War of the Worlds - the one with Howell in it (yes the cheap, crap, exploitive knock off of Spielberg's movie) was in a word - 'terrible'. This was worse.
Even as I write this review, I am finding it hard to comprehend how you could get a worse film than the first one because that was truly terrible. But this attempt does not do anyone's career any good here.
Where do I start? I'll just throw some random thoughts out - in no specific order:
I've stated before that I have always like Howell as an actor - but why does he do this stuff? If I was a struggling actor with no gigs and nothing to survive on but my McDonald's wages and whatever food I can snaffle from the kitchen there - I'd still turn down this movie. Doing stuff like this is career suicide !!! How can he stand up alongside his peers and look them in the eye? Embarrassing to the extreme. But I fear he has gone so far down that rabbit hole now - he ain't ever gonna see the light !!!
2/10.
Even as I write this review, I am finding it hard to comprehend how you could get a worse film than the first one because that was truly terrible. But this attempt does not do anyone's career any good here.
Where do I start? I'll just throw some random thoughts out - in no specific order:
- The movie looks cheap. I've seen better sets in a school play.
- The acting is terrible. The blond scientist - although looking good - is especially wooden with an accent to grind your ears. Howell himself wasn't too bad - but let's not get carried away here either - he wasn't good. But compared to what was around him - he deserves an academy award.
- The direction was poor - some nice road movie shots but other than that - my 2 pre-teen sons could direct better than this.
- The CGI was crap. I've seen better CGI on an Atari in the 1980's. The laser beams from the ships approach to Mars would have been better drawn in by hand.
- The Plot??? What plot??? I could not follow it....Martians invade and went away but they didn't really go away - we are just living in a version of Earth they created so they can monitor us? What? In the first film - when the Walkers zapped you - your skin was ripped from your body and you died there and then. Somehow this has changed for the second film - you don't die, instead you are brought aboard and encased in a tendril-like shroud whilst the aliens suck the blood from you - or something stupid like that anyway. Plus - Howell is searching for his son and manages to find him the minute he gets voluntarily zapped by a Walker? How convenient is that? These Walkers have taken over the world - yes, 'the world', a big place, but yet Howell finds his son encased in the very same walker that zapped him!!! Come on!!!
- Some more random thoughts:
- Howell's travelling buddy was supposed to be comic relief - but only ended up annoying.
- The fighter pilots travel from earth to mars by remote control as they have no power supplies. Don't ask. One guy crash-lands on Mars (which is an earth look-a-like in a martian petri-dish). Don't ask. The plane is burnt to a crisp yet is able to take off after some off-screen repairs and fly back to the real earth with an extra 4 passengers. Don't ask. Because there are no answers!!! Just plain ridiculous.
- Technobabble - it's all here: frequencies, wormholes, time-travelling, alternate realities - you name it - they throw it in. But it's all so confusing and poorly done - it turns the viewer right off.
- The way in which Howell kills the martians - by injecting a small amount of his own blood which is infected by something or other (I cannot remember what) is ludicrous in the extreme.
- The ending lets it wide open for a part 3.... PLEASE DO NOT MAKE IT !!! I BEG OF YOU PLEASE!!!!!!
I've stated before that I have always like Howell as an actor - but why does he do this stuff? If I was a struggling actor with no gigs and nothing to survive on but my McDonald's wages and whatever food I can snaffle from the kitchen there - I'd still turn down this movie. Doing stuff like this is career suicide !!! How can he stand up alongside his peers and look them in the eye? Embarrassing to the extreme. But I fear he has gone so far down that rabbit hole now - he ain't ever gonna see the light !!!
2/10.