User reviews

I've been waiting most of my life for a faithful adaptation of the great novel. Sadly, the wait goes on. This is more like a cheap Dr Who episode crossed with Edwardian Eastenders. Absolutely crushed with disappointment. Ah well...

This is more about Amy fighting against the repression of the male dominated hierarchy and traditional western values than it is about earth fighting aliens.

I'm sort of cheering for the martians.

One has to ask the question that although this mini-series was completed almost 2 years ago, and post-production (VFX/Editing, etc) would have taken some additional time, yet it was teased, to British audiences at least, for a possible Summer 2019 release, which of course never happened. Why the big delay, I hear you ask? Well I think some of you, if not ALL of you now know why. It's a clunker - they simply got it utterly, horribly wrong. Now normally I would reserve such vitriol in the final analysis, after the show had completed it's run. But no, it's already a mess, a big bloody mess. I fully suspect that BBC Executives, NOT Peter Harness - the credited writer, dictated most of what we actually see onscreen. Harness adapted the wonderful Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell into an equally wonderful TV adaptation, so why did he fail so miserably here? I would suggest interference, why? Because I am a Writer with experience of BBC Executives and their propensity for full-on interference. You go into a Script meeting and everybody is upbeat and the general outlook is postively very good. But then, as the meeting progresses, you slowly start to realise that they're gradually trying to change it, not just in certain sections, but in the piece as a WHOLE, until essentially it is completely, if not radically different to what you first presented. Now you might not notice this at first, because they're REALLY that good, but it is totally insiduous and basically standard practice at the BBC right now.

Episode 1 was reasonable, setting up a good storyline. Episode 2 dragged indefinitely with almost no content. I'm never going to find out about episode 3 because the chances of anything coming from this are a million to one.

I was looking forward to this mini series. Wait - a remake of a classic sci-story, set almost contemporarily to the H.G.Wells original novel? Great - throw some modern technology and CGI at the production to realise Wells' ideas in the book and it should be a cracker! So I thought.

Oh dear. Weak or stereotyped characterisation, unnecessary sub plots (whilst at the same time losing key points of the main story) and confused/unnecessary flash forwards to a hackneyed view of a post apocalyptic world.

So essentially, the author had taken one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written, nicked a few ideas and characters and themes ....and ruined it. What a missed opportunity.

Hmm...positives. The first 30 minutes were moderately ok. As for the rest of it I had to force myself to get to the end of the first episode. If it had been another 5 minutes longer I'd have given up on it. The characters were dull and uninteresting and I simply didn't care what happened to them.

Unfortunately the alien technology borrows from Spielberg's botched attempt at telling the story some 15 years ago. If you want a better telling of this story then listen to the original radio broadcast, watch the movie from the 1950s or listen to Jeff Wayne's musical.

No one would have believed in the 19th year of the 21st century, that the BBC was still being watched keenly and closely by intelligences soon to be mocked and insulted. Men scrutinised and studied a great fictional work, alas as shallowly as a man with an iPhone might scrutinise the Mona Lisa. With infinite complacency men rewrote the fiction including extramarital little affairs and yammering on about their boring empire versus the Russians. It is possible that the incessant programmers on Netflix do the same. No one gave a thought to the older generation patiently forking out our license fee year after year, patiently awaiting a truly grand presentation, but thought only to dismiss the ideas of H.G Wells as impossible or improbable and downright old-fashioned.. It is curious to comprehend some of the mental habits of those involved in this fiasco. At most, terrestrial men fancied there might be a reasonable BBC adaptation of creatures coming from Mars, perhaps inferior to the novel, but still ready to welcome a quality enterprise. Yet across the road in White City, minds that are clearly devoid of intellect, smallscale and unsympathetic, regarded this commission with blinkered eyes, and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.

I'm not sure what the other reviewers were expecting to see maybe that overhyped version that Spielberg did with Tom Cruise but this one is closer to what HG Wells story was like. Takes place in the right place and time. Excellent performances by all and good tense moments. Ignore the naysayers, I don't know what movie they were watching, it wasn't this one. Picks up the pace by episode 2. Direction is great, special effects are perfect for this type of story without being flashy and overwhelming. Definitely worth a watch. This Is War of the Worlds without all the updating.

If you thought Tom Cruise' effort at this classic was bad this revision is worse. Why modern producers think they can all improve upon stories told by classic wordsmiths is beyond me.

Read the book and make a product that honors it. Stop trying to "update" the stories with your take on current mores. If think you are that good, write an original story and have it produced. Leave your betters alone.

Total tosh.

I have some advise for the BBC, next time you want to dramatise a classic novel get some people to actually read it.

The BBC took a classic masterpiece and turned it into a steaming pile of ####!

Some good moments but generally spoiled by hackneyed ideas of extreme male stupidity, illogical and unbelievable reactions and an inconsistent storyline. Throw in polystyrene bricks and bendy wooden beams and you've got 1980's Doctor Who but with better special effects. A real shame. Felt like the job was just too big for the production team.

Boring yawn-fest with CBBC effects and a totally unnecessary and very 21st Century sub-plot.

What this story needs is the kind of love and detail that only a Director with passion for the novel (and a big budget!) can deliver.

