The Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Spy, and Superhero Genre

[Smokin Joe]

BTW, that REALLY was one of the finest analyses I've read anywhere of those issues and factors in my 50+ years of studying the topic.

Thanks, Quix!

[Ghost Bear]

For fans of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files urban fantasy series, here's a good interview of Butcher done at this year's DragonCon, focusing on the next book, Peace Talks, as well as some other things Dresden-related:

. . .

At Dragon Con in 2013, I sat down with Jim to hear more about book fifteen of the series, Skin Game. It was a delight talking with Jim and getting to learn the latest on a world I’ve grown to love. And now, fortunately, I’ve gotten to have that experience again – this time, at Dragon Con 2016 and with book sixteen, a.k.a. Peace Talks. Jim shared all kinds of great information on what we’ll be seeing in this latest Harry Dresden adventure – as well as a couple of tidbits about Dresden-adjacent character stories that will be coming our way soon. So read on to find out all the juicy details! And, if you are so inclined, you can also watch the interview here.

. . .

ESW: Jim, Skin Game left us with so many characters with potential storylines that could be the next focus. The next book is titled Peace Talks. Please tell us about how everyone sits down, holds hands, and has a little peace talk. What are we going to be seeing?

JB: For the past several years within the storyline there’s been a lot of unrest in the supernatural world, because some lunatic destroyed the Red Court of vampires, who were one of the major players in the supernatural world. As a result of that, a power that has been lying low and quiet for a long time has started asserting itself into the vacuum that the Red Court left behind.

ESW: And that is the Fomor? I was wondering when we were going to see more about what they’re doing.

JB: Yes; who are not just the Fomorians of legend; but the Fomorians got driven back into the sea long ago, so they’ve been collecting the refuse from all the other pantheons of bad guys who’ve managed to survive whatever conflicts were going on at that point. So they’ve been causing a lot of trouble, and they’re getting everyone together for peace talks. They want to establish themselves and they’ve requested a summit.

ESW: So they’re the instigators of this.

JB: They are.

ESW: Because so far from what we’ve seen of them, they’re mostly just hostile.

JB: Yes, they’ve been universally hostile and suddenly they show up and say “Let’s sit down and talk.” And everybody’s like “…Okay. We’ll do that.” So of course Harry’s going to be involved in it. Generally speaking, it’s going to be a meeting under the Accords. All these different powers, all these supernatural influences are coming to Chicago. Harry gets to see that coming and say, “Man, I feel bad for whatever city that’s going to happen in. Because nothing could go wrong with that!”

. . .

ESW: Yes! I was going to ask, because at the end of Skin Game we have Maggie, who is so precious, and Mouse (who is so gigantic), and now Harry kind of seems to be settling into his role as a dad. What’s going on, is she still with the Carpenters?

JB: The way that Harry’s going to set it up is, he’s going to keep Maggie all summer. During the school year, she’s going to go to a boarding school in town, St. Marks Academy for the Gifted and Talented; it’s sort of where the supernatural folks all send their kids. And my intention is, in the next few years I’m going to write kind of a young adult series about Maggie Dresden at the Academy. She’ll be there with Mouse; because she seriously does have all kinds of problems and issues that are challenges for her. She’s got bad social anxiety; she’s got several phobias – which are understandable given her past.

ESW: I can imagine! And does she have, also, some special talents – I would assume?

JB: Well, she’s got Mouse, who’s kind of like the super-assistance dog. But really her main talent is that when everything’s on fire and people are screaming, she’s completely normal. You know – being Harry Dresden’s daughter, it’s like, “Oh, chaos. I feel a little more comfortable and secure for some reason.” And then the kids all have this pantheon of monsters that they have to deal with, that you don’t remember after you become a grown-up. So as the kids age out of school, they forget – they can’t interact with the monsters anymore. They don’t remember that they were there. It’s just like, “Oh, that was a game that we used to play when we were kids.”

. . .

Much, much more at the link:  http://www.comicmix.com/2016/09/26/emily-s-whitten-dresden-files-jim-butcher-talks-peace-talks/

[sneakypete]

Star Trek  (TOS, ENT, TNG), SG1, SGU, Firefly, BSG (old and new), Farscape, and Buck Rodgers are my favorite Sci-fi shows. I'm sure I missed a couple.

@kevindavis

I liked Firefly and Far Scape,but not the others so much.

I also like Dr.Who. You probably guessed that from my icon,though.

