I thought it was going OK. I didn't even mind that the main focus had shifted from a male narrator to a female narrator, Amy (Elinor Thomlinson). I liked the Victorian/Edwardian setting of the novel, but then we had an extra marital affair, much exposition seemingly aimed at today's establishment, and then there was the confusing fast-forward. However when they played old H.G.'s trump card (the germs) about half way through, I knew they had lost the plot - literally.
The Martians succumbing to bacteria, to which we have long since become immune, was the finale in the book and it worked well in George Pal's 1953 version - I love the Martian arm with the suction cap fingers crawling out of the war machine as Gene Barry looks on. Even Spielberg didn't mess with it in his movie, and even paid a little homage to Pal's version.
But the writers here tried to go one-up on Wells by grafting a post apocalyptic scenario onto the end of the story, and the whole thing comes crashing down like one of George Pal's Martian war machines after its fishing line was cut.
To be fair, the Martians look good in this version whether in their machines or prowling around on the ground, even if they owe a little something to "Starship Troopers".
All film versions of "War of the Worlds" are re-imaginings, but this one limps to a close after it sets off all its fireworks too early. The whole thing is also very gabby, and when Amy starts working on bacterial cultures à la Fleming and Florey, I slumped in my chair knowing that H.G.'s story was getting an update it didn't need.
Interestingly the speech Rubert Graves' character delivers about Britain deserving the Martian invasion, which sounded suspiciously like modern revisionist thinking, is actually based on an early passage in Wells' novel. There he cites the impact of European colonists on the Tasmanian Aborigines, "... Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?"
With that said though, I can't help thinking this mini-series would have Mr Wells furiously scribbling notes in the margins of the script, before emphatically marking it with an F.
The Martians succumbing to bacteria, to which we have long since become immune, was the finale in the book and it worked well in George Pal's 1953 version - I love the Martian arm with the suction cap fingers crawling out of the war machine as Gene Barry looks on. Even Spielberg didn't mess with it in his movie, and even paid a little homage to Pal's version.
But the writers here tried to go one-up on Wells by grafting a post apocalyptic scenario onto the end of the story, and the whole thing comes crashing down like one of George Pal's Martian war machines after its fishing line was cut.
To be fair, the Martians look good in this version whether in their machines or prowling around on the ground, even if they owe a little something to "Starship Troopers".
All film versions of "War of the Worlds" are re-imaginings, but this one limps to a close after it sets off all its fireworks too early. The whole thing is also very gabby, and when Amy starts working on bacterial cultures à la Fleming and Florey, I slumped in my chair knowing that H.G.'s story was getting an update it didn't need.
Interestingly the speech Rubert Graves' character delivers about Britain deserving the Martian invasion, which sounded suspiciously like modern revisionist thinking, is actually based on an early passage in Wells' novel. There he cites the impact of European colonists on the Tasmanian Aborigines, "... Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?"
With that said though, I can't help thinking this mini-series would have Mr Wells furiously scribbling notes in the margins of the script, before emphatically marking it with an F.