Friday Fun: War of the Worlds Edition
The War of the Worlds is one of my favourite novels and the old George Pal film one of my favourite cheesy old sf films. I mostly liked the Spielberg version and have very fond memories of the late 1980s TV series. I've listened to the Welles radio broadcast a few times and enjoyed the recent comic adaptation. I even vaguely remember reading a sequel Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss as an extra feature in the old Perry Rhodan books in the 1970s.
So, when I tell you that I really love the The War of the Worlds: Design, Graphical Elements page, it means that if you love TWotW (or even if you love great sf art), you should check it out too. It's a cornucopia of old book covers and interior illustrations and is obviously a work of love.
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2 comments:
Re the first paragraph: Different strokes for different folks. We set Netflix up so the "real" WotW (with Gene Barry) arrived just before the Tom Cruise version, and watched them in that order.
I thought the Pal special effects were remarkably good (and the featurette is quite interesting)--and we both much preferred the Pal/Barry version to the Spielberg/Cruise version. To us, the new version was all sfx, no heart.
But, as I say, different strokes...
Actually, Walt, I agree. The Pal version is truly one of my favourite sf movies and in retrospect the word cheesy is probably not the best for describing the sfx which, as you say, were quite good at the time.
The Spielberg version I thought had a few good moments but like most big budget movies these days was a little too sentimental. I thought that the ending in particular was poor. Cruise's character just had it too easy and the happily ever after was too pat. Perhaps I liked it better that you did, but, as you say, different strokes...
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