[kevindavis007]

@kevindavis

I liked Firefly and Far Scape,but not the others so much.

I also like Dr.Who. You probably guessed that from my icon,though.

@sneakypete


I kinda guessed it!! LOL


I'm a David Tennat Dr Who fan.. I tried watching Smith and Calpardi, but I couldn't get into those guys.

[sneakypete]

Oh yes, Babylon 5 was my favorite show of the 90s.

My current favorites, I think, are the Arrow-verse shows on The CW: The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow.

@Ghost Bear

Well,if that is considered to be sci-fi,you should probably check out the tv show "Gotham".  There are some people there flat acting their ASSES off. Last year one of the kids from Shameless was on,and stole every scene he was in. Amazing actor.

[Ghost Bear]

@Ghost Bear

Well,if that is considered to be sci-fi,you should probably check out the tv show "Gotham".  There are some people there flat acting their ASSES off. Last year one of the kids from Shameless was on,and stole every scene he was in. Amazing actor.

Well, according to Amazon the superhero genre is classified under Fantasy, but whatever... I just consider Science Fiction/Fantasy to be one big grab-bag. 

And yes, I've been watching (and enjoying) "Gotham" since the first season. It's done some interesting playing with the Bat-Universe characters and settings.

[Ghost Bear]

I'm a David Tennat Dr Who fan.. I tried watching Smith and Calpardi, but I couldn't get into those guys.

I've read that every Dr. Who fan has a favorite Doctor, usually the one featured when they started watching the show.  I had never watched Dr. Who at all (growing up in an area where it wasn't available) so when I read that they were replacing David Tenant with Matt Smith, I thought it might be a good time to start watching. I caught the last few episodes featuring Tenant, and then watched all of the episodes featuring Smith. He became my favorite, so much so that when he left and Peter Capaldi took over, I lost interest in the show and stopped watching it.    Each actor brings their own 'vibe' to the character, and I just couldn't get into Capaldi's take on it.

[sneakypete]

From Gal Gadot's Twitter feed, a first look at the promotional poster for the 2017 Wonder Woman movie:



Oh, and a teaser trailer released at San Diego ComicCon:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lGoQhFb4NM

@Ghost Bear

Hmmm,I can't quite put my finger on it,but there is something about that poster that me like bunches.

[geronl]

I'm a David Tennat Dr Who fan.. I tried watching Smith and Calpardi, but I couldn't get into those guys.

Smith was a lighter, funnier Who, as such he did a fine job. Had some great episodes. Capaldi should have become a darker Who, which he was here and there. The last couple of episodes were top-notch.

[geronl]

@Ghost Bear

Hmmm,I can't quite put my finger on it,but there is something about that poster that me like bunches.

Wonder Woman with a sword.... is this like Batman carrying an Uzi

[Ghost Bear]

Wonder Woman with a sword.... is this like Batman carrying an Uzi

I'm guessing you didn't see the movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice? She used both a sword and shield in that one.

[sneakypete]

BTW,since this is October,I think it is time to remind everyone of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi movie,The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There is something seriously wrong with anybody that doesn't like that one. I own a DVD of the original movie (it was just remade),and play it every Halloween.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiToZVLlmZY

IMHO,Tim Curry was just a LITTLE too comfortable with that role to even get another lead. The fact that he didn't get an Academy Award means he was robbed.

He did show up on a multi-episode series of Criminal Minds where he played a psycho-killer,though. Scared the hell out of me. If you ever get a chance to watch those episodes,do it.

LET THERE BE LIPS!

[sneakypete]

Smith was a lighter, funnier Who, as such he did a fine job. Had some great episodes. Capaldi should have become a darker Who, which he was here and there. The last couple of episodes were top-notch.

@geronl

I agree. I liked Smith,but the new Doctor,and the new Doctor's babe are really promising. Can't seem to find it anywhere on PBS anymore,and I don't get BBC.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

I've read that every Dr. Who fan has a favorite Doctor, usually the one featured when they started watching the show.

Blah, blah, blah.

The real question is Amy Pond or Clara Oswald?

And yes, the correct answer is "both".

[sneakypete]

Wonder Woman with a sword.... is this like Batman carrying an Uzi

@geronl

Yeah,that's must be it,the sword. 

[sneakypete]

Blah, blah, blah.b

The real question is Amy Pond or Clara Oswald?

And yes, the correct answer is "both".

@InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

I have to admit to getting a little dizzy for a moment there when I read the word "both".

[Ghost Bear]

BTW,since this is October,I think it is time to remind everyone of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi movie,The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There is something seriously wrong with anybody that doesn't like that one. I own a DVD of the original movie (it was just remade),and play it every Halloween.

IMHO,Tim Curry was just a LITTLE too comfortable with that role to even get another lead. The fact that he didn't get an Academy Award means he was robbed.

He did show up on a multi-episode series of Criminal Minds where he played a psycho-killer,though. Scared the hell out of me. If you ever get a chance to watch those episodes,do it.

LET THERE BE LIPS!

Did you see the live stage production that the BBC produced last year? That was quite fun to watch! 

[Ghost Bear]

Blah, blah, blah.

The real question is Amy Pond or Clara Oswald?

And yes, the correct answer is "both".

Eh, preferred Pond here. Clara felt like a near-Mary Sue to me.   

[sneakypete]

Did you see the live stage production that the BBC produced last year? That was quite fun to watch! 

@Ghost Bear

No,dammit!

It was just remade and is going to be show on Fox in late November. From what I have seen on the promo,they are sticking to the original characters and story line. They had better be careful about how they redo Magenta though,or I might be coming after them. She rates right up there with a 30 year old Ann Margaret in my book,and some days tops the list.

BTW,for those of you who don't know,it was Magenta (Patricia Quinn) whose lips are seen singing the opening number.

[Ghost Bear]

@Ghost Bear

No,dammit!

It was just remade and is going to be show on Fox in late November. From what I have seen on the promo,they are sticking to the original characters and story line. They had better be careful about how they redo Magenta though,or I might be coming after them. She rates right up there with a 30 year old Ann Margaret in my book,and some days tops the list.

BTW,for those of you who don't know,it was Magenta (Patricia Quinn) whose lips are seen singing the opening number.

Huh, looks like they've put it up on YouTube. This link was on the IMDB page for the production:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIPckPtYmXk

[geronl]

@geronl

I agree. I liked Smith,but the new Doctor,and the new Doctor's babe are really promising. Can't seem to find it anywhere on PBS anymore,and I don't get BBC.

You can find episodes online if you know where to look.

[geronl]

Eh, preferred Pond here. Clara felt like a near-Mary Sue to me.   

If they had a real nice budget they could have made the "impossible girl" chase through time last a season. Of coursing finding people who look, sound and act enough like the old doctors would have been nearly impossible.

I liked both but they had no idea what to do with Clara after the Impossible Girl thing ended, in some episodes she had completely different personalities. It was weird.

[uglybiker]

What's a Radio Picture?

[geronl]

What's a Radio Picture?

an early description of television maybe, since it uses radio waves


Then again, didn't RKO make films... I dunno 

[uglybiker]

I take it you've never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, have you?

[geronl]

I take it you've never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, have you?

Nope, even the still pics are repellent. I have no desire to see it.

[uglybiker]

Nope, even the still pics are repellent. I have no desire to see it.

It's not one of those films you see because of the movie itself. You only watch it for the audience experience. When the RKO banner comes on the screen, there's always somebody yelling: "What's a Radio Picture?!". Along with various comments throughout the movie.
Think of it as a live version of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

[Ghost Bear]

an early description of television maybe, since it uses radio waves


Then again, didn't RKO make films... I dunno 

RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures (also known as RKO Productions, Radio Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, RKO Teleradio Pictures and, for a short time, RKO Pathé) was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

[sneakypete]

Huh, looks like they've put it up on YouTube. This link was on the IMDB page for the production:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIPckPtYmXk

@Ghost Bear

Thanks for the link. I gotta tell you,I expected to be disappointed because it was a single stage set,but damned if they didn't pull it off. Rocky looked like a macho guy from the neck down,and like a combination of Martha Raye and Lisa Manelli in the face. That is one seriously ugly man with a female man-face. He,Bob,and Janet all have remarkable voices,though.

Columbia and Magneta were both 30 years too old for their roles,but were in insane condition for women of their ages.

On the other hand,Riff Raff was at least 20 years too young for his role. Still,he had the voice and most of the moves.

They must have rehearsed the hell out of it because it went off like a well-oiled machine.

[sneakypete]

Nope, even the still pics are repellent. I have no desire to see it.

@geronl

Your loss,just like it was my loss back in the 70's when I went to see it and thought it was a transvestite freak show based on the people standing in line dressed as characters in the movie.

