War of the Worlds: Goliath

I don't know where this "style" of animation comes from. No, seriously, I don't know. But it seems like a lot of similar stuff was cranked out back in the eighties in shows like "He-Man" or "GI Joe." Every man a steroid-abusing lunk, every woman an astringent big sister. Is that how the world looks to eight-year-olds? I don't know.

I do know that what we see here is an alternative Earth where Martian steroid technology was adapted by Nicolai Tesla to enable all men to be gigantic muscle gods. Or something. But the 'roids also cause them to have bizarre behavioral changes--including constant teeth-clenching, weird grimmacing and a propensity to engage in suicidal fights--with each other, with Martians, with inanimate objects. All the actors spit out their lines like they are The Pharaoh cursing the Israelites. "Where're my pancakes!" sounds like a call to battle in this demented world where everything is macho and nothing is...well, um, "un-macho"?

It's all about the booming and the bashing and the hitting and the smacking, with unintentional comic relief provided by the tiny (of course)"girl" who has one heck of an anime hair-do. Anything--anything would have helped this dead whale get off the ground, except what they did. In this demented world, everything is based upon the social structure and skills of eight-year-olds. Conflict? Fight! All it needs is music by Metalica to be a perfect example of why maturity is a good thing.

Give this one a pass.

As a fellow animation director, I understand how difficult it must have been to make this beautiful film on a low budget but Joe pulled it off nicely. Some very innovative camera work and nice direction kept this film on track. The look is very refreshing for an American made feature. It reminded me of some of the great Japanese anime films like Steamboy and Akira. I only wish the character animation could have been done here in the states. I would have loved to work on it. Science fiction fantasy films that are animated are the type of productions we all like to see. It's rare to see one done with such love and attention to detail. Joe is a fine director and did a great job guiding his overseas animators to deliver the best acting possible for this film and they did well.

I am an ardent movie-goer and when someone told me of a USA-Malaysia collaboration of an indie animation film project, I was intrigued. For one thing, I know how difficult it is to get to the point where indie projects DO get made, and that would involve money, time, a lot of passion and tons of support from all directions. For another thing, I am a fellow South-East Asian and I am always looking to help boost signals of the range of artistic talent and wonderful stories that belong to our geographical area.

It so happened that I was invited to the special preview at last year's Comic-Con and I cleared my busy hectic SDCC schedule just to make it there.

For the budget that it had, "War of the Worlds: Goliath" (WotW:G) was entertaining fare. I went to the premiere being practically realistic and didn't expect to be totally Wow-ed as if I was a cinema audience watching a Pixar movie. But I was surprised at how good "WotW:G" turned out to be.

Yes, some parts of the dialogue were stilted but it got a little more fluid about a third into the movie. The movie didn't waste time on too much prose but was centred on lots of action, warfare and those "hey, you are my bro, man" kinda moments. Very "guy" stuff.

I had thought the addition of Raja Iskandar Shah would be the typical token-Asian stereotype but then, he also started using a kris in some key fight scenes.. that's when all bets are off ;)

The animation was a mix of 2D-3D.. if you are used to watching anime, it is not really distracting. (Again, this is not a Disney production - nor meant to be!) And I loved the futuristic steampunk concept artwork that was applied quite consistently throughout the film.

After all the guns and smoke and explosions that marked most of the movie, the beautiful music scoring for "WotW:G" was something that nailed the emotion and heart of the entire story. At least for me.

Watching "WotW:G" gave me some hope --- the mix of styles/ mediums and characters showed how various work in films can cross "the East-West divide" in a positive and unique way.

Here's to more successful collaborations like these in the future.

At face value, this seems pretty cool - the Martians return to Earth years after their initial invasion attempt and face off against Earth's newly advanced armies. Animation isn't high grade but it isn't bad either, and the 3d-style robots are great if that's your kind of thing.

But execution is pretty miserable. The writing isn't the worst I've seen, but it's not great. The worst parts is the lack of consistency. For example, as is common with a lot of movies, the monsters alternate between being invincible to laughably weak depending on the needs of the heroes. On top of that, they seem to determine in the beginning of the movie that heat rays are the monsters' weakness, yet they continue to throw barrages of bullets and missiles as if they do any good. Then there's the outrun-the-chain-explosion sequence. And what really drives me nuts, in one sequence they're fighting 3 monsters, they shoot 2 down and are fighting 1, then suddenly they're fighting 2 again, then 1, then 2, then they shoot down 1 of the remaining two and fight 1 until they kill it.

So I guess I was expecting too much out of this movie. Maybe it's more of a kids movie, but the flesh melting scenes made it feel a bit adult to me. If you hate plot holes, this movie isn't for you, but if you just want to watch some anime action sequences, then it's right up your alley.

I went to go see this movie because Kevin Eastman's name was attached to it. Kevin Eastman just in case you don't know created the Ninja Turtles with Peter Lard and is also the publisher of Heavy Metal Magazine. Whenever I think of Heavy Metal magazine I always think of hotly drawn scantily clad girls, and was expecting that in the adult themed animation, but of course adult does not just mean nude girls. Lucky for me this movie did not disappoint when I realized that.

In fact, only one woman was featured in this all-star cast made up of actors from the TV show Highlander. Elizabeth Gracen, who played Amanda on the show and its spin-off, The Raven, played the one woman, while the highlander himself, Adrian Paul toke a side step as a supporting charter. Also Jim Brynes who played Dawson on the show, and is a voice-acting veteran by now, also has a part in the film.

It's a really awesome premise. The movie acts as a sequel to War of the Worlds taking place 15 years after the events of the H.G. Wells novel in a steam punk influenced world where the human race creates an organization to train solders to prepare for another Martian attack just in case it happens. In a time and place when the "issues" that would lead to the First World War are causing conflict with the solders in this organization, which consist of men and women from every country in the world, the solders come together to train in war games only for the Martians to pick that time to attack again.

The movie has a slow start as it tends to run on with it's explanation as to what's going on in the world, but form the beginning the movie was awesome to look at as the animation, which was a blend of traditional animation and CGI and the art design, especially that which focused on a steam punk vibe was as good as the stuff in Heavy Metal Magazine.

Thought the 3D is not worth the price the action is. The battle scenes in the movie were great, not just from the animation point of view but it was very dramatic in it's story telling.

A total thumbs up!