The many movie versions of War of the Worlds

[RAMA]

For a story that had exactly 1 movie version for 106 years, WoTW has had a lot of versions and sequels since 2005. Many may not be familiar. Here are all the versions!!

Original book version is free in HTML here (1898): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36/36-h/36-h.htm

1. 1953: George Pal version.

Key points: Similar general story with many detail changes. Instead of the evolutionary, scientific view point of the original story, the movie takes a religious POV. Elements such as taking shelter in a wrecked house, are similar, but geographic location, romantic love interest are different. Tripods are vastly different, but still hover on 3 points of force. The ending is basically the same except the timespan is 3 days instead of 3 weeks.

Reaction: Top grossing SF film of 1953. 3 Academy Award nominations, one win.

2. 2005: Spielberg version.

Key points: Closer to novel but still different. Concerted effort to avoid space invasion cliches, ie: No spaceships landing, no monuments destroyed, etc. The tripods are 150ft tall, three legged as in the book. Red weed is retained from novel. Alien use of humans for their own use is retained from novel. The protagonist is not a scientist once again, but an ordinary man. The location is closer to the 1938 Orson Wells radio play. The ending is similar to the ending of the novel. The aliens as well as other elements pay homage to the Pal version.

Reception: $750+ million in worldwide Box Office and DVD/Bluray. 4th Highest grossing film of 2005. 3 Academy Award nominations.

3. 2005: Pendragon v1:

Key points: Faithful, but low budget version of the original novel. The "Writer" tries to make his way to meet his wife after an assault by Martian War Machines. More points of the book were retained such as the attack on the HMS Thunderchild.

Reaction: Negative reviews.

4. 2005: Pendragon: Director's Cut:

Key Points: Cut 45 minutes to make the pace faster.

5.. 2005: Asylum version:

Key points: Takes place in and around Washington DC. Martian machines are crablike. In this version, the observer is named, and he develops a weapon against the invaders. The aliens are still killed by bacteria.

Reaction: Well recieved for an Asylum film, it sold 100,000 copies on DVD. Led to a sequel.

6. 2006: Pendragon: Classic War of the Worlds:

Key points: A 125 minute re-edited version of Pendragon's film with new FX, and re-edits.

7. 2008: Asylum sequel:

WoTW: The Next Wave:

Key points: Direct-to-DVD. Martians create a "space-time hole" to invade once again. Aliens are killed by a virus.

Reception: Poor

8. 2012: Pendragon Reboot:

WoTW: A True Story:

Key points: Re-edited, almost totally different version, that turns the story into a documentary based mostly on the 1938 radio play.

Reaction: This one had good reviews, a modest release, and actually qualified for consideration for Oscars for it's music.

9. 2012: Alien Dawn:

Key Points: The film was set in modern times and showed Los Angeles decimated with Martian tripods, returning to the 1953 location.

10. 2012: War of the Worlds: Goliath:

Key points: Malaysian animated film, which is a very loose sequel to the original story. A.R.E.S, a resistance force, is in direct combat with Martian invaders, who now are resistant to Earth bacteria.

http://www.wotw-goliath.com/

The Goliath version and Next Wave movie take the fight to the Martians/aliens. In Next Wave, they literally send fighter jets through the space-time hole to attack the aliens. A similar but more ambitious plot was envisaged by George Pal in 1975 as a sequel TV series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E1zOXarLk4

http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/war_of_the_worlds_tv_pal

RAMA

 

[Sindatur]

You missed The Great Martian War 1913 - 1917

 

[RAMA]

You missed The Great Martian War 1913 - 1917

History Channel UK TV movie version, OK I'll go for that, though I was focusing on the cinematic versions. Can't wait to watch it.

There was also a Great Books documentary that did a partial retelling/recreation of the book, when TLC used to have intelligent shows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnJ4f41ynqM

 

[Sindatur]

Asylums don't generally play in the Cinema, and Google doesn't recognize "War of the Worlds Asylum Box Office Mojo". Did they play at the Cinema?

I really enjoyed The Great Martian War 1913 - 1917. I think it's amongst the best of the Versions (Disclaimer: I don't know the Source Book and I first saw the 1953 Version)

 

[Christopher]

There was also the 1988 War of the Worlds: The Series, a partner to Star Trek: The Next Generation in Paramount's syndication package, and a direct sequel to the George Pal film, albeit with some odd reinterpretations of some of the film's ideas for the convenience of the series -- e.g. the aliens now had the ability to enter and possess human bodies, and the world had mostly forgotten the '53 invasion due to some combination of mass denial and alien-induced collective amnesia. The first season was pretty lame but had a good cast and, despite the changes, did a decent job presenting itself as a continuation of the movie, within the limits of its small budget. The second season drastically revamped things for the worse and was almost unwatchable.

