War of the worlds Goliath, a bit disappointing.

[The-closet-gamer]

After waiting sooooooo long to watch Goliath a friend lent me the DVD because I've ordered All quite on the Martian front and with great anticipation sat down to watch. An hour and half later I was a little disappointed to say the least.

Now is it just me or was the film a little of a let down. I can't decide if I'm getting more judgemental and the like in later life or if it's just not that good a film.

[Tordenskjold]

It's not a good film, in fact it's pretty terrible. The plot is shallow and very simplistic, the voice acting is down-right horrible and the CGI dodgy. But it does have some interesting designs for VSF/steampunk machines, some nice traditional animation bits and Nikola Tesla  

I was especially smitten with the zeppelin designs


I theorize that watching the film only for the visuals, turning the sound off and putting some nicely evocative music on instead, might actually make a much better experience than watching it forthe plot.

[The_Beast]

Given that it was a loaner, you got off lucky. I bought it in Blu-Ray, but not dear.

I'd like to say I found most of the characters major weak, as well.

Will say it's obvious that it would have been better in 3D, as some of the shots were obviously made for that. It was worth the watch, but had to use strong cognitive filtering!

Doug

[Sterling Moose]

I saw it on Netflicks a few weeks ago.  Yes, it was pretty lame.

[The-closet-gamer]

I should stop believing the hype from adverts. 1, Prometheus. Great ad and a little mediocre as a film. 2, Halo 4. Awesome trailer but a let down as a game. 3, The Thundercats lair from the 80s. The must have toy for Xmas. Nothing like the TV show.

Though the vehicle design was awesome. A Fokker with a rocket engine. Goliath is pretty cool and the zeppelin what can I say but I want one. I think the google image searches should give some good reference pictures for scratch building.

Just a thought, how thick were the guys in the scout walkers. I'll shoot at them with my machine gun. Oh the first few rounds have no effect? I'll just keep firing anyway. " Oi Steve. Steve keep shooting. Steve. Steve? Where he gone? Oh he's decided to be smart and tactically withdraw. Whoosh goes the sound of the heat ray. Kaboom goes the sound of the scout walker. " Bugger it and sod this " goes the sound of Steve legging it. Obviously never played Mech Warrior on the PC.  The bit in the instructions about if your first bullet does no damage then your last round will have the same effect. Anyway screw machine guns on a Battle Mech. Load it with heavy lasers.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

I was furious as to how extremely bad this film was. After waiting so so so long for it you think they could have spent a bit more time on getting the story somewhat believable.

I ended up getting into an argument on the films forum page with the script writers because it was so freakin bad.

I mean the world is being invaded by Martians and the bloody IRA thinks the British are the worse enemy, I mean come on!??

I agree some of the visuals are simply stunning but the battle scenes become repetitive and the battle tactics etc. are completely illogical.

Basically the film was 90 minutes of my life I will never get back 

Okay rant over.

Cheers
Fuzzy

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

Yes I was really disappointed for the artists that worked on that film, I mean the visuals and design work was really good but the storyline was so dreadful I mean I doubt they even got past a first draft. The film took years to make and no one reworked the script.

But if you listen to the scriptwriters you'd think it was Citizen Kane

Cheers
Fuzzy

[Predatorpt]

Here's what I had to say, when I saw it in April  

I can say it made me want to play "All Quiet on the Martian Front" or something similar...but...the movie isn't really that good  

Yes, we get to see some rather impressive retro-futuristic cities and equipment but the character's animation is awful and most of the Tripods/airplanes/fighters are CGI-animated so they don't really blend with the surroundings (95% of the explosions are just ridiculous, with the vehicles breaking apart in neat little blocks - and no, this is the final version of the movie not some WIP version).

