New incarnation of SciFi classic

feywon

feywon

Well-known Member
Location
Rural North Central NM
A different way of telling it, mostly involving modern tech, but there's still a central family, and they actually have some useful tools against the invaders. The slight spoiler i will give is that the aliens aren't the only bad guys, and that added a layer.

Daughter was poking around on Prime and stumbled on it. The description looked interesting and we watched on a whim. Glad we did. It does some kind of fun but also serious call backs to original story.

I enjoyed the first one, the Tom Cruise one not so much. I often have different reactions to movies/shows than reviewers and other people. Not always engaged with popular stuff, but often liking things others don't.

Remakes are a special category. Many people old enough to have seen the original "Day the Earth Stood Still" (Which was the first sci fi movie that i found thought provoking, saw in theater as a middle schooler) didn't like the remake with Keanu Reeves, but i liked it so much i bought a DVD set with both versions.
 

feywon said:
A different way of telling it, mostly involving modern tech, but there's still a central family, and they actually have some useful tools against the invaders. The slight spoiler i will give is that the aliens aren't the only bad guys, and that added a layer.

Daughter was poking around on Prime and stumbled on it. The description looked interesting and we watched on a whim. Glad we did. It does some kind of fun but also serious call backs to original story.

I enjoyed the first one, the Tom Cruise one not so much. I often have different reactions to movies/shows than reviewers and other people. Not always engaged with popular stuff, but often liking things others don't.

Remakes are a special category. Many people old enough to have seen the original "Day the Earth Stood Still" (Which was the first sci fi movie that i found thought provoking, saw in theater as a middle schooler) didn't like the remake with Keanu Reeves, but i liked it so much i bought a DVD set with both versions.
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Oh, yeah! The Day the Earth Stood Still was one of the great pictures to start off the 1950s SciFi movement. It was interesting not only because of the big robot, but because the space man, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), actually interacted with Earth humans, even sitting with Helen (Patricia Neal) in her kitchen! Great cast, including Sam Jaffe (fresh from The Asphalt Jungle).

Also from 1951, I'm sure you've seen the wonderful, The Thing From Another World (The Thing), with an early role as the monster played by James Arness.

Two of the best '50s SciFis-- right outta the git-go!
 
ChiroDoc said:
Oh, yeah! The Day the Earth Stood Still was one of the great pictures to start off the 1950s SciFi movement. It was interesting not only because of the big robot, but because the space man, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), actually interacted with Earth humans, even sitting with Helen (Patricia Neal) in her kitchen! Great cast, including Sam Jaffe (fresh from The Asphalt Jungle).

Also from 1951, I'm sure you've seen the wonderful, The Thing From Another World (The Thing), with an early role as the monster played by James Arness.

Two of the best '50s SciFis-- right outta the git-go!
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Oh, yes. They were often the B movie, (when we got 2 movies, trailers, news, a serial episode for the ticket price), but i honestly don't remember that many of the 'A' ones.
Those movies also got me reading science fiction--- starting with the ABCs: Azimov, Bradbury and Clarke.
 
Veronica said:
I usually prefer the originals. Sometimes the remakes are good too. Tom is over rated. :D

The B movies are the most fun. Godzilla and Mothra ones are so campy.
Better yet the ones with the lizards dressed up like monsters.
Have you seen Them or Day of the Trifids.
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Oh yes i saw those--most all of those 50s ones. I remember feeling sorry for The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
 
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Wow, you guys bring back some great memories! I grew up in a small town in Colorado. We had one theater, but they did eventually carry all the old "spooky movies"! I would go see them on a Saturday afternoon, as my parents were always willing to let me go and give me some change for goodies...

One of my favorites from those days was Frankenstein... The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) with the iconic Christopher Lee!
 
Timewise 60+ said:
I just had another 'flash'! You all must have seen the classic Sci-Fi...The Blob! Now that was something.... came in from space and could absorb you in a very short time, after it got full sized...
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Just after seeing the film way back when, I had the realization that the blob was spookier to me when it was small and able to hide before jumping out and grabbing you. When it got as big as a house, it killed more people of course, but the jump scare factor wasn't there, anymore.
 
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Timewise 60+ said:
I just had another 'flash'! You all must have seen the classic Sci-Fi...The Blob! Now that was something.... came in from space and could absorb you in a very short time, after it got full sized...
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I remember that one. My cousins and I used to go to the drive in and watch sci fi and horror movies.
My one cousin had a scream that could make your teeth hurt. People be trying to make out in the next car. LOL.
Did you watch Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

Best ever drive in movie. Night Of The Living Dead. :D
 
JustDave said:
Just after seeing the film way back when, I had the realization that the blob was spookier to me when it was small and able hide before jumping out and grabbing you. When it got as big as a house, it killed more people of course, but the jump scare factor wasn't there, anymore.
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Dave, I had never thought of it that way, but you are right, when that thing jumped off of an old stick onto that guy's hand at the beginning of the movie it freaked me out and I jumped...as did most all in the theater!
 
