War of the worlds
You know you're in trouble when the only bit of a film that feels real is not the CGI-infested parts but the moment when the hero very obviously steps out on to a sound stage. The characters were poorly drawn, their relationships fudged and the plot so episodic as to make little sense, huge chunks of the narrative being left out at once.
Two moments which did stand out for me: the plane crash taking place outside the cellar in which the heroes were hiding, seen only through the narrow windows and the sky raining with clothes shed from the bodies of the dead, I believe after the capsising of the ferry (though how they were not affected by a ray which caused their wearers to disintegrate is a mystery).
Two moments in a two-hour film isn't particularly impressive, all the more so when you consider how much flair Spielberg usually has at his fingertips.
On another note, it was a delight to re-see the trailer for Charlie and the chocolate factory and even I will admit King Kong looks seriously impressive.
(19th July 2005)
Two moments which did stand out for me: the plane crash taking place outside the cellar in which the heroes were hiding, seen only through the narrow windows and the sky raining with clothes shed from the bodies of the dead, I believe after the capsising of the ferry (though how they were not affected by a ray which caused their wearers to disintegrate is a mystery).
Two moments in a two-hour film isn't particularly impressive, all the more so when you consider how much flair Spielberg usually has at his fingertips.
On another note, it was a delight to re-see the trailer for Charlie and the chocolate factory and even I will admit King Kong looks seriously impressive.
(19th July 2005)
Reviews A-Z
- Edinburgh Festival season 2006: Bach's Mass in B minor (Fringe)
- Angel-A
- Banlieue 13
- Brokeback Mountain
- Capote
- Casanova
- Charlie and the chocolate factory
- The constant gardener
- The Da Vinci code
- Edinburgh Festival season 2005: Autistic license (Fringe)
- Edward Scissorhands (Matthew Bourne ballet)
- Good night, and good luck
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (novel)
- Hebrides Ensemble plays Ravel
- Keeping mum
- King Kong (2005)
- Lady and the tramp (DVD)
- Memoirs of a geisha
- Merry Christmas
- Mission: Impossible III
- Lisa Milne in recital (Usher Hall International Series 2005/06)
- Munich
- The new statesman
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead man's chest
- Romeo and Juliet (Edinburgh University)
- Rose St Ensemble's Mozart birthday concert
- Royal Lyceum Theatre Company (2005/06 season): Faust, parts I and II
- Royal Scottish National Orchestra: American icons (2005/06 season)
- Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Mozart and Prokofiev (2005/06 season)
- Superman returns
- Syriana
- Transamerica
- United 93
- Walk the line (2006 film)
- The war of the worlds (2005 film)
- William Jewell College Choir
The bald prima donna (Fringe)
Emily Beynon/Andrew West recital (EIF) Black comedy (Fringe)
Budapest Festival Orchestra (EIF)
The Canterbury tales (Fringe)
Flanders and Swann (Fringe)
The Jazz Centre: Colin Steele quintet (Fringe)
The Lindberg flight/The flight over the ocean and The seven deadly sins (EIF)
Mazeppa (EIF)
The real Inspector Hound (Fringe)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (Fringe)
Shakespeare's passions (Fringe)
Troilus and Cressida (EIF)
Beautiful thing (Fringe)
Curlew river (EIF)
Dutch National Ballet (EIF)
Bach cantatas for solo voice (Fringe)
Dido and Aeneas (Fringe)
Fitz Barbershop (Fringe)
Graveyard music (Fringe)
Magdalena Kožená recital (EIF)
MacHomer (Fringe)
Michelangelo string quartet (EIF)
Monteverdi Vespers (EIF)
Monty Python's Flying Circus in French (Fringe)
Philomusica of Edinburgh (Fringe)
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (EIF)
Les liaisons dangereuses
Tartuffe