The characters are walking cliches (the Irish are all IRA; the Germans are all warmongers, the only Japanese is a Samurai, etc.), there's lots of "inspiration" taken from the movie Independence Day - the Martian fighters; the canyon chase; the mothership. And did I mention the weak animation? 99% of the male characters look Superman from 90's Animated Adventures:

The story isn't that good - they start by showing that the Human Alliance is breaking apart due to the imminence of WW1 (yes, the Martians invaded in 1895, we reversed-engineered some of their tech and took a civilizational leap, but in 1914 the Great War will happen...for the same damn reasons that in OTL!) but then the Martians invade again! And that's just in the first minutes of the movie... then we unite again and fight the Martians. There's also a subplot with some IRA guys who want to use Martian tech to liberate Ireland from the UK, but then the Martians invade...

And did I mention the reversed-engineered tech? Ok, we get:

a)these neat Human heavy tripods (who get destroyed by 1 measly heat-ray hit, except when the story demands otherwise - in those cases they just loose a leg);

b) scout tripods (who don't do much, are armed with machine-guns/light cannons and are destroyed with 1 shot! Again! But if the story needs it, they'll just catch fire);

c) propeller airplanes armed with missiles and heat guns but also with the old machine-guns in front of the pilot  and jet engines that give them a boost when needed (which is really stupid - if the airframe of that type of propeller airplane can withstand a jet engine in the back, why not go for a full jet airframe?   )

d) flying aircraft carriers/battleships (I guess the Martians had anti-grav devices during the first invasion? These ships are gigantic but can fly between the streets of New York if the plot needs it).

One piece of Human tech that seems to be widespread is automatic rifle (they look like some advanced Maxim guns). Everyone uses one...and I mean everyone! They all seem to be masters of the "spray and pray" doctrine and do that even if the weapons do no harm to the Martian tripods. Of course I'm mentioning this for a reason other than bash the tactics of fictional army in a fiction war in an animated movie. I do it because some of the heroes suffer from this well-known syndrome:



Humans have all these neat Heavy tripods, that can destroy/damage Martian Tripods when the plot needs it, but most of the time they prefer to get on top of their turrets and spray and pray with their weapons (being them portable heat-rays or heavy machine guns)  Confused

I give it a 3 out of 10. It could be wayyyyyy better and now I understand why it took 2 years to be released!

Glad to know I wasn't the only one disappointed with the movie.

[The-closet-gamer]

Ok so it's been awhile cause of work. I was trolling around Google and guess what? A sequel has been planed! WTF. We'll look on the bright side, at least it wasn't as bad as the 90s TV series. And that was based on the 50s movie. What's that aliens have resurrected and are fighting gorilla warfare. Where did they come from? An invasion on a global scale in 1957! What! Why does no one remember this happening? Steve. Oi Steve do you remember anything about a Martian invasion in the 50s? What's that, oh there not Martians, there from another planet. Ok. Steve get a load of this guy, think he's a bit nuts. Anyone said you look a lot like him out of Predator who got hit in the chest by a falling log. Your acting career when really well.

Anyway I agree with everything that has been said. I think next time I'll just watch the awesome trailer for the next one cause that was the best bit of the last film. Oh and Fuzzywuzzy make a point to the writers not to get big name actors like Adam Baldwin to do the next film cause they might have a bit more money to do a decent film and not have CGI fire effects that I could have done on my Commodore 64 

[kidterminal]

Saw it last night very very disappointing.

[The-closet-gamer]

Saw it last night very very disappointing.

Guys we've got a new member in the club. Welcome to the help group. We are all here to share you pain. Let it all out brother.

[Elbows]

While I'm not a huge VSF nut...that film was really terrible.  I couldn't even finish it. 

[The_Beast]

While I'm not a huge VSF nut...that film was really terrible.  I couldn't even finish it. 

Try it with sound off and liberal use of fast forward. I could at least finish it, and didn't have to fight the desire to burn the TV.

I found the CGI slightly better than anything I could do with my old Atari computer. Well, I could have done some of the color blending better...

It was worth the trip, but not the $10+USD.

Doug