war of the worlds
*note: if you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to know how it ends or anything about it, stop reading now. don't say i didn't warn you.
i've been looking forward to seeing this movie since i saw the first teaser-trailer for it months ago. i'm a sucker for summer blockbusters, especially if they involve humans trying to prevent the end of the world. i have to admit, i've never read h. g. wells's novel or listened to the subsequent radio programs he made about it. so i have no idea if the movie holds true to the original story. but i don't really care. i can give you my diatribe on the futility of comparing films to the books they were based on at a later time. though i doubt you're interested.
the trailers and various other promotional materials make war of the worlds look like any other apocalypse-themed picture show. but, actually, the movie is not about aliens at all. yes, there are aliens in it and they were as impressively terrifying as only spielberg can create them. but the movie is about a family. more specifically, it's about a father. and what you are left with when the end credits start to roll is not a typical hollywood story about americans destroying the bad guys with their superior intelligence and bigass guns. what you are left with is a world where all that really matters are the people you love.
now is the part where i filter the movie through my trusty creation-fall-redemption screen. (calvin: you go girl!) i found the central theme of this movie to be distinctly Christian, though i would be surprised if that was its intention. and isn't that just the beauty of discernment. (calvin: yes! and yay!) the movie asserts that the aliens were doomed from the moment they set foot...er, creepy tentacle... on this planet. this planet wasn't made for them. it was made for us. and so, in the end, the aliens just... die. no one kills them. there's no world-wide airstrike. there isn't even really a war. they die because no one in the universe has the power to make life on this planet obsolete except the God who created it. and so we don't have to live in fear of alien invasion or asteroid collision or some other extra-worldy event destroying us. what we need to worry about is what kind of people we are and how we choose to treat the people around us.
it was a great movie.
i've been looking forward to seeing this movie since i saw the first teaser-trailer for it months ago. i'm a sucker for summer blockbusters, especially if they involve humans trying to prevent the end of the world. i have to admit, i've never read h. g. wells's novel or listened to the subsequent radio programs he made about it. so i have no idea if the movie holds true to the original story. but i don't really care. i can give you my diatribe on the futility of comparing films to the books they were based on at a later time. though i doubt you're interested.
the trailers and various other promotional materials make war of the worlds look like any other apocalypse-themed picture show. but, actually, the movie is not about aliens at all. yes, there are aliens in it and they were as impressively terrifying as only spielberg can create them. but the movie is about a family. more specifically, it's about a father. and what you are left with when the end credits start to roll is not a typical hollywood story about americans destroying the bad guys with their superior intelligence and bigass guns. what you are left with is a world where all that really matters are the people you love.
now is the part where i filter the movie through my trusty creation-fall-redemption screen. (calvin: you go girl!) i found the central theme of this movie to be distinctly Christian, though i would be surprised if that was its intention. and isn't that just the beauty of discernment. (calvin: yes! and yay!) the movie asserts that the aliens were doomed from the moment they set foot...er, creepy tentacle... on this planet. this planet wasn't made for them. it was made for us. and so, in the end, the aliens just... die. no one kills them. there's no world-wide airstrike. there isn't even really a war. they die because no one in the universe has the power to make life on this planet obsolete except the God who created it. and so we don't have to live in fear of alien invasion or asteroid collision or some other extra-worldy event destroying us. what we need to worry about is what kind of people we are and how we choose to treat the people around us.
it was a great movie.
posted by sara at 9:59 AM
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