Now, some people may recall I was one of the very few people to like Pendragon's version of War Of The Worlds, but when Tim Hines announced he was revisiting his... masterpiece... again, well, let's just say there were some howls of derision in the WOTW communities.
So what's this version all about then, Xym?
Well, Pendragon made The War Of The Words way back in 2005, and the result was... let's just say, "not the best".
What was a passionate attempt to film an authentic version of the Martian invasion of 1898 Londinium turned out to be a woeful example of no matter how much you love the source material, budget issues cannot fully realise your vision. What we ended up with, was an authentic tale... until budget ran out half way through and the last half was rushed. CGI either incomplete or extremely poor, and cheesy acting so hammed up it could be a sandwich.
So, it got a right clobbering from the hardcore fans. Apart from me, coz I quite like it (but then, I am a sad git!)
Anyhoo, now Tim's back with another revision - the True Story.
The premise here is rather than a adaptation of the book, it's more like an extended episode of something off the Discovery/History channels, and that twist is what makes this film work beautifully.
So, if you've sat though drama-documentaries like "Custer's Last Stand", "Titanic: The Final Hours", and "The Bonnie And Clyde Story", you'll know what you're in for.
You know the drill - stock footage, drama re-enactments, photos, film from the time, twee music, etc.
So, it opens with the revelation that film was recently found of an interview with one of the survivors many, many years after the War, along with other previously unknown footage of the invasion. Together with "declassified ministry reports and footage" and "dramatic re-enactments", this forms the basis of the pseudo-documentary.
The genius of this is that the footage from the original movie forms the basis for the re-enactments, so fits in really well. Where it was mocked for naffness in the original, it is not out of place with the modern cheesy style of re-enactment that fills up modern documentaries.
Instead of them cheap, 'orrible, mantis-style, badly animated Tripods, these tripods are much more impressive. Even more so where they have been integrated into stock footage of the era. The re-enactmenty bit featuring the tripods look like they've been added (as many CGI effect do in documentaries), but in the "real, authentic" footage, they don't look out of place or just CGI'd in.
There's still not enough Susan GoPHWOARth in it for my liking, and I think they should have used less of the original movie and created more "authentic footage", but it's still damn good.
It's a shame more people won't get to see this, (a) as it's not promoted all that well, and (b) many will refuse to watch purely because it's by "Tim Hines who did that cak-handed job in the first place".
