War of the Worlds: Goliath (2012) Online

Please forget all the "professional" critics who are disgusted by any movie without strong social and political commentary. This is not such flick. This is not movie about weak characters and their development. This is just a non stop steam-punk battle in alternative history. If you want to enjoy father who just wants to hide in a basement, be my guest and watch the War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. You know it is pretty cool as well.

This movie is "just for fun", more for the anime / scifi / steam-punk fans. The plot is somewhat weak, it is very linear - but what? The setting is pretty amazing, the alternative 1914 looks pretty cool and the battles are hardcore. The violence is here but is is actually mild so this movie could be even fun for older children.

In a summary: Not great but good enough and fun enough. Thumbs up!

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!

Before we start, lets explain a bit about where I'm coming from. I grew up with parents who were fans of the Jeff Wayne War of The Worlds album and rapidly grew to like it myself. Hence, when the opportunity to read the novel came up at school I leaped at the chance and have since remained a fan of both of these works.

It has given me a cynical eye, however, hence pretty much every attempt to adapt the story has come up short in some way or another. So when I learned about this "sequel" I had to give it a shot, especially when I took a look at the cast list.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. Its certainly not what I would have expected, was was good fun and respectful to the source material in many ways and whilst I wasn't a huge fan of the Martian tripods, I could at least see how much they had drawn inspiration from the novel, so well done there.

Whilst most of the main characters a vaguely engaging, the stand-outs tended to be the supporting cast, who I got a blast out of and really made the movie shine and setting the whole thing in the run-up to the Great War was a similar moment of inspiration.

Its not perfect though. The story feels perhaps a bit too episodic, rather than feeling like more natural chapters - to the extent I found myself wondering if perhaps it wasn't originally slated to be a TV series and I was watching the first few episodes back-to back. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the dialogue sometimes also feels a little stilted but that clears up for most of the movie.

I also need to add that their choice of opening theme had me hooked from the word go.

So, overall the film is a decent package, not as sophisticated in its storytelling as some of its animated contemporaries, nor as polished as others. But its a good package and a welcome return to animated action, which seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years (indeed, it reminded me in some ways of Titan AE, which seemed to herald the beginning and end of the last resurgence of animated action movies).

I'd guardedly recommend it, I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is certainly worth a look, especially if you have any interest in the original story, creative anachronisms or steampunk/dieselpunk tales.

This is not a great movie, but it is a good one. Pearson sets out to tell the story of the second Martian invasion, with humanity using salvaged Martian technology and advances in their own to defend the world more actively than last time. He sets this against the dawn of what in our world would be the First World War. That serves only as backdrop, though. The incipient conflict in Europe, the problem of Irish home rule, and other issues get forgotten partway through the movie. That's okay. They were distractions, and would have detracted from the main story. This is a war movie, not a political drama. It has all the requisite elements of Japanese, American, and British war movies, all the tropes, all the conflicts, and manages to deliver them without becoming a muddle. We have the heroic yet damaged young officer proving himself and overcoming his past. We have the somewhat inappropriate relationship between comrades in arms. We have explosions, heroics, self-sacrifice, and triumph but at a terrible cost. The story of the initial invasion is told briefly, in the credits, ending with an atomic shadow on a wall in a burning city. Pearson moves straight from there to the action getting rolling, and keeps the pacing fairly tight, letting the audience catch their breath but just barely before throwing in the next assault. The film contains what it says on the tin. There's a lot to be said for that.

And hey, any movie with Theodore Roosevelt firing a heavy machine gun while riding atop a walking tank scores points with me.

This movie is HARD to review, if anything it is a prime example of a 'mixed bag'.

At first the good stuff: The premise of the movie is downright genius. The design of the world (not the character design, later more on that) is wonderful and complaining whether it is steam- or diesel-punk is nitpicking. There are many ideas/designs, that made me downright jealous, why I did not come up with them. At some points I even wanted to point at the screen and say: "They put this historical character in this situation? Awesome!" or "Oh, look at this!", especially when it came to the creative background art. The opening-sequence is wonderful, too (the song accompanying is not). And finally, I enjoyed the action-scenes, despite all the issues the movie has.

It is a decent action-flick if you don't have too high expectations.

Having that said, here the bad things:

Animation: First and foremost, the animation of the characters is bad, 1980s-western-television-animation-bad. It is clunky and the characters convey less emotion, than the puppets from the Thunderbirds T.V.-Show. The phoned-in voice acting does not help either.