What Peter Jackson did for Tolkien we need someone similar to do for War of the Worlds.

The impression I had was this production team were not passionate about War of the Worlds, H.G.Wells or maybe even scifi generally. Instead it seemed to me they were dumped with this project and so glossed over the alien invasion part and instead hijacked it as a vehicle for a modern agenda and made that the story instead.

Please god will I still be alive before someone actually produces a period accurate, book accurate, Thunderchild scene including, non budget limiting, visual representation of the original book ?

A message for all scriptwriters -

1. When involved in the representation of a classic masterpiece be accurate to the period it was set in, do not try to re write history with inserted modern sensibilities that simply did not exist at that time.

2. Do not be so arrogant as to think that your tinkering can improve on a literary classic, that you are somehow more skilled than the original author and can improve on their tale.

3. Do not do projects that you know require a very significant budget when you only have a limited budget. Bad effects are worse than no effects at all - some pictures can get away with near zero effects and are all the better for it (eg. the excellent Let the Right One In) but some like War of the Worlds you simply cannot do with out effects, so if you don't have the budget to do it justice then just don't do it. The money (UK TV License Payers money!) would be better spent on alternative projects.

It's quite clear the BBC can do amazing things War and Peace (2016), Peaky Blinders and even do big budget collaborations well as shown in His Dark Materials - How this got through the review board within the BBC amazes me, no wonder they were keeping it back for over a year and released it with so little fanfare they knew it was a **** up, what a waste.

The chemistry of this production shows how dreary and disappointing it can become with the pace being slow and amounting to hardly anything. The overdone of colour effect at most parts adds to the dreariness, and puts you off even to a 3 episode margin. The actors try to fit in their shoes the best they can but Spall's character can hardly earn respect for his existence. The only couple of good notes is some visual interests and wide-scenery atmosphere works only for particularly a few seconds. The drama which it centres on puts you off the hopeful interest of seeing a pure adaptation of Wells' work and fails to be entertaining.

I loved this series. It started off slow for me, but I loved it until the end. For me it was a story fo sacrifice and the will to survive. A bit of introspection was tossed in there, but not too obvious. The most impactful part was the way the human mind blocks out what it needs to, to find the will to survive. This can be seen in Amy, but also in george who want his wife and child to survive.

I grep up with HG Wells's books. So I wasn't expecting a 1:1 adaptation. If I want the original, I'll grab the book. I love to see the different interpretations people have given this book in al the movies and series that have come out.

All in all a good mini series to watch in the weekend.

Why do people think they can change classic literature for second rate drama? I am so disappointed. Utter rubbish. Second rate effects, second rate acting and second rate script. I can't tell you how annoyed I am. Here was an opportunity to make a classic version of The War of the Worlds, keeping to Wells' vision. But no, you had to go and make it your own. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Not only have you ruined this opportunity, but no one will touch a true to the book version now for years. I hope you are content with your effort, because you only need to look at the stars given for this crud to know that you have utterly failed.

I frankly don't get why there is so few good comments about this amazing mini series. I am not a science fiction specialist though, but I was not bored at all and I found it rather faithful to the HG Well's book. OK, it's quite different from the other versions, more modern, but who cares? I love the ending, very gloomy. That's actually the most important element that makes I like this series. I will try the other series, produced in the same time.

After reading some of the review I just had to comment. Firstly someone giving it a 2 because he thinks the Original story is set in the 20th century...Oh man please! It was written in 1898 and based on the mid 1890's which would be the 19th Century.

Im going to give the 1st episode a try now.

Well I did and no where near as bad as people on here are complaining about, actually after watching it not sure what they are complaining about.

Not really sure what people were expecting its only the first episode

Also it is not set in the 1920's its set in the 1890s.

Who decided to take THE greatest science fiction story ever written and make this slow, senseless, passion less, pointless, plodding mess? Why? Why?? You took everything that made this story great and exciting and terrifying and clever and thought provoking and chucked it away!! I'm off to crayon over the Mona Lisa and then record a rap version of Nessun Dorma, cause, you know, that will make them more relevant to modern society and because, well, I'm smarter than their creator's.

This should have been made by people who actually read the ###### book . I feel cheated.

The acting is bad, the script is bad,the directing is abysmal, the love story is pointless and unnecessary, the male lead seems in a permanent state of stupification, the future time shifts stop the story dead and serve no purpose, the slow motion panning shots are so out of place I actually thought my pc was buffering, and the few scenes actually taken from the original source (of which there are five) are so poorly rewritten and changed that they lose all of the excitement and horror that the book evoked...... And..um...the music was *&#T!!

When will these Movie/TV writers/producers realise that this book is still relevant and being read - 120 Years - after it was written for a reason and Stop trying to make it fit their current/ views/agendas!!! For the love of God please just give us our book on the big screen! (sob!).

Kudos for setting it in (roughly!) the correct time and correct location, 1 star for each.

P. S for those close friends of Mr Wells who have chosen to defend this travesty by stating that 'he' would have been happy to have his book completely overhauled to better fit with current perceived social injustices, thank you for taking the time to channel his spirit and share his views with the rest of us poor lowly mortals.

Maybe next time someone decides to butcher this book on film, they could possibly call it something else.