Pendragon's "HG Wells' THe War of the Worlds" (2005)

[protoAuthor]

Originally Posted by Nemses

Oh! I love mockbusters!!! Gets me nostalgic bout Epic movie, Superhero movies and others like it.

Not the same thing. You're thinking of parodies. These are low-quality copies.

Well, let's get this baby started!

*pops in disc*



Okay, would've said "adapted", but okay. I liked the original story.

TIMBO! How's your Ice Cream truck?
(in joke)

Did the book start out with that quote?


STOCK FOOTAGE!

[protoAuthor]

Man, I bet those guys could take out the tripods with their bare hands.


FAKE STOCK FOOTAGE!


Bad CG posing as stock footage!


And here, we are introduced to our main character. That man's false mustache.

So, this dude's name is George. He's the "Harry Sue" author insert from the book, pretty much (Herbert George Wells). He narrates the shit out of this story. All the time.

[protoAuthor]

He's talking to his astronomer buddy Ogilvy about Mars. We never hear most of this conversation, as the fake mustache talks over most of it, but apparently,



"His readers would be astounded!".



So George heads over to Ogilvy's greenscreen, I mean Observatory.


Totally legit, guys.

[protoAuthor]

So in the greenscreen, I mean observatory, Mustache checks out the 'scope to look at Mars.


And what does he see?


Wow. Beautiful.

[Dragonlady]

OMG! LMAO! Those pictures are awful and awfully funny at the same time. Look at some of the goofs this movie has that was listed on IMDb:

* Errors in geography: When the Westminster clock tower is destroyed, the Houses of Parliament and Parliament Square are nowhere to be seen. Instead, the Westminster clock tower is depicted as a free-standing tower on the riverbank. In actuality is part of the Parliament buildings.

* Revealing mistakes: When the Writer is showing his wife the planet Mars, the bottom half of the frame is quite obviously bathed in hot summer sunshine, and yet the top half, depicting a matted-in CGI sky, is dark and filled with stars.

* Anachronisms: CGI shots of London do not in any way reflect the actual layout of the city itself; one re-occurring mistake is to show the city filled with Tudor cottages. Very few buildings of the this kind can be found in London as the entire city was destroyed by fire in 1666, prompting a rebuild utilizing only stone and brick.

* Anachronisms: Much of the Architecture in the street scenes of "London" is, in fact, American; Brownstones, typical of U.S. cities (and definitely not British ones), are seen throughout the film and the in the UK, lamp posts terminating in square lanterns and topped with a hood to reflect light down upon the street have always been favored over the American-style spherical lamps seen in the film.

* Anachronisms: Modern shop fronts, litter bins and chrome outdoor seating outside a coffee shop can be seen in 1890's "London" (actually Seattle).

* Continuity: Although in CGI long shots London is depicted as a Medieval city with dirt roads and gravel paths, in street scenes shot in Seattle clearly show the city as having concrete roads.

* Continuity: Throughout the film, Big Ben constantly reads 3:00, regardless of the actual time established elsewhere in any given scene.

* Factual errors: The uniforms worn by the British troops in the film are not correct at all. Most of them appear to be cobbled together from mid to late 20th century USMC Alphas, and many of the other "soldiers" look more like Boer Commandos (right period, wrong country), or Franco's Phalangist/Fascist troops from the Spanish Civil War.

* Factual errors: The Artilleryman is shown driving his gun team from the limber box. In reality, he would be riding one of the nearside wheel horses.

* Anachronisms: After the narrator flees the pit after the Martians' first attack, the train that passes in the background is a late 20th century Americal diesel model rather than a British steam locomotive.

* Revealing mistakes: The Union Jack flag on the Thunderchild is shown blowing towards the wind as the ship speeds towards the Martian war machine instead of being blown back.

* Errors in geography: The Artilleryman, supposedly an Englishman, uses the American pronunciation of "aluminum" as opposed to the English "aluminium".

* Errors in geography: Parts of London such as Primrose Hill, which have been major urban centers for hundreds of years, are depicted in the film as being empty fields.

* Revealing mistakes: The same extras are killed several times throughout the film.

* Anachronisms: People in modern dress can be seen in the far background during some of the street scenes.

