H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (The Asylum film)

H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
Directed by	David Michael Latt
Written by	David Michael Latt; Carlos De Los Rios; H. G. Wells (novel)
Produced by	David Rimawi
Starring	C. Thomas Howell
Edited by	David Michael Latt
Music by	Ralph Rieckermann
Distributed by	The Asylum
Release dates	June 28, 2005
Running time	90 min
Language	English
Budget	$1,000,000 (estimated)

H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (also going by the title of Invasion and H.G. Wells' The Worlds in War ) is one of three film adaptations of The War of the Worlds novel released in 2005. Much like Spielberg's version, it is a modernized adaptation, but was released by the production company "The Asylum" and whose budget may be more on par with the Pendragon version. No theatrical release date had been planned; instead the film was a direct-to-DVD release. All three were released June of the same year.

The story tells of a man who is separated from his wife and child when a Martian invasion begins. He tries to make his way to Washington, D.C. to reunite with them as the world is torn apart.

The DVD was released on June 28, one day before Spielberg's film, and has a few notable stars including C. Thomas Howell, Peter Greene, and Jake Busey.

The alternate title of Invasion is likely for the film's overseas distribution since Paramount owns exclusive rights to the War of the Worlds title in the European Union.

Adapting the novel

Writer/Director David Michael Latt (who admits to never seeing the George Pál version) has made it clear that his film has changed certain aspects from the source material outside of the shift of time and location. Most notable is that the tripods have been changed to six-legged crab-like machines called "walkers" (a conception that mainly stems from allowing the effects team creative freedom).

The aliens are indeed Martians (though the film never states this, but this is confirmed by Latt complete with an opening credit sequence over shots of the Red Planet's landscape), but bear almost no visual resemblance to their novel's counterparts. Whereas Wells described his invaders as bear-sized tentacle creatures, the film's Martians are insect-like in their appearance with four legs. These aliens also have the ability to spit acid, which melts entirely anyone who is unfortunate enough to be attacked. They also have an appetite for humans as in the novel. In terms of their military action: the war machines are not tripods, but huge resemblances of the creatures themselves with six legs. By all accounts, their fighting machines do not appear to have heavy protection against modern human artillery, leaving their ability to effectively crush resistance unexplained. The aliens do have a substance vaguely similar to the black smoke, which they distribute in shells of some kind, but is more of a green colored gas with a notable inability to rise above ground level due to a similar density, allowing the characters to escape by getting to high places.

The protagonist of the film is named George Herbert, an obvious reference to H. G. Wells. Rather than being a writer, as in the novel, he is an astronomer, perhaps in reference to the character of Ogilvy - in a related deviation, the film does not attempt the voice-over narration that accompanies other versions of the story. Despite these differences, George nevertheless goes through much of what befalls the novel's protagonist, even up to preparing to sacrifice himself to the Martians, only for them to drop dead of infection before he has to do so. He is also separated from his wife and son with whom he tries to reunite once the invasion begins, and, like the novel, she and their son are alive in the conclusion. George's brother, a ranger, is less fortunate; he is seen only briefly, after being fatally wounded in the trail of destruction left by the invaders. A major deviation from the text is that the protagonist actually tries to produce a means of stopping the Martians, but the film does not elaborate on whether their eventual downfall is due to these efforts, or whether their deaths simply coincided with his efforts.

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Martian fighting-machine

The role played by the novel's Artilleryman is here divided into two characters, rather than being a single developing personality. The first time he is seen (as the character of Williams), he exhibits the initial, defeated status of his novelistic counterpart. He accompanies George as they move to unaffected areas, meeting soldiers oblivious to the danger they will soon face, until they become separated when George takes refuge underwater to elude the Martians. After his ordeal in the ruined house, George encounters Williams again, but the latter remains very much as he was before. Instead, the Artilleryman as he is portrayed in the novel's later stages is signified by another soldier, Samuelson, who both George and Williams encountered earlier. Though in a similar vein to the novel there is talk of recapturing the world, the plan to achieve this is by regrouping with military units in the mountains instead of going underground. In the pursuit of this plan, George is quickly realized as being more valuable to humanity than either Williams or Samuelson, as the efforts of scientists have won many wars before.

The unnamed Curate from the novel is portrayed in the film by a Pastor Victor. While the two characters are very similar (the Pastor mentions his church was rebuilt three years prior to the Martians), the Pastor is depicted as being fairly calm and is sure that the invasion is the Rapture. However, his faith is deeply shaken when he meets a congregate whose loss at the hands of the invaders has her screaming against God, causing the Pastor to question events and why he himself has yet to be taken. Unlike the Curate, the Pastor manages to keep his composure when he's trapped in the ruined house with George as he wrestles quietly with his thoughts. Whereas the Curate caused the narrator to subdue him and then taken away by the Martians unconscious, the Pastor regains his faith just before he is killed directly by the Martians.

The chapters on the DVD are named after the chapter titles in the novel, something also done for the Pendragon and Spielberg films.

Sequel

Due to the success of the film, Asylum Production have announced a sequel called: 'War of the Worlds: The Next Wave'. The film is currently scheduled for release in April 2008.

Synopsis

When a second wave of martians attack and escape with human captives, NASA and the military prepare for a daring rescue mission.

Trivia

The cover bears a striking semblance to the 1996 film Independence Day's

External links