10 years later I finally figured out it was people just having group fun with a fun movie that has great songs,and that even if there were a tranny or 7 in the audience,it didn't rub off and I wouldn't catch it.

I would have been a perfect Eddy back then. My whole life was wrapped around building and riding Harley's back in the early to late 70's. Could have had a lot of fun and bagged a lot of hot babes,but I had my head up my ass and wasn't thinking.

Seems like all of us sometimes get so wrapped up in life we forget how to sing,dance,and have fun.

[Free Vulcan]

Anyone seen the Renegades series? Lots of Star Trek people in it.

[uglybiker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIrw_AszBvk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNFo-DQW6PA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFh5rNaDUk

Part 4 is up!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7t16oeXbXY

[uglybiker]

Anyone seen the Renegades series? Lots of Star Trek people in it.

Seen it.
Great story. Good effects. Godawful writing.

[LateForLunch]

Seen it.
Great story. Good effects. Godawful writing.

"The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension"  was another idiotically-titled, poorly-marketed film that was actually not a bad movie at all. Sometimes marketing people take finished films and through advertising give them a public image that does not do them justice, nor attract the audience that would best appreciate them.

Other decent movies to which something similar has been done were, "John Carter of Mars (which may have actually been purposefully harmed by marketing people at the orders of a vindictive studio executive at war with Pixar) and "The Hudsucker Proxy" (worst title for a great movie EVER). 

[Machiavelli]

The Fantastic Ursula K. Le Guin

Julie Phillips
The New Yorker
October 17, 2016

... "I just didn't know what to do with my stuff until I stumbled into science fiction and fantasy," Le Guin says. "And then, of course, they knew what to do with it." "They" were the editors, fans, and fellow-authors who gave her an audience for her work. If science fiction was down-market, it was at least a market. More than that, genre supplied a ready-made set of tools, including spaceships, planets, and aliens, plus a realm--the future--that set no limits on the imagination. She found that science fiction suited what she called, in a letter to her mother, her "peculiar" talent, and she felt a lightheartedness in her writing that had to do with letting go of ambitions and constraints. In the fall of 1966, when she was thirty-seven, Le Guin began "A Wizard of Earthsea." In the next few years--which also saw her march against the Vietnam War and dance in a conga line with Allen Ginsberg, when he came to Portland to read Vedas for peace--she produced her great early work, including, in quick succession, "The Left Hand of Darkness," "The Lathe of Heaven," "The Farthest Shore," and "The Dispossessed," her ambitious novel of anarchist utopia ...

Full article

[kevindavis007]

Anyone seen the Renegades series? Lots of Star Trek people in it.

Seen it but it was horrible... I didn't see the whole thing.

[kevindavis007]

"The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension"  was another idiotically-titled, poorly-marketed film that was actually not a bad movie at all. Sometimes marketing people take finished films and through advertising give them a public image that does not do them justice, nor attract the audience that would best appreciate them.

Other decent movies to which something similar has been done were, "John Carter of Mars (which may have actually been purposefully harmed by marketing people at the orders of a vindictive studio executive at war with Pixar) and "The Hudsucker Proxy" (worst title for a great movie EVER).

John Carter of Mars was a good movie. Not great nor a classic.. But a good film..

[LateForLunch]

The Fantastic Ursula K. Le Guin

Julie Phillips
The New Yorker
October 17, 2016
Full article

That's disturbing. Alan Ginsberg for God's sake? He was arguably the father of rap with his "beat" poetry. Thankfully Le Guin  seems to have lost most if not all of her political interests and stuck to writing as her means of affecting the world. The only thing she sort of never gave up was her pro-homo activism which I can forgive her for since I know a whole bunch of conservative gay people who are not the least bit militant about gay marriage, or any other traditionally leftist gay Daily Cause.

Left Hand of Darkness was a terrific novel and even though it concerned an ambisexual humanoid species, was not even remotely about homo-ness. It was far more closely related to Jungian psychology concerning anima and animus and traditional themes of civilization (Prospero v. Caliban)  that go back to antiquity (or at least to Shakespeare) and have nothing to do with contemporary political context.

Le Guin shares something with Gene Roddenberry and R. Buckminster Fuller in her speculative creation of a global real-wealth-based economic system she called the Ecumenical Society (much like Roddenberry's Earth Federation)as a solution to  some of the more challenging problems presented by nationalism and the seemingly endless sturm und drang of conflict between capitalist and Marxist economic philosophies.