The bad animation attributes to some serious blending issues the film has. Especially the bad character animation does not go well with the rest of the film. WOTW Goliath feels like the teams of CGI-, classic animation and 'rest' did not communicate at all. CGI is passable.

The character design is poor. Many characters have the same stereotypical body-type repeated over and over again. You will also notice that some of the men apparently have their shirts directly painted on their skin.

Writing: Although there are some fun ideas in the movie, the writing is something between bland and bad. Many lines and actions stood out as stupid, forced or contrived. You know that you in for sub-par writing, when someone drops the line "As you know..." and then spills exposition to an audience that already knows these facts... an exposition, mind you, that was already perfectly conveyed to the viewer in the 10 minutes prior.

The movie devolves into "fight fight fight", with no real character-development after the point the martians have landed, but I don't complain about that – that was what I wanted to see after all. I would guess that this movies was originally planned as an OVA or series, but then got cut down to the length of a movie.

Direction: There is one thing that really ANNOYED me: In nearly every shot of this movie the camera is either panning, zooming in or out and/or tracking somewhere. Often this establishes something the audience has already seen before. This annoyed me so much so, I had to think at the 'slanted angles' from Battlefield Earth. I even assume that some people might even get motion sick while looking at it.

Conclusion: "Force the Guillermo del Toro to do his take on this."

I've seen this film twice, in theatres, in 3D, and loved it both times. The 3D is really good, and the production values far exceed the film's modest budget. As a steampunk sequel to the Wells classic, Mr. Pearson and his team have nothing to apologize for. I know that some find it hard to accept the blending of 2D hand-animation with 3D CGI (for the mecha) but this technique has been done before with both Korean and Japanese theatrical anime. As WOTW Goliath was animated in Malaysia, it fits right in with these other examples. I hope that western viewers will be able to check their prejudgements and enjoy the film for what it is.

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.

I admit the movie didn't quite impress me at the first fifteen minutes from the start: some of the dialogues sounded like the voice actors were rushed before they could warm up properly to the character they were playing as, resulting in horridly cheesy voice acting which was quite a pain to listen to, but the believability of their acting per the character they were portraying seemed to improve as the movie progressed. Certain animated segments in the movie lacked that stellar Disney-like polish, and some people who aren't used to direct-to-DVD quality animation might find the movie's animation style a bit hard to digest.

Then I thought, "maybe I'm being too cynical with this movie" so I chose throw that out to the recycle bin for the rest of the screening. It was then I finally got the gist of what the movie wanted to be: a straight to the point, no holds barred animated action movie. It didn't muck around with too much plot and instead went straight to the meat buffet of non-stop gunfires, lasers, and explosions everywhere. In fact, one can very much regard WOTW:G as the animated steampunk equal to Expendables 2, and surely anyone who sat through the first minute of that senseless beefcake parade would forget they were ever cynical, sensible adults the moment they saw Stallone and his motley crew of action movie stereotypes steamrolling the far east countryside with enough chesthairs to knock over a fortress (in which they did). That, I believe, is the kind of attitude one should muster when watching WOTW:G. Paying even a shred of attention towards the overly straightforward storyline and paper-thin character development would be a complete waste of time as it wasn't the movie's main intention or best forte. However, if you did step into the cinema with the fervour of an uptight critic, I could bet it wouldn't take five minutes for you to vacate your seat and scram to the nearest home entertainment store for a copy of Mulholland Drive for the rest of the night!

Having made a comparative reference of a really testosterone-driven action movie, there was no doubt WOTW:G is filled with a lot of suitably clichéd gung-ho characters to go with the continually overmentioned massive guns and explosions. You got the heroic Captain America type protagonist, the femme fatale love interest, the wisecracking Irish, and the "I need to be here because I complete the whole ensemble" black guy. I could barely remember any of their names except for the token Malayan character Raja Iskandar Shah. I was glad that Shah wasn't simply thumbtacked onto the movie just to tell every ingrate creatures on earth to be grateful for the country that does half the bulk of animation work. To my surprise, Shah was a very likable support character, the movie's equivalent to Spock: he's wise, educated, and loves his tea. Perhaps (SPOILER) I could also mention his Keris stabby scene upon a hapless Martian would've easily earned the Awe-Inspiring Moment Of The Month Award if there was ever one! Some historical figures portrayed in the movie were also suitably reimagined and empowered with the tenacity of Greek Gods, like the barfighting, machinegunning prowess of A.R.E.S. commander-in-chief Theodore Roosevelt. Last but not least, WOTW:G beautifully fitting musical score warrants a soundtrack CD release in the future.

