War Of The Worlds BBC mini-series

Looking forward to the BBC adaptation of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds beginning on BBC1 tonight at 9pm UK time. It's a 3 part series set in Edwardian England starring Eleanor Tomlinson, Rafe Spall and Robert Carlyle.

 

Thanks will take a look.

 

Looking toward to this too!

 

Can't wait, looks good be watching later.

 

The War of the Worlds - S1 - Episode 1

Definitely watching this (and recording the whole thing to DVD for posterity).

 

Well that was excellent! Can't wait until next week......

 

I though it was poor personally.

Devoid of any tension, suspense or terror. Played like a film trailer all the way through. Over-scored musically sucks any kind of atmosphere out of it whatsoever.

I'm wondering in my lifetime if anyone will actually ever bother to actually just do the book with any kind of justice. The closest thing ever made to the book is the disco album by Jeff Wayne!

 

Completely agree - totally meh. I was bored throughout.

I hear there's an 8 episode French version out that might do a better job (haven't seen it yet). Maybe the Swedes should take a crack at it as they tend to do gritty drama with fantastical elements pretty well...

 

Just awful. I’d longed for an era appropriate filming of the novel for as long as I’ve waiting for an era appropriate HP Lovecraft adaptation.

Whilst the era was more or less appropriate, the turgid soap opera we got was not. Whilst George & Amy’s domestic situation may or may not be something that could happen in the era, it felt like a fabrication of contemporary concerns shoehorned into a story where it is neither wanted or needed.

Here we have a novel that was, at least in part, an allegory of the British imperial occupation of India - walk in with superior technology & firepower and simply outfought and occupied the place with no thought whatsoever to the native population.

Instead we get the story of a forward thinking lass who is being held back from her potential by the social mores of the times who busies herself inventing Teas-maids/combo alarm clock & tea maker. And the ‘save the dog’ trope was as terrible an attempt to play on audience emotions as it was in Independence Day.

Not sure what was wrong with the story of a nameless journalist who witnesses the initial foray of an alien invasion and then by turns witnesses the failure of the apparatus of empire; the army, the navy and religion itself to have any meaningful affect on the aggressors.

After watching the frankly stunning adaptation of His Dark Materials before hand (THAT is how one adapts the a book for the screen!), this adaptation of WotW is utterly awful.

Back to the Jeff Wayne album as the most faithful adaptation of the tone and themes of the book still.

 

It's amazing how we see things differently His Dark Materials has bored the hell out of me, I couldn't wait for War Of The Worlds, I loved it

 

There are a fair number of people online (Twitter etc) who did love it. With the novel having been repurposed successfully (George Pal’s version as col war/communist paranoia, Spielberg as a 9/11 parable), much of my issue with the new version stems from my expectation of a faithful adaption of the themes of the original novel to go with the era appropriate setting not being met. That far at least, the issue is mine rather than the show’s.

 

Some time ago now there were film crews outside my office filming. Someone asked the crew and they said it was War of the Worlds but this was set in modern day as they had cars and so on. I think it was a US production?

 

If you live in Bristol it will be this series...

 

I'm confusing myself here the Bristol location is for His Dark Materials!! Going for a lie down now!

 

I'm so glad someone else spotted that and hated it in equal measure, in both WOTW and ID (tens of thousands of people burnt to a crisp in seconds, but the labrador leaps to safety)

In ID that was the classic jumping the shark moment, with half of the film still to go.

To be honest this show has a lot of issues, not just personal disappointment ones. I think the way it has been produced and scored (way too much music) takes a lot of the blame.

I'd read that the show was delayed due to fine tuning the SFX, but I swear during the

Spoiler

half way through the sequence when the bricks fell on the housekeeper, she disappeared part of the way through that sequence!

The whole series already aired in Canada and New Zealand by all accounts, and from other posts around the net from NZ views, the 2nd episode is quite a chore.

Still, didn't stop The Guardian giving it a 4/5, because you know, Sunday

The War of the Worlds review – doom, dystopia and a dash of Downton

 

I taped it all ,to watch later.
Started watching the first episode.
Started fast forwarding through the boring bits.
About ten minutes later I was finished the first episode, and deleted the rest of them.

 

It was OK I suppose. Rather slow to kick off and all those ministry/office scenes were a tedious waste of time. I was hoping to get closer to Robert Carlyle's character but he didn't get the chance to come out. Hope that gets resolved in the following episodes. I was glad to see the bland "hero" get zapped (or appeared to). It was a relief when the alien machines came in - nicely done. I'm sure that the rest will be more fun.

 

Thought it was poor. The sense of menace from the opening of the book was gone. I thought the whole thing was pretty turgid, more like a BBC Sunday tea-time serial from the early 70s, but with CGI effects instead of tripods made from yoghurt pots.

"Not sure what was wrong with the story of a nameless journalist who witnesses the initial foray of an alien invasion and then by turns witnesses the failure of the apparatus of empire; the army, the navy and religion itself to have any meaningful affect on the aggressors."

This.

 

I read the book in high school and loved it more than all the movie versions.

Does this series follow along closely with the book? I love the way BBC does series drama especially Father Brown. Very straight forward, stiff upper lip acting and love the authentic looking period piece set design. Very British like Downton Abbey.

 

It's an adaptation which is what a lot of people do not like including other aspects which I'm sure will be highlighted to you. But to me it is as you say :Very straight forward, stiff upper lip acting and love the authentic looking period piece set design. Very British like Downton Abbey. All our family really enjoyed it.

 

There was a movie that came out in 2005 done by Pendragon Pictures that stayed with the book all the way through. Very low budget but I enjoyed it. I read the book and loved it.

 

Couldn't agree more.

A BBC adaptation has been on the backburner for years - I remember as far back as 2010 there was talk of a version based on the Jeff Wayne album with David Tennant in the lead.

I wish they'd gone with that idea - because the version that finally made it to screen sucks rotten eggs

 

this is the best version...imo

 

Just finished watching it. Huge disappointment. Dull and dreary. No excitement whatsoever.

 

The overuse of music, and making the music too loud, and using bombastic music, are all BBC traits - part of their production culture. The recent BBC/Amazon production of Good Omens relied on it as well, and you can see (or rather hear) it as far back as the “new” Doctor Who.