Movie Battles 2.0 #18: Signs Vs. War Of The Worlds

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1. New "Pros Pick" Section

2. 3 day limit on poll.









Encore: Refers to a movies replay value.
Pulitzer: Refers to the quality of the movie's story.
Alpha: Refers to the macho-ness and toughness of the movie and the actors in it.
Thank The Academy: Refers to the quality of the acting in the movie.
Highlander: Refers to the movie's ability and probability to live on forever.



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Signs (2002)

Synopsis: In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a five-hundred-foot crop circle is found on the farm of Graham Hess, the town's reverend. The circles cause a media frenzy and test Hess's faith as he journeys to find out the truth behind the crop circles.



War of the Worlds (2005)

Synopsis: Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. When his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son Robbie and young daughter Rachel for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm suddenly touches down. What follows is the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it in this contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells seminal classic sci-fi thriller.












Signs by creepin me out more.




Things to remember:

- My Movie Battles are pitting up 2 movies that have the same feel, appeal to a similar audience, or share similar content. They won't always be completely alike in all areas.

-Polls close in 3 days.

- Choosing one doesn't mean the other sucks, so you better freakin choose!

 

I haven't seen War of the Worlds, but Signs was an abomination. I'll go with War of the Worlds.

 

I enjoyed both movies but they seem to get shit on around here. I'll have to give a slight edge to Signs.

 

See, this is what I'm talking about. What exactly is so bad about Signs?

 

The ending was completely retarded.

 

What part about the ending? That water hurts them?

 

Signs is hugely underrated. So fucking what it had a weak ending? The rest of the movie was great.

And that alien scene on TV was genius. Holy fuck did I jump when I saw that in the theater. The rest of the audience let out a huge "aahhhh!" as well.

 

What's so weak about the ending? Because a bunch of Marines didn't show up and blow the aliens to smithereens?

 

Hate Signs less..,

 

My vote has to go to War of the Worlds. I think both films are effective overall and that both have flaws. In the case of War of the Worlds, the two children are annoying in typical Spielbergian annoying f'n kids form. Breslin and Culkin were a bit weird/offbeat but they were far less grating than the improbably resistance-minded Robbie and Dakota Fanning.

People complain about the twist in Signs but I generally liked the way it all worked out. i think Shyamalan did a good job of keeping things intimate with seeing how the particular crisis was affecting this particular family while still noting its global nature. there were some good scares, it was overall a solid atmosphere and i liked gibson and phoenix in it.

that being said, I think War of the Worlds is underrated and I'll give it a slight edge for a few critical reasons. First, I think that Cruise is very good. Dude gets way too much hate. He's a solid actor and I thought he gave a good performance in the role. I just liked the character in general. I liked how he had good intentions but was a bit of a douche in his interactions with his kids. I liked how he wasn't overly heroic or noble but just a guy who is very dedicated to his children and is trying to survive a crisis.

i also think that War of the Worlds has an incredible sequence that for me is the best part of that film and likely the best individual scene from either movie. The scene where the tripod first emerges- with its slow-burn quality from when a bunch of the neighborhood folks are walking to the center of town, to the rumbling underneath the earth, to the actual emergence- and then there's that moment of shock as that bizarre-looking alien killing machine makes that god-awful droning noise- and then the killing begins.

i mean its a chilling, effective sequence.

 

Everything. The whole movie was just terrible. The whole "swing away" shit was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in a movie.

Also, like a lot of Shymalan's flicks, there's a ton of buildup and then a major let down.


In this case, the entire movie just sucked.

 

the TV scene was epic.

like i said i think Signs has a very good ominous atmosphere to it. i dont really get why people shit on Signs. i mean that, Unbreakable, and Sixth Sense are all quality movies from Shyamalan.

 

Pretty much sums up my feelings of WOTW. That movie was terrifying at times.

 

Hate every M. Night movie besides Sixth Sense. Signs especially, however War of the Worlds was bad too. Cant even vote for which one I hate less..I'll figure it out.

 

I thought that was pretty clever. I'm not a fan of Shmamalalaman's last 3 movies or so, but he nailed it with Unbreakable and Signs IMO.

 

so you think village, the happening, lady in the water, last airbender > signs?

 

twist to Unbreakable was awesome on the first viewing. i didn't see that coming at all.

 

I liked both movies, voted for Signs because the little girl in it is less annoying and hideous

 

Even Unbreakable?

 

Unbreakable was ok, but I really enjoyed Devil. I think he was just credited with the story concept though.

I actually enjoyed The Happening, although my expectations for that one were extremely low.