Friday, 15 August 2014

Martians have motives too - review of War of the Worlds: Goliath

War of the Worlds- Goliath.jpg
"War of the Worlds- Goliath" by
Screen capture self-taken.Licensed
under Fair use via Wikipedia.
War of the Worlds: Goliath is a 2012 Malaysian anime directed by Joe Pearson, and shown at Loncon 3 on Thursday.

It almost started well. On the eve of WW1, the Martians are about to mount a fresh attack on Earth. The film pays a surprising amount of attention to some of the minutiae of historical national rivalries around the world. The message is that humans should unite around the Martian threat. With that going on, it's odd that it seems to regard early 20th century America as a post-racial society, and its line on gender is random but definitively anachronistic. Well alright, and what about these Martians anyway? Green blobs of pure, unadulterated antagonism, nothing more. I was obliged to ask my neighbour to remind me if they'd had a reason for attacking the Earth, way back in the original.

Hmm... also when I saw those little triplanes dog-fighting flying saucers and winning, I fully realized the power of the original story in representing an attack on a society hopelessly outclassed on the technological front, then saving it with an unexpected intervention from a natural force. Goliath's Earthlings win by fire-power. Lots and lots of extremely unbelievable fire-power. Beautifully drawn, unbelievable fire-power.

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