[kevindavis007]

If you get Netflix check this movie out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UwOZgIDo8o


It is a B movie.

[geronl]

OK. Doesn't look quite as bad as I expected

[kevindavis007]

OK. Doesn't look quite as bad as I expected

Well, it was your cliched Sci-Fi B movie.. However, I have seen worse.

[EC]

Well, it was your cliched Sci-Fi B movie.. However, I have seen worse.

In a genre that includes Plan 9 and Sy-fy originals ... that is damning with faint praise indeed. 

(says the guy who is planning to watch Iron Sky tonight .... )

[geronl]

In a genre that includes Plan 9 and Sy-fy originals ... that is damning with faint praise indeed. 

(says the guy who is planning to watch Iron Sky tonight .... )

lol. true.

[Bender2]

Star Trek  (TOS, ENT, TNG), SG1, SGU, Firefly, BSG (old and new), Farscape, and Buck Rodgers are my favorite Sci-fi shows. I'm sure I missed a couple.

I am sure being my age, almost 70, has something to do with it, but some my earliest memories are of going to the drive-ins with my parents until I was in the 3rd or 4th grade when I was allowed to go to the movie by myself.  I recall few weekends that I did not go to a movie and on many week days if my grades were good, I was allowed to go to a late afternoon show after school.

The films that really stand out from the git'go to me from the Sci-Fi genre are:

1951's Howard Hawks' The Thing from Another World

1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still

and

1954's THEM

While I vivid recall seeing THEM at the Ideal Theater in Corsicana, Texas, with my cousins Wick and Skip, I am sure my memory of seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World were in a re-release during the mid-1950s. 

Yet over the 60 plus years since first seeing these, I have never seen another Sci-Fi film that equals either of these three for plot and overall acting excellence.  Yes, Special Effects/CGI have come light years from the state of the arts effects used in 1951 and 1954, but while today's films can show literally just about anything one can imagine, they are story poor.  Some don't have any plot to speak of that makes sense.

Or like they did when rebooting The Day the Earth Stood Still, they went full PC and in effect made a rather large pile of steaming you know what that was an insult to the original.

As to other Sci-Fi films from the 1950s, these four stand out to me:

1950's Rebert A. Heinlein's Destination Moon 

1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon

1956's Forbidden Planet 

1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers

These seven films are both appealing to children of the 1950s and made sense to the adults that also enjoyed them.  You don't find that today as what passes for Sci-Fi today is made for 8 to 16 year old boys who will go to a movie ten or fifteen times.

Of course, there were many other mid-to-late 1950s Sci-Fi flicks that ranged from passable even to an 8 to 13 year old to down right silly--

All in all, those at the top of my comments still stand as great Science Fiction films that stand with or above the films of today and tomorrow.

[Ghost Bear]

Speaking of films made for 8 to 16 year old boys who will go to a movie ten or fifteen times, Marvel just released a sneak peek of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which is scheduled for release Summer 2017:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD9NVxYRrZs

Looks fun! 

[Smokin Joe]

I am sure being my age, almost 70, has something to do with it, but some my earliest memories are of going to the drive-ins with my parents until I was in the 3rd or 4th grade when I was allowed to go to the movie by myself.  I recall few weekends that I did not go to a movie and on many week days if my grades were good, I was allowed to go to a late afternoon show after school.

The films that really stand out from the git'go to me from the Sci-Fi genre are:

1951's Howard Hawks' The Thing from Another World

1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still

and

1954's THEM

While I vivid recall seeing THEM at the Ideal Theater in Corsicana, Texas, with my cousins Wick and Skip, I am sure my memory of seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World were in a re-release during the mid-1950s. 

Yet over the 60 plus years since first seeing these, I have never seen another Sci-Fi film that equals either of these three for plot and overall acting excellence.  Yes, Special Effects/CGI have come light years from the state of the arts effects used in 1951 and 1954, but while today's films can show literally just about anything one can imagine, they are story poor.  Some don't have any plot to speak of that makes sense.

Or like they did when rebooting The Day the Earth Stood Still, they went full PC and in effect made a rather large pile of steaming you know what that was an insult to the original.