If you could keep your brain in a jar for night, WOTW:G is the animated movie of choice for a bachelor's night out with the rest of your male buddies. It's a spectacle-driven, purely juvenile explosive ride that's not at all taxing for the casual audience with the least of expectations in what they're watching. Don't concern yourself too much with small details. Just distract yourself with the shock and awe that the movie brought to the silver screen.

War of the Worlds: Goliath (2012) is visually pretty but storytelling wise, it is absolutely boring. If it wasn't the awesome concept from the novel and the effort on visuals, this one honestly might end up being the second animated feature I'd rate 1 star. But I rated it 5 stars anyway, as some of you might like it for whatever reasons.

When compared to all older Malaysian animated features, War of the Worlds: Goliath (2012) does has a nice feel to it but the plot is unfortunately quite bad. There are so many illogical scenes that are left unexplained or unfinished even until the end. The backstory? Certainly without much thought as it is not clear or even established in the animated feature itself.

I understand alien invasion and steampunk are interesting but the series of random elements and events here won't make it a great storytelling or an enjoyable, at least for me even though it is the prettiest Malaysian animated film. (Out of four that I have seen.)

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 had the chance to see a special preview screening of the film during the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con. I had been privy to concept art and preview footage since 2007. Joe Pearson and Leon Tan did a great job of bringing this story to life and I sincerely hope they continue to bring us great entertainment like this. My first exposure was to Joe Pearson's anime film, "Highlander: Search for Vengeance" through the Official Highlander Message Board. I have been a fan of all types of animation since my early child hood when I would watch the short subject cartoons in the dark of my local movie houses. Those childhood memories inspired me later on in life to pursue a career as am amateur artist and join the San Diego Comic Con in 1977.

I also wrote an article on this film for Impact Online Magazine which you can read at; www.impactonline.co/news/851-sdcc-wotw-goliath-stands- tall

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.

While i'm not an avid movie watcher and do admire the current animation flicks, i like old memorable high action animation. the CGI now a days is so clean, its nothing more than watching a live sitcom. on that note, that is why i found the WOTW:G so mesmerizing to watch. and with 3D how amazing is that. while using this style of animation with an old story concept, it really brought it to a high level of realism and excitement. i felt like i was in the midst of the fighting and gunfire. the ratcheting mechanized drum of the invaders and fighters, and machinery i thought was over the top. the Dolby digital was amazing. i thought the film was a testament to the hard work and vision of the producers and crew, great writing and concept. what a treat to see it on the big screen in 3D with an excited audience. thank you for bringing back the good old comic animation of the past into a future quality action packed movie. i am very impressed. thank you.

I can't speak for H.G Wells but I was pretty amazed that this mindless excess of big guns and explosions be promoted as a sequel to War of the Worlds. Maybe Public Domain isn't such a good thing after all. Beyond the bastardization of Wells original concept the sheer lack of understanding of basic film making 101, 1D characters, cheap Korean animation and ludicrous steroid pumped character designs results in what is essentially a film length ad to sell Goliath toys to a demographic of 7 to 12 year old boys and steam punk fans. Except it's not steam punk. It's hard to overlook one of the original promotions for the film advertised it as R rated with "sex in the cockpit". Classy. It's unfortunate considering many talented individuals contributed to the film.

I first became aware of this film in April 2009 when I attended a Highlander TV convention and I have been following its progress ever since. Years later I jumped on the opportunity to see the final product at a premiere in Downtown LA.

This was a first for me. I had never seen a 3D movie and didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be an awesome experience.

WOTW is a highly dynamic & action packed film that will leave you on the edge of your seat the whole time. It's obvious the animators and producers put a tremendous amount of time and energy into every single detail. I recommend it highly

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.

How do I kill a world renowned story of Martians invading earth, taking over the planet only the be killed by the humblest of organisms? I know, get rid of that last part, it actually has substance, add in big robots and guns, and we've done it. Honestly, this may as well not be War of the Worlds. Had those tripods been replaced by an original character, it might have been a little better, but the themes of War of the worlds have nothing to do with it. Its nothing like the originals, its not aliens taking over the earth, its a war movie with the tripods slapped in there for an enemy. Its like Godzilla being destroyed by the military. In fact its worse, because at least that would retain some of godzilla's themes.

An awful movie, I would give it a 1 but the robot designs are quite cool. They shouldn't be there in the first place however.