Oh, please. Puh-leaze. Spindly, three-legged aliens of vastly superior intelligence attack earth for no discernable reason. They’re winning, decimating us. Then …. they suddenly become delicate flowers dropping dead across the landscape?!
Because of a weakened immune system!!??
Guess they missed ol’ Tom’s recent railings that vitamins cure everything.
Sheesh.
Well Tracey, I don’t think it’s a matter of their immunse systems being weak. Some people –and presumably some ETs– are genetically predisposed to immunity to some things but not everything. The Morgan Freeman blurb at the end of the movie said that those of us who are alive today are the descendants of those who were immune to and survived whatever germ it was.
The irony was that the ETs thought they had their invasion all figured out because they had watched us, but they had failed to look at the microscopic level. It was also ironic that the ETs, who were much more “evolved” than humans, got taken down by the lowest of all life forms.
Right. Well, I think we can say their immune systems were weakened in some way.
But you’d think with their superior intelligence they would have considered that before launching an attack. After all, they had, what, a million years to plan it, according to the screenplay? That’s more than enough time to tend to all the niggling details of planetary annihilation and such, don’t you think?
I think it’s a flaw in the script — and in H.G. Wells’ original book — that asks for a tad too much suspension of disbelief, at least for my taste. Summing it all up in the ending narration would have worked much better in the original radio play, where the story was simply told, than here, in a movie, where it’s shown and told.
There might not have been anything in their experience to tell them there are disease-causing microbes invisible to the naked eye that they should beware of. Of course I’m speculating here.
Intelligence can only act upon information available to it, which is why it is so foolish to think that we, or anyone including scientists, have all the answers. Ironic that Wells had the ETs make the same mistake as atheists.
I haven’t seen the movie, and don’t plan to. Hilarious review though!
Sounds like that horrible ending to Signs. I mean, come one. Aliens invade the earth, plan a worldwide massive assualt, only to be thwarted by one of the most abundant chemicals here…water?
Whatever.
Thanks for the heads up.
Already contacted MF. ‘Preciate’cha’. *No wonder it tanked*
I’m only here to help. 😉
I had read another author talking about what HG Wells did, and if I remember correctly he was saying that Wells was trying to draw a comparison between the Martians invading Earth in his book and white men invading… well, I don’t remember where exactly, but with the history of white men it might as well have been anywhere – Africa, South America, wherever.
The point being to portray how we might have appeared to the natives as we invaded their land (although with a slightly different ending because, while their alien diseases did kill lots of white men, there were plenty more where they came from). When I get home I’ll see if I can find where I read that and get more specifics.