As to other Sci-Fi films from the 1950s, these four stand out to me:

1950's Rebert A. Heinlein's Destination Moon 

1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon

1956's Forbidden Planet 

1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers

These seven films are both appealing to children of the 1950s and made sense to the adults that also enjoyed them.  You don't find that today as what passes for Sci-Fi today is made for 8 to 16 year old boys who will go to a movie ten or fifteen times.

Of course, there were many other mid-to-late 1950s Sci-Fi flicks that ranged from passable even to an 8 to 13 year old to down right silly--

All in all, those at the top of my comments still stand as great Science Fiction films that stand with or above the films of today and tomorrow.

That's a great list. I mostly had to read sci fi, as the nearest theater was 25 miles away and just didn't show sci-fi. By the time this one hit TV, though I could watch it if living black and white (It was years before I finally saw it in color). Still a favorite:

[kevindavis007]

In a genre that includes Plan 9 and Sy-fy originals ... that is damning with faint praise indeed. 

(says the guy who is planning to watch Iron Sky tonight .... )

The last SyFy original I saw was Savage Planet (killer Bears on a different planet). Well Plan 9 makes those movies look like a classic. Also, I saw 'A' movies worse that was bad..

[LateForLunch]

All in all, those at the top of my comments still stand as great Science Fiction films that stand with or above the films of today and tomorrow.

In one of Frank Capra's last interviews, he was asked if he thought that films from his era were superior to modern films and he answered, "Yes. As a rule. There have been some great films in what we call the modern era, but overall I think the energy of the films made in the classic era ('30s-'60s) was greater. That's because largely and increasingly modern films are about things and classic films are about people - characters. You only have a fixed amount of time in a film to make the audience care about what happens to the central characters. If every film becomes focused on making the effects a little more spectacular than other films, the character development gets lost in all of the other production elements. You can generate a great deal of audience interest simply by having a camera follow a little girl through a crowd looking for her parents. It's not necessary to have car chases and things blowing up every thirty seconds to hold audience interest."

[Bender2]

That's a great list. I mostly had to read sci fi, as the nearest theater was 25 miles away and just didn't show sci-fi. By the time this one hit TV, though I could watch it if living black and white (It was years before I finally saw it in color). Still a favorite:

Gadzooks--  How did I miss...    that one?

Still to this day, 63 year later, so much better...    than the 2005 Spielberg/Cruise reboot.

[LateForLunch]

The Cruise/Speilberg remake was brilliant IMO. Largely it was more about characters than about things, which is why it was in some ways superior. The original was intended to be more of a rendering of the radio broadcast by Wells. It was sort of trying to represent visually what people who listened to the broadcast were imagining - especially the emotions of being caught up in a war again -  like the nation had just survived a decade earlier in WWII.

The Spielberg remake was slanted in a different way - it focused as do so many of his films on what the characters in the situation might have realistically gone through. Also many of the visuals of the second film were more true-to-life than the original, mostly because CGI was not available when the first was made, so any attempt to reproduce things like the tripods would have been hokey instead of awe-inspiring.

When the tripod erupts from under the ground and rises into the sky, that is a classic moment of cinema that could not have been accomplished in the era of the first film. Bravo!!

I know it's popular for many to denigrate the remake, but it was arguably superior to the original in many ways - such as the scenes in the basements. The first where the plane crashes was an inspired sequence of cinema and was likely actually taken from a chapter of a book reporting on the real event experience by the son of physicist Hugh Everett (who came up with the Many Worlds Theory as a solution to quantum wave-form collapse). Mark Everett (aka "E") who founded the Eels, wrote about walking through his neighborhood after a passenger airliner crash exactly as portrayed in the movie, in his own autobiography after he became a successful rock musician years after his father had died. I guess that was a little subtle inside-joke from Spielberg (get it? "many worlds"?)

The other basement scene where the character portrayed by Tim Robbins goes nuts and has to be killed by Cruise's character is in some ways far more horrible than all of the alien mayhem.

There was also a very riveting, evocative scene where Dakota Fanning's character is watching bodies floating by in a river that is ghastly and very nicely represents much of the genuine horror of human massacre that is missing from the first, where the human suffering is reduced to a sort of cartoonish, distant thing. Another scene where Cruise's son is breaking away to join the military effort to strike back at the invaders is classic - with Cruise's character torn for his desire to see his son be his own man but also to protect him, where he implores his father," You have to let me go!!!" What parent has not had that agonizing decision to face when their son finally starts to become their own man? Classic.

So I think that the world is big enough to accommodate both films without having to denigrate either.