Since no-one else is saying it... War of The Worlds 2019
!SPOILERS!
If you haven't seen this, or any other version of War of the Worlds, this contains spoilers
The 2019 War of the Worlds TV series produced by the BBC had high standards. Real high. But it had a good cast, design seemed good, and it was set to be the most faithful of all adaptations. It wasn't. Apart from being set in Edwardian England, having tripods, (very) loosely following the main plot, and having the black smoke, it wasn't accurate.
Also it was a real bitch to find and watch. Dispite being done by the BBC, it never played on TV or the BBCi Player for whatever reason, so I had to pirate it :/ Even then, I had to go through a good 20 sites to find it. Why the hell is it so difficult to find 😫 So I'll have a whinge, here's some of the stuff they really fell short on.
Characters
Some key characters like the Artilleryman, the Vicar (or Priest, whatever, the church guy) and his wife were scrapped for characters you don't really get invested in. The Artilleryman was still there, but he didn't make his appearance at the end. The vicar and his wife either wasn't included at all, or just left 0 impression. The small group you're accompanying, I could not care about.
I don't care about Amy (even as well as she was acted) because you wasn't supposed to care about any characters. It was supposed to be one man's determination to survive to reunite with his wife. When that element of determination is gone and they're together, it doesn't really work. You're not supposed to care about the characters individually. You're supposed to be caring about humanity as a whole. The focus is not on the people, but the disaster they're living in.
I do love Ogilvy and the Artilleryman, though they still could have been developed more. (Artilleryman especially, they done him dirty 🙁)
Martians
Oh my dear Martians, what happened to you 😭 Rather than being the huge, crawling squid-like creatures they were in the book, now they're just big metal spiders (?) Who are able of climbing and jumping around just fine on earth, when they should not physically be able to lift themselves up (???) If they can jump around, why would they need their machines?
And also now they eat people despite not having a stomach (?) When I believe in the source material it was just their blood they were after.
But now talking about their machines, the pod that first arrived are... Strange. They're not hollow as they should be, but just a clump of flammable material. The Martians are underneath or something. The tripods are okay. Nothing special. As much as I hated the Tom Cruise version, they had much better tripods. The heat ray doesn't exist in this, they just throw flammable mud. WHY DOES NO-ONE EVER USE THE CRAB MACHINES hhhhh please!! Someone, give us Martian machines besides the tripods! Give us Crab Machines, give us the flying machines!!!
Also the Martians didn't make any noise really so that sucked ass. The "Uulah!" From the Musical and the Siren from the 2006 version were so well done and effective. You didn't have anything here and it was super disappointing :(
Story
Key scenes and moments were cut. The ThunderChild wasn't there at all :( The fight over the Themes didn't happen :(( No tripod over Big Ben :((( The Red Weed either wasn't mentioned or was barely covered, it crystal now for some reason :(((( Artilleryman didn't come back :(((((
They included the smoke though (which I don't think any of the others have yet) so :)
But like, the image of a Tripod looming over Big Ben after the sinking of England's last defence is such an iconic scene and it wasn't included. They really really missed their chance.
Also when they did start dying, the Martians were just on the ground. It didn't have half the impact it would of being on Deaths door, having a tripod looming over you, accepting your death only to find that it's dead. And the few behind it, they all are. It sucked tbh.
I was not a fan of the disjointed approach to the story. I don't get the point of the time jumps. It interrupted the flow of the story and apart from a few scenes that blended well, it just didn't work.
Music
It was okay. I didn't really pick up too much on it to be honest, but I was expecting more. Especially with the more known and recognised version of the story being a musical. Obviously I don't expect them to burst into song, but homage to this would have been nice. They did make a reference though with "like bows and arrows against the lightening" so something close. But that was the only reference I caught. Not even a reference to "the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one" which was a bummer considering how many good quotes the source has.
I ran out of things to talk about so I'll finish up. Overall it was, okay. I can't say more than that. Maybe I set my hopes too high, or maybe it really did fall so low, who knows. The actors were great, the effects were great, costume and set were great. But the Martians, direction and story were bad. They only barely stuck to the original plot, and moved completely away after where the ThunderChild scene should have been.
The Jeff Wayne version is still by far the superior and more accurate version of the story. Which is disappointing considering how hyped this version was but I guess it just highlights the qualities of the musical. It was one of the best sellers for a reason.
Overall it was good. Worth a check out if you like your Sci-Fi, Fiction, Drama, Period Drama or even Romance. But if you're a big fan of the franchise, it's nothing to get too excited over. I really wish it was though. It deserves a 7/10, although it could have been a 10/10 so easily if they just followed the formula properly