 

[RAMA]

There was also the 1988 War of the Worlds: The Series, a partner to Star Trek: The Next Generation in Paramount's syndication package, and a direct sequel to the George Pal film, albeit with some odd reinterpretations of some of the film's ideas for the convenience of the series -- e.g. the aliens now had the ability to enter and possess human bodies, and the world had mostly forgotten the '53 invasion due to some combination of mass denial and alien-induced collective amnesia. The first season was pretty lame but had a good cast and, despite the changes, did a decent job presenting itself as a continuation of the movie, within the limits of its small budget. The second season drastically revamped things for the worse and was almost unwatchable.

I have to ignore the '88 series, mainly because I don't have a suspension of disbelief that the world forgot an alien invasion that devastated the Earth. Did they think a tsunami hit?? I did like the cast well enough. Wasn't season 2 shot on video?

RAMA

 

[Christopher]

I have to ignore the '88 series, mainly because I don't have a suspension of disbelief that the world forgot an alien invasion that devastated the Earth.

Still, it's one of the versions that are out there. It's not like there aren't worse ones.

Wasn't season 2 shot on video?

I don't remember, and I have no interest in revisiting it to find out. I do recall that portions of season 1 appeared to be shot on video, though, so it's quite possible.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

So those Pendragon versions got released? I remember reading years ago and all of the ridicule over claims of multimillion dollar budgets and really dodgy trailers but it always seemed like vaporware and pipe dreams.

 

[Gaith]

Oi RAMA, you forgot the best one...

 

[Klaus]

My favorite is an audio one, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds.

I love the book and have never been fond of the Pal one...

 

[Tosk]

My favorite is an audio one, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds.

I love the book and have never been fond of the Pal one...

Same on all points.

 

[Redfern]

So those Pendragon versions got released? I remember reading years ago and all of the ridicule over claims of multimillion dollar budgets and really dodgy trailers but it always seemed like vaporware and pipe dreams.

Straight to budget DVD, but yeah, it got released.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Gov Kodos]

Don't forget Marvin!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec-8A5k16Ak[/yt]

 

[Allyn Gibson]

3. 2005: Pendragon v1:

Key points: Faithful, but low budget version of the original novel. The "Writer" tries to make his way to meet his wife after an assault by Martian War Machines. More points of the book were retained such as the attack on the HMS Thunderchild.

Reaction: Negative reviews.

This version should be taught in film schools as an example of how not to adapt a book to film. Just because it's in the novel, that doesn't mean it belongs in your script. And just because you rolled cameras, that doesn't mean the footage belongs in your film. In short, there's a value to editing, making decisions about what to keep and what to toss.

I am curious about the docudrama edit. Not curious enough to seek it out, though.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Independence Day doesn't count? Alien invaders? Killed by a virus (albeit computer virus).

I actually REALLY liked the wotW TV series. It was more a fun show than something a i took seriously.

yes, the mass denial was crazy...like Holocaust denial times 100. But maybe pride of leaders? Not wanting people to fall into despair & fear, but have optimism for the future. Anti-communism was running high, so maybe that was part of the propaganda too?

The series also had a great tagline "To Life Immortal" (To-do-nak-a-tai)

Lots of fun stuff, like John Colicos as a stranded , now rebel alien named Q. Or the robot alien with the weird talking gestures...who turns out is a scout for an alien race who wants to eat people.


Like Christotpher said.. they revamped it in the worst way...making it feel cheaper, and none of the fun. Post=apocalyptic garbage. Though it DID get Adrian Paul his first shot at Syndicated TV, and get him ready for Highlander.

 

[DonIago]

I enjoyed the series though parts of it creeped me out (I was fairly young at the time). I kept with it through a chunk of S2, but either it changed times or got preempted too often or I otherwise lost track of it; never did find out how it ended, and the changes in premise between seasons were disconcerting at best and depressing at worst (two regulars killed off in the opening episode among other things).

As noted, years later it was kind of amusing to realize Adrian Paul joined the cast in S2.

 

[Christopher]

The series also had a great tagline "To Life Immortal" (To-do-nak-a-tai)

In one episode, it appeared on a screen spelled "TOO DOE NAKOTAE." Maybe that's just how it was written in scripts for ease of pronunciation.

Lots of fun stuff, like John Colicos as a stranded , now rebel alien named Q.

Quinn, actually. And yeah, he was a high point of the series, though he was wasted in his second appearance.

Or the robot alien with the weird talking gestures...who turns out is a scout for an alien race who wants to eat people.

Oh, wow, that was awful. I thought I remembered liking that episode okay, but on my revisit, I saw that it was laughably ghastly.

By the way, here's my blog archive of all my reviews of WOTW:TS's first season. I didn't bother with season 2.

Like Christotpher said.. they revamped it in the worst way...making it feel cheaper, and none of the fun. Post=apocalyptic garbage. Though it DID get Adrian Paul his first shot at Syndicated TV, and get him ready for Highlander.

