OK, I just got Hines' WOTW DVD...
Dammit! I so wanted to like this film. It's just so close...and yet misses by cosmically significant distances, like a passing bolide! Jesus, did nobody watch the rushes at an earlier stage and say: 'Bloody hell, Tim: your leading man talks like he's had a coat-stand rammed up his jacksy!' I mean, if he went anywhere near Woking talking like that - he'd probably get stabbed! Maybury Hil my arse. They don't say 'awnge' when they mean 'orange' in Surrey, and they certainly didn't 107 years ago. If one is going to fake up a nineteenth century setting for the piece (which is extremely laudable and should have been done years ago) and spend not inconsiderable numbers of pounds on CGI and some very nice effects and cinematic ideas, at least get some actors that sound half-decent. Ogilvy is used from the word go as a pure expositionary tool: it seems Hines decided that none of Wells' novel needed any editing. At all. Visually pleasing and quite haunting scenes are totally crapped up by the mincing quavering of the narrator or one of the other muppets (occasional exceptions). Great martians, nice settings, peculiarly bad and mutable moustache.
What a tragedy! As I said, so near and yet so far! I'm really very saddened, as the poor folk involved did try. Just needed a few points sorted out earlier. It could have been a classic. Oh, well...there's always Jeff Wayne.
Note to Hines: Please ring me (or anyone else in South-East England) next time you want to make a Wells movie- BEFORE you release it...
Comments, dear correspondents?
Dammit! I so wanted to like this film. It's just so close...and yet misses by cosmically significant distances, like a passing bolide! Jesus, did nobody watch the rushes at an earlier stage and say: 'Bloody hell, Tim: your leading man talks like he's had a coat-stand rammed up his jacksy!' I mean, if he went anywhere near Woking talking like that - he'd probably get stabbed! Maybury Hil my arse. They don't say 'awnge' when they mean 'orange' in Surrey, and they certainly didn't 107 years ago. If one is going to fake up a nineteenth century setting for the piece (which is extremely laudable and should have been done years ago) and spend not inconsiderable numbers of pounds on CGI and some very nice effects and cinematic ideas, at least get some actors that sound half-decent. Ogilvy is used from the word go as a pure expositionary tool: it seems Hines decided that none of Wells' novel needed any editing. At all. Visually pleasing and quite haunting scenes are totally crapped up by the mincing quavering of the narrator or one of the other muppets (occasional exceptions). Great martians, nice settings, peculiarly bad and mutable moustache.
What a tragedy! As I said, so near and yet so far! I'm really very saddened, as the poor folk involved did try. Just needed a few points sorted out earlier. It could have been a classic. Oh, well...there's always Jeff Wayne.
Note to Hines: Please ring me (or anyone else in South-East England) next time you want to make a Wells movie- BEFORE you release it...
Comments, dear correspondents?
Comment