mormont Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 Anyone else watch this one last night? Thoughts? It certainly looks fantastic. Some stunning shots in there. Eleanor Tomlinson and Robert Carlyle are terrific, though I'm not quite sure about Rafe Spall. Decent, I guess? Some weird choices in the writing, though, and I groaned when Amy announced she was pregnant. Can writers really not think of any better plots for female characters? Moment of the episode, in a bad way: there's an alien invasion devastating the village but the lead character decides to stop to complain about how his wife won't sign the divorce papers. Timing, dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 I understand fleshing out the characters in more detail and bringing in some new ones - because the original book is really thin in character - but I don't see the point in then completely changing things for no real reason. The post-apocalyptic landscape suggests that the story is going to end in a completely different manner, the floating black ball was just randomly weird and I don't get why they moved the time on about 10 years from the setting of the book. If they moved it to WWI so you had the Martians invading halfway through the conflict that would change things up (there's a solid faux-Ken Burns documentary about that idea), but otherwise why not keep it closer to the original setting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch-MaesterPhilip Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 Is this being aired in the United States? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 I'm waiting for reviews to come in before committing to something else, though it being on straight after HDM is a result for Sunday nights if it is any good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 it was ok. Looked great but a bit slow and didn't really capture the dread of what was happening. The glimpses of the future were fairly obvious and suggest it's not going to be as close to the book as build-up claimed. Curious as to whether Rafe Spall is out of the show already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said: I'm waiting for reviews to come in before committing to something else, though it being on straight after HDM is a result for Sunday nights if it is any good. Sadly, the only positive review in the UK mainstream press is from the Guardian, even that comes with a pinch of salt. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/nov/17/the-war-of-the-worlds-review-doom-dystopia-and-a-dash-of-downton: Quote The only issue for me was to do with the lack of urgency. In addition to the slow start – fine for a six- or eight-parter, but too indulgent when there are only three episodes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said: I'm waiting for reviews to come in before committing to something else, though it being on straight after HDM is a result for Sunday nights if it is any good. It's only 3 episodes (less than half the length of HDM Season 1), so a fairly modest time investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted November 18, 2019 Author Share Posted November 18, 2019 2 hours ago, red snow said: it was ok. Looked great but a bit slow and didn't really capture the dread of what was happening. The glimpses of the future were fairly obvious and suggest it's not going to be as close to the book as build-up claimed. Curious as to whether Rafe Spall is out of the show already. Nah. The shot with him coming out of the rubble* would be pointless if he was. They'll clearly go back in time again from the ending of episode one to pick up the story. *one of the weakest shots: it's clearly just bits and pieces of random rubble piled between an undamaged house and an undamaged wall. It was a bit Doctor Who, and Doctor Who 1989 rather than 2019. Some of the other location shots looked a bit low-budget too, which was disappointing as otherwise the programme looked really good IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 I thought the first episode was OK without anything really standing out. I liked Robert Carlyle and Eleanor Tomlinson, I think I'd probably have preferred Carlyle as the main protagonist rather than Rafe Spall's character. The marriage/divorce plotline didn't feel like it added much to the story. Things do liven up once the Martians attack, although the scene with George and Amy being separated felt very contrived. The opening narration must be tough for any soundtrack composer because a lot of the audience will inevitably be expecting it to go a bit Jeff Wayne after the "And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us" line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted November 25, 2019 Author Share Posted November 25, 2019 Episode 2: yeesh. Downhill in a major way. Not enough Bobby Carlyle, slow paced, weirdly felt the need to have characters remind us every ten seconds that Amy is pregnant. George is a seriously unimpressive character and it's hard to see why Amy cares about him. There are some good visuals but that's the only thing to recommend this, and even those are undercut by some cheap-looking location shots or dubious effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 It feels like the most interesting aspects are happening off camera eg what did Robert Carlyle do between time periods. Actually everything between times seems intriguing at least until they fill in the gaps. Kind of confused how this is going to wrap up in one episode when, unless i misinterpreted it, this version is suggesting the martians simply sent a terraforming beachead out. Thought the original had the bacteria destroying the red grass etc too. You'd think they'd just make a live action musical version of jeff Wayne's. It has the recognition and it'd probably be the only musical i could bother with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted December 1, 2019 Share Posted December 1, 2019 A new Anglo-French production is airing in Europe/Africa at present.Starring Gabriel Byrne , Léa Drucker, Elizabeth McGovern - Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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