Having recently seen the BBC version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS I knew there was also another version of HG Wells story being produced at the same and was advertised as a "reimagining" . It couldn't possibly be worse than the BBC turkey but I don't like the word "reimagining" and the lukewarm early reviews on this page meant I almost gave it a miss. I did get round to seeing it and I'm in two distinct minds as to what I've seen
First of all I'm in total agreement with the people who say if it had a different title people wouldn't be so critical. Remembering my days at film school one thing that doesn't fall under copyright is the title of a film so it's a very cynical exercise calling this WAR OF THE WORLDS because there's with the exception of the premise of an alien invasion there's not one single scene that has been inspired by HG Wells novel., so I'll judge it as an original SF drama
It's not all that original either but it is highly impressive as what it does. Most of humanity are wiped out by an energy pulse of some kind and a handful of survivors in London and France find themselves struggling against an unknown alien menace. The first couple of episodes are outstanding and I was instantly reminded of the works of Nigel Kneale , John Wyndham and all my other favourite science fiction writers. This resembles QUATRMASS meets 28 DAYS LATER and had me on the edge of my seat. The only fly in the ointment is that the characters seem to jump to conclusions too quickly - if you surround yourself in metal you'll be safe from the pulse effect - which struck me as contrived writing
Sadly the writing becomes more contrived as it goes along . To be fair none of the character plot turns come out of nowhere but the more we see of Emily and her French counterpart the less we see of heart pounding scenes like the French army expedition to a supermarket. There's also an annoying internal continuity where the alien "hunter dogs" are able to kill red shirt type characters with no problem but are unable to do so when it's a major character important to the plot. The main reason this is so annoying is because it's a show that hints it's not going to play things safe and isn't scared to kill off characters which it does . Another unfortunate thing is that " character development " qualifies as soap opera melodrama
As much as I enjoyed WOTW in places as it went along one thing that did worry me in the last couple of episodes is how things would be resolved. With modern television it's not enough to keep faith in the central plot , producers insist on adding more plot turns and twists as if to say "Please recommission us for another ten years and we will tie up all the loose ends" . I'm afraid this show ends on another cliffhanger which leaves the audience none the wiser as to the motives of the aliens and their invasion.
If we do get a second series I will have no hesitation in watching it because it when it's good it's great but there's a lot of generic television surrounding the good bits
First of all I'm in total agreement with the people who say if it had a different title people wouldn't be so critical. Remembering my days at film school one thing that doesn't fall under copyright is the title of a film so it's a very cynical exercise calling this WAR OF THE WORLDS because there's with the exception of the premise of an alien invasion there's not one single scene that has been inspired by HG Wells novel., so I'll judge it as an original SF drama
It's not all that original either but it is highly impressive as what it does. Most of humanity are wiped out by an energy pulse of some kind and a handful of survivors in London and France find themselves struggling against an unknown alien menace. The first couple of episodes are outstanding and I was instantly reminded of the works of Nigel Kneale , John Wyndham and all my other favourite science fiction writers. This resembles QUATRMASS meets 28 DAYS LATER and had me on the edge of my seat. The only fly in the ointment is that the characters seem to jump to conclusions too quickly - if you surround yourself in metal you'll be safe from the pulse effect - which struck me as contrived writing
Sadly the writing becomes more contrived as it goes along . To be fair none of the character plot turns come out of nowhere but the more we see of Emily and her French counterpart the less we see of heart pounding scenes like the French army expedition to a supermarket. There's also an annoying internal continuity where the alien "hunter dogs" are able to kill red shirt type characters with no problem but are unable to do so when it's a major character important to the plot. The main reason this is so annoying is because it's a show that hints it's not going to play things safe and isn't scared to kill off characters which it does . Another unfortunate thing is that " character development " qualifies as soap opera melodrama
As much as I enjoyed WOTW in places as it went along one thing that did worry me in the last couple of episodes is how things would be resolved. With modern television it's not enough to keep faith in the central plot , producers insist on adding more plot turns and twists as if to say "Please recommission us for another ten years and we will tie up all the loose ends" . I'm afraid this show ends on another cliffhanger which leaves the audience none the wiser as to the motives of the aliens and their invasion.
If we do get a second series I will have no hesitation in watching it because it when it's good it's great but there's a lot of generic television surrounding the good bits