Old 'scary' movies were better in some ways than modern ones tho special effects could be laughable compared CGI and AI ones. They would keep the alien or monster in shadows for over half the film. We'd see it as a darker shadow moving within shadows, maybe see an ugly appendage. These days we too often know what the horror looks like before seeing the actual movie.

A modern movie that did this well was The Descent (2005) about a group of women cavers who run into some creepy cave dwellers. Gave me the first jump scare i'd had in decades, which shocked my daughter cause she'd never seen me do that--actually move back in my seat. I'd known something was moving around them in the dark but had not expected one of the things to be breathing on a character's shoulder when they struck a light. Gave me my first jump scare in decades.

Music is still scored to impact emotions in audience. When my kids were little i taught them to mute the sound if they were feeling too tense. Having that sense of control seemed to allow them to enjoy the scariness without letting It overwhelming them. Similar manipulation happens using music in thrillers when a human predator is stalking a victim or laying in wait for them.
 
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Feywon, I just saw that this is on Prime when they sent the weekly what's on Prime email. I immediately put it on my watchlist, but haven't started it yet but will likely do that today. It seems you enjoyed it too...so that's encouraging. :) I rarely sit straight through movies though, so it may take me a few days to finish it.

@JustDave I remember I was up late one night and Night of the Living Dead came on after another movie. I was intending to go to sleep but couldn't stop watching it. One of the best horror movies ever (the original black and white version).
 
OneEyedDiva said:
@JustDave I remember I was up late one night and Night of the Living Dead came on after another movie. I was intending to go to sleep but couldn't stop watching it. One of the best horror movies ever (the original black and white version).
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I didn't know about it until a year after it had been out. Even later than that I went to see a re-showing at a local theater. There was a part where a hand comes through a window and grabs a guy. The whole theater screamed, and the guy next to me was screaming in a panic, and I'm thinking, "What an idiot," until I realized it was me screaming, not him. That's the only time I've experienced projecting something like that onto someone else. So I looked at the guy next to me, and he was laughing while he said, "I screamed too, and I even knew it was going to happen."

There wasn't much about zombies before that, but that film was followed by many more films that built on some of the zombie myths that may have first appeared in the living dead. I have sometimes stated that most of what we know about zombies began with that film, and what came after added to an ever expanding knowledge base about the how and why of zombies. We have learned (made up) so much in the last 50 years that we can now enjoy the richness of the zombie culture.
 
Feywon, I'm not liking the filming technique. I hope as the film progresses, it changes to full screens. My eye issues make it difficult to keep track of what's happening on the dad's screens as he does his surveilance. Also, it's kind of weird seeing Ice Cube with salt and pepper hair! The "young-uns" are nearing their senior years!
 
JustDave said:
I didn't know about it until a year after it had been out. Even later than that I went to see a re-showing at a local theater. There was a part where a hand comes through a window and grabs a guy. The whole theater screamed, and the guy next to me was screaming in a panic, and I'm thinking, "What an idiot," until I realized it was me screaming, not him. That's the only time I've experienced projecting something like that onto someone else. So I looked at the guy next to me, and he was laughing while he said, "I screamed too, and I even knew it was going to happen."

There wasn't much about zombies before that, but that film was followed by many more films that built on some of the zombie myths that may have first appeared in the living dead. I have sometimes stated that most of what we know about zombies began with that film, and what came after added to an ever expanding knowledge base about the how and why of zombies. We have learned (made up) so much in the last 50 years that we can now enjoy the richness of the zombie culture.
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Definitely the best zombie movie ever. I had great fun watching it at the drive in with my cousins.
Eating Colonel Sanders and tossing chicken bones out the windows.
Went to the concession stand with my other cousin. I snuck back to the car and bit my cousin the screamer on the arm.
Her scream was epic. 😺 😸🐱
 
I do not know about a new remake of The War of the Worlds; however, I do have three different versions in my DVD collection: the original, the Tom Cruise version and another which shows copyright 2005. 2005 = names you never heard before, produced, directed, etc., by the same people, lots of long knowing looks with little dialogue. Very poorly done, also longer than most movies. I don't recommend that version, lol.

My grandmother took me to see The Blob! Scared me half to death.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Feywon, I'm not liking the filming technique. I hope as the film progresses, it changes to full screens. My eye issues make it difficult to keep track of what's happening on the dad's screens as he does his surveilance. Also, it's kind of weird seeing Ice Cube with salt and pepper hair! The "young-uns" are nearing their senior years!
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I had trouble with it at first too, but as i said in another comment once the interactions with the 'kids' starting happening i got invested in it.

Seeing Ice Cube with the grey got me too, but that happens a lot these days. It is even starting to happen for my millennial daughter. She'll be 42 in September and has recently remarked a few times about some performer she's surprised to see 'grown up' or aging.
 
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