Movie Reviews. Spoilers! (offline post 1 of 3)

The move is finished and my Internet connection is dead. Until I’ve got another live connection I’ll be updating this document, and later I’ll update the blog.

I’ve seen three movies in the past two weeks. Eunice and I saw Land of the Dead and Batman Begins together, and I saw War of the Worlds when she was away.

Spoilers ahead! Consider yourself warned.

The review of War of the Worlds holds the most detail because it is most fresh in my mind.

Land of the Dead was pretty good. Eunice and I have really taken a liking to zombie movies, and this one was directed by the master. It really made me want to see Romero’s other “Dead” films. I did wonder what a post-apocalyptic society needed paper money for. It had a good mix of horror and comedy. I don’t think that it’s one I’ll eventually own, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

In my own fortress in a post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world, I will have tight security, multiple escape routes, and NOBODY will be allowed to bring the zombies inside. Everyone will get the food they need. There won’t be any of this have/have-not dichotomy. Sort of like my ideal world, only with brain-eating zombies.

Batman Begins was the best Batman movie in a long time. Possibly better than the first movie, but I’m not sure about that. They both felt very different. Batman Begins made Gotham feel like a real place. And best of all, there were no nipples on the bat suit.

War of the Worlds was ok. It was about what I expected from a summer blockbuster –a lot of special effects. The alien tripods were really cool. I have a lot of trouble believing some of the things that happened, like how the tripods were buried for a few million years. If they were here that long, and underneath big cities, why didn’t anyone ever dig one up?

Still, War of the Worlds was entertaining. The ending was disappointing, but Tom Cruise’s character did change from a self-centered ass-hat to a much more fatherly figure. Overall I’d say Signs was a much better alien invasion story.

As usual, there are a whole lot of interesting things that could happen in the aftermath of the invasion. What happens to all that alien technology that’s now just lying around? What about those freaky red plants? How does the rest of the world react? Especially in places where there isn’t really a strong government.

There are also lasting psychological and religious issues. What does Man do when presented with incontrovertible proof that he isn’t alone in the universe? How do various religions adapt? What new ones form? Lots of interesting stuff happens after the credits roll. This is also beyond the scope of the book, but it's the kind of thing I think about.