :>) This movie is the only time in my years of movie watching when I felt like throwing up just from listening to a movie (if "listening" is what you call the process that induces a gut ache from relentless bass).

This DVD is a reference disc in many ways. (I'm told it even has some extras that are worth checking out.) It will probably serve that way for me - I will play selected scenes for demo(lition of anything not bolted down), :>) but not the whole movie all the way through very many times again, if ever.

Burke

[Karma]

Keep the Volume Down a Little

HI All,
I bought the DVD on Fri and watched it that night. I don't think it is one of Steve's Best Efforts.

But the SOUND!! WOW!! I had the volume turned up a bit and was watching the DTS version (Dolby Digital is the other option). In the first third of the movie there is a lightning strike that absolutely raised the roof. It hit then----silence. Real silence. My Denon 3805 7 channel receiver simply shut down. I had to cycle the power to get things going again. It was the loudest sound I have ever heard from a movie.

For a moment I sat there in a stunned state of shock. Once things were running again I went around the room with my ear up to each speaker to make sure I hadn't smoked a voice coil. I didn't. I then watched the rest of the move with the volume reduced a bit.

So, good folks, this is a warning. You will hear it coming. Time to hit the remote or head for cover or both.

Sparky

[David Meek]

I don't have this DVD yet. It's on my "banned due to Christmas coming" list. :

The sound clip I'm most interested in hearing is the firing of the heat ray. That just sounded so cool in the theater.

[RobP]

I got to watch this movie using a Wilson Audio watch dog subwoofer, oh my, oh my what a impressive sub, There is one scene where they are hanging out in that basement right before the snake thing came through, there is a subtle subsonic ripple that came across the floor that I had never felt before with my other subwoofers, it was very impressive.

[Sonnie Parker]

This is one I just as soon take back if I could. I was somewhat disappointed. While a good sound disk the PQ was not what I would have expected and the storyline was lacking. The movie needed more something. It seemed to have ended too quick... like they had to hurry up and get finished. Too many boring scenes as well.

2 out of 5 stars for me. I was expecting better from the type of people involved in the film.

[Sithlord]

It does help to read the book or have some knowledge of the movie as it does explain why it ends so abruptly. Some scenes did drag on a bit like the cellar scene but others just had so much impact. The thing that is different about this movie opposed to others is it doesn't flash b/w different people or countries it stays with just 1 person which was Spielbergs intention and some viewers found that boring. Unfortunalty when we see a alien invasion movie we expect something like Independence Day which WOTW is certainly not thank god. I for one enjoyed Speilbergs interpretation of the book and have added it to my dvd collection. :T

[Chris D]

Okay, finally watched the DVD in my theater at full volume. Wow, yeah, I was very impressed with the emergence scene of the first alien craft. Lots of subsonic bass that worked both my transducers and subs. I think I actually heard one my my Dual SVS PC-Ultra subs bottom out. (VERY, VERY hard to do)

Yeah, though, the PQ really is substandard. Not something you really can use for demo purposes, with the SQ so good but the PQ so not-so-good.

[saurabh]

Yeah, though, the PQ really is substandard.

I agree, the PQ is so grainy that you actually wonder if its a DVD movie you are watching or what !!!!

[P-Dub]

I have to agree on the picture quality. I saw this over the Christmas holidays at my cousins. He has nice Maratz S2 projector and I thought there was something seriously wrong with his calibration. I knew it couldn't be that as we had calibrated it a few months ago. I didn't want to say anything as once you mention it, that's all you would notice.

It took a few minutes before I stopped wondering about the graininess of the picture. I think it was during the thunder storm.

That is some serious bass.

Story wise, I don't get the ending, I tried to explain it as the earthly bacteria finally did the aliens in, just like the old movie. I don't get the blood spraying, maybe a form of tera farming? Remold the planet to become livable for the aliens?

This isn't a movie I would add to my collection. I think I'll just borrow it for the demo scenes.

[George Bellefontaine]

Wife and I finally got around to watching this last night. All I can say is, if we really were under attack by aliens, this is how it would probably be. And that is downright scary. I liked it and will watch it again.

PQ ? Well look at some of Speilberg's recent work. Saving Private Ryan, Artificial Intelligence, etc. They all have that somewhat grainy, different coloring look to them. It's okay once you adjust to it.

Sound ? Holy sh-- ! :E

[RobP]

This movie has become one of our "demo" movies that we show when people come over and want to hear our system, the surround effects are really top notch. There is one scene where the alien probe is looking through the basement of that old farmhouse and scares up a rat. It sounds as if its really running across your floor. Great stuff.

[saurabh]

Story wise, I don't get the ending, I tried to explain it as the earthly bacteria finally did the aliens in, just like the old movie.

Well you have to co-relate two things, initially in the movie when tom cruise asks her little girl to show her hand since something had penetrated into the skin, the girl says that the "body will throw it out".

So in the end the same thing happens, the aliens drink our blood and the blood cells makes them sick and die.

[Burke Strickland]

PQ ? Well look at some of Speilberg's recent work. Saving Private Ryan, Artificial Intelligence, etc. They all have that somewhat grainy, different coloring look to them. It's okay once you adjust to it.

Exactly! Spielberg seemed to be going for a 1960s look on this one. (Check out "In The Heat Of The Night" to see what I mean.) The DVD is a pretty accurate representation of how the film is supposed to look. IMO, that's a GOOD thing.

Burke

[aud19]

FINALLY watched this the other night... (I know :roll: )

I agree, the film grain seems to have been intentional and didn't bother me. Othewise the PQ was good but nothing exceptional however the camer work is quite good :T The sound was awesome but Jazz wouldn't let me turn it up too loud...so I may have to watch this again when she's not home sometime :twisted:

Otherwise, I thought it was well done, a touch long and the anding seemed a tad abbreviated... but otherwise well acted, adapted etc. I also agree that it seemed like what an alien invasion could be like and was scary as %^#$ at times! 8O

I'll give it a 3.75/5 :T

[George Bellefontaine]

The sound was awesome but Jazz wouldn't let me turn it up too loud...so I may have to watch this again when she's not home sometime :twisted

Oh, yeah, you gotta play this at as close to reference as possible. There are some really amazing things happening in the audio.

[aud19]

I plan too!

[Chris D]

Yeah, the scene of the first emergence of the alien craft from underneath the ground is demo quality for audio.