The cheapness wasn't the main thing that bothered me. Okay, I never understood how making it relentlessly dark and depressing was meant to make it more popular, but... well, quoting from my blog review:

The worst change Mancuso made was killing off half the cast, and destroying the chemistry that was the series’ only real high point. And which half he killed off is telling. Both Paul Ironhorse and Norton Drake died in the series premiere, and were replaced by a mercenary named John Kincaid, played by future Highlander: The Series star Adrian Paul, who was just as dull on this series as he would be on that one. Ironhorse was the most popular character on the show, the breakout star, and yet Mancuso apparently thought it would “improve” the series to kill him. ... He never offered a clear reason for this decision, as far as I recall (beyond claiming that he had no idea Ironhorse was popular until after the deed had been done), but his excuse for killing Norton was that the team was losing the Cottage and going on the run, so it wouldn’t be practical for a guy in a wheelchair to be on the team without a steady home base to operate from. This was a blatant lie. The team moved into a new permanent home base at the start of the second episode of the season, barely any time at all after the Cottage was destroyed. Norton could’ve functioned just as well in that environment as the Cottage, with a few access ramps and computer upgrades put in.

So I think it’s self-evident why the Native American and the black paraplegic were the characters who got killed off, while both white leads were kept and a new white lead was added. Because it’s not just the racial diversity that was lost. Harrison also lost all his eccentricities, becoming an entirely bland character; essentially his only personality trait in the entire season was that he grew a beard. Even the aliens lost their weirdness. The Mor-taxians were replaced by a new faction of their species who called their planet Mor-thrai and themselves the Morthren, and who worshipped a living deity called the Immortal. Unlike the weird-looking, weird-sounding, weird-dressing, body-snatching Mor-taxians, the Morthren transmogrified themselves to look permanently human — all of them white, as far as I recall — and spoke entirely in English. ... So essentially everything about the first season that didn’t conform to the majority, mainstream view, every trace of diversity or eccentricity, got cut out or whitewashed, and we were left with a cast that was utterly bland.​

I kept with it through a chunk of S2, but either it changed times or got preempted too often or I otherwise lost track of it; never did find out how it ended, and the changes in premise between seasons were disconcerting at best and depressing at worst (two regulars killed off in the opening episode among other things).

Oh, the ending of season 2 was one of the worst, most bizarre things about it. Quoting my review again:

Spoiler: WOTW series finale

For whatever bizarre reason, after a whole season of unrelenting darkness and ugliness, the writers decided to end the series with a tacked-on, forced happy ending that required betraying prior continuity all the way back to the original film. The finale introduced the enormous retcon that the Morthren were mostly a benevolent, decent bunch, that the ’53 invasion had actually been a peaceful scouting party that fell into a misunderstanding with the humans and fought them in self-defense, and that the evil Malzor misled the other aliens and tricked them into launching the second wave of invasion as a ploy to seize power. Thus, just killing Malzor was enough to let the two species make peace and live together on Earth happily ever after. Which is just… completely… insane. There is no way the pre-emptive, brutal, genocidal alien invasion seen in the George Pal movie could possibly have been the result of a misunderstanding or self-defense on the aliens’ part — unless they were somehow fatally allergic to white flags. The first interaction between species in the film was the aliens heat-raying a trio of harmless locals trying to make friends, and it just got worse from there. The War of the Worlds was a systematic, planned ethnic cleansing on the aliens’ part, an aggressive war rather than a reactive one; the movie made that very clear. And the first season of the series made it even more blatant that the aliens were bent on conquest and genocide and were a cold, ruthless race by nature. Even the second season, for all its retcons, did nothing to change this basic characterization of all the aliens, not just Malzor, as ruthless and genocidally inclined — at least until it became convenient for them to rewrite the rules so they could force a completely incongruous happy ending. It was a terrible way to end a terrible season of what I now must admit was a pretty terrible series on the whole.

 

[DonIago]

Now tell us what you really think.

I'm going to have to read your reviews of the S1 episodes, as I remember liking a number of them...or at least finding them creepy-but-fun-and-mostly-harmless.

Then again, I was quite young at the time and likely a less discerning viewer.

You also have to consider that we had this up against S1 of TNG.

 

[Christopher]

You also have to consider that we had this up against S1 of TNG.

Yeah, and that's what was startling to me when I revisited it -- how crude and cheap the production values were compared to TNG. It wasn't just the dreadful video FX, but the bare-bones production values, the shooting on video, the awful sound quality, the inept writing, really amateurish stuff in a lot of ways. Paramount put their best effort and top dollar into TNG, but I guess WOTW was left with the dregs.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

You also have to consider that we had this up against S1 of TNG.

Season 2, actually.

I wish wish wish wish wish that Paramount had done a War of the Worlds/Next Generation crossover episode. When I was thirteen, that would have been the awesomest thing ever.

And I wanted more books than just J.M. Dillard's novelization of The Resurrection.