WritingMadeHard

I guess I'm showing my age, but I found the new War of the Worlds way too loud! Maybe it was just the theater I was in. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. This blog is about writing the hard way which is the way I seem to do most things. I wondered about how the writer/producer/director of War of the Worlds would handle the fact that when the book was written, many people took it for granted that Mars was inhabited--that is one reason they accepted the premise that Mars had attacked Earth. However, today, most people take it for granted that Mars is not inhabited...so how would they respond to being attacked by beings from that Planet? This was something that had to be addressed in the film or people would find it totally unbelievable. I thought and studied and thought some more trying to figure out ways to address this problem. Finally I decided to wait and see how the writer of the film handled it. As usual, I worked myself into a dither over nothing. Literally. The screenwriter chose simply not to handle it at all. There is no mention of Mars in the film or where the ivaders came from. A marvelous solution. And a simple one. The special effects were terrific and believable. I heard one critic say that he found it impossible to accept Tom Cruise as Everyman. What a totally idotic thing to say. Here the guy is watching a movie that shows aliens invading and literally destroying the entire civilization of a planet. He can believe that, but he can't believe the actor playing a father!!! But that is par for critics. They tend to not understand scifi and so feel the need to find something wrong with them so they have an excuse for not understanding them. The fact is they simply don't pay attention and so have little idea what is going on in film unless it is a slow-moving gabfest that they can ignore for five or ten minutes at a time while they are taking notes and talking with friends without missing any of the plot. I recommend War of the Worlds, even though I loved the Original. They are apples and oranges. Different but both good.