* Miscellaneous: The Writer looks through the observatory telescope with his closed eye.

* Continuity: After the massacre on the common, which happens at sundown, The Writer runs home. By the time he dives into a bush after being startled by a tradesman and his young helper, it is night but in the very next scene, taking place only a few minutes later, it is twilight and when he reaches home, it is suddenly day again.

* Revealing mistakes: Some of the camera angles on the background plates do not match the angles of the foreground action in the blue screen shots. For example the view from The Writer's bedroom window gives the impression that the ground is at a 45 degree angle to the house, rather than 90 degrees as it should be. Also, whenever anyone is driving a cart, the backgrounds are so mismatched that grass and flowers appear to be over 8 feet tall.

* Miscellaneous: It is evident that, during the "Thunderchild" scenes, that CGI ships have been layered over stock footage of the sea shot from an aeroplane. The result is that the sea appears to be moving sideways rapidly, not in accordance with the direction that the ships are traveling.

* Anachronisms: The guns on the Thunderchild appear to be AA guns, and appear to fire even though unmanned. There were no AA guns in Victorian times, largely because powered flight was not achieved until the early 20th century.

* Factual errors: The Scientist tells the writer early in the movie that Mars is 40 million miles closer to the Sun than the Earth is. Earth is closer to the Sun than Mars is.

* Factual errors: Human skeletons cannot continue to move once all the soft tissue is gone from a human body. Yet, multiple times the skeletons of people killed by the heat rays thrash around for several seconds after only the bones are left.

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<

Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

* Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When the Writer and the Artillery Man are reunited towards the end of the film, a few shots reveal that the Writer's fake mustache is peeling off on one side.

[protoAuthor]

Suddenly, Mustache notices something strange about Mars.

Wow. I wonder what it could be. Ogilvy says the gases are chiefly hydrogen, because he's a pimp and can tell stuff like that. This'll probably turn out to be nothing, because the chances of anything coming from mars, are a million to one, he said, so Mustache goes home and does writer stuff.


See? Writer stuff! He's a dedicated writer, so much so that...


This goes completely unnoticed.


Ogilvy notices it, though. I bet it'll be nothing, though.

[protoAuthor]

Ogilvy's interest has been piqued, so the next morning, he goes exploring in his funny hat.


What does he find, I wonder? I bet it's nothing.

Well, there are lots of things on fire... But... I don't see any-

Holy shit! It's a big flaming turd from space!

Ogilvy is completely shocked.

Just in AWE.

[darkmasta]

Originally Posted by Dragonlady

* Continuity: After the massacre on the common, which happens at sundown, The Writer runs home. By the time he dives into a bush after being startled by a tradesman and his young helper, it is night but in the very next scene, taking place only a few minutes later, it is twilight and when he reaches home, it is suddenly day again.

* Revealing mistakes: Some of the camera angles on the background plates do not match the angles of the foreground action in the blue screen shots. For example the view from The Writer's bedroom window gives the impression that the ground is at a 45 degree angle to the house, rather than 90 degrees as it should be. Also, whenever anyone is driving a cart, the backgrounds are so mismatched that grass and flowers appear to be over 8 feet tall.

* Miscellaneous: It is evident that, during the "Thunderchild" scenes, that CGI ships have been layered over stock footage of the sea shot from an aeroplane. The result is that the sea appears to be moving sideways rapidly, not in accordance with the direction that the ships are traveling.

* Anachronisms: The guns on the Thunderchild appear to be AA guns, and appear to fire even though unmanned. There were no AA guns in Victorian times, largely because powered flight was not achieved until the early 20th century.

* Factual errors: The Scientist tells the writer early in the movie that Mars is 40 million miles closer to the Sun than the Earth is. Earth is closer to the Sun than Mars is.

* Factual errors: Human skeletons cannot continue to move once all the soft tissue is gone from a human body. Yet, multiple times the skeletons of people killed by the heat rays thrash around for several seconds after only the bones are left.

LOLWAT xD They made it on purpose right?... right?

[protoAuthor]

Originally Posted by darkmasta

LOLWAT xD They made it on purpose right?... right?

Doubt it.

Also, expect a delay, my screencapping program is failing me right now.

[protoAuthor]

Alright, got a new screencapping program, gonna start doing this again.