The Day the Earth Stood Still review

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The Day the Earth Stood Still review

15 December 20082 CommentsPosted by Phil

The 1951 film starring Michael Rennie is considered to be one of the best science fiction films of all time, timeless in its vision. More than 50 years later, some hack in Hollywood said, "lets do a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still" and that's what we got following the tradition of making horrible remakes. Some have said this film is just as bad as Battlefield Earth and although I wouldn't go that far, this film lacks feeling, vision, direction, a relevant story, and an overall epic nature about it. It's true that the earth stands still but it's because of boredom.

After the landing of an alien spaceship (stupid ball of green swamp water), its inhabitant Klaatu was shot causing the appearance of his protector, Gort. After he was taken to a military hospital he escapes with the help of Helen Benson then goes on a boring, pointless journey that leads to a unfortunate and uninspiring finale. The Day the Earth Stood remake stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, Jaden Smith as Jacob, and Kathy Bates as Regina Jackson.

I have no doubt that you've heard many people, bloggers, and critics say that potential remakes should have certain criteria, however, that criteria usually varies from person to person but in almost every case people say that if a film is going to be remade, make sure it's an awful film that can benefit from a remake, not a classic. On the other hand I can see the upside in remaking this film; Some say the original is a vision and larger than its time, so why couldn't the remake do the same thing? With all of the movies we've seen today that introduce all types of futuristic technology, and wild visions of future landscapes and so forth, why could that type of creativity be applied to this film. This movie should have been able to 'wow' audiences for its visual eye candy, like the original, but in the end it was lackluster with maybe one or two redeeming qualities.

Likes:

I'll say this; the opening in the Arctic to the end of the spaceship landing was kind of exciting because this is after all The Day the Earth Stood Still. This feeling doesn't last throughout the film and although I had problems with certain things in this opening, and I'm reaching here, I thought it was kind of cool.
The only scene that I think is worth watching again is the scene with Klaatu and Prof. Barnhardt. Their two minute debate was the most intriguing thing in the film and I wish it was built on.
I like the design of Gort and take note, I'm saying the design, not the CGI

Dislikes:

Where's the magic? I felt no magic whatsoever. Here we have a huge alien spacecraft landing in Central Park NYC with an alien lifeform walking out of it... and I felt nothing. Honestly, if you want to feel magic while watch aliens walk out of a spacecraft, stick with Close Encounters.
Speaking of the spaceship.... LAME. It wasn't even a ship, it was a ball of shit. Again, leading back to the magic... I felt nothing magical about it and I wasn't impressed by it. Seriously, a little rinky dink ship like Serenity holds more magic than that thing.
Did the writers show up to work when writing the script because I felt no emotion towards the characters. There isn't any charm or feeling with this script only a sleep remedy for those you are suffering insomnia.
Jaden Smith--I love his father Will Smith, but Jaden needs to stop. First of all, his character sucked ass, his acting sucked ass, and his story is completely pointless and a waste of time as it has nothing to do with the overall plot.
Most of the CGI looks ridiculous. I'm never one to complain about CGI and I'm kind of easy with that but this kind of annoyed me. Now I said I like Gorts design but he is rendered really bad... blah, cheap budget CGI.
I hate the ending. Hate it. There is no emotional speech from Klaatu, no magic, no excitement... nothing. He just touches the ball of light (ship) and it goes a way... wow.
The overall plot revolving around the environment... ehh, no. They should have stuck with world violence.

As you can see from my likes and dislikes, I think this movie is terrible. It's known around these parts that I love a bad movie, but this is a movie that just gets me angry because it's a big wasted opportunity for an epic film. I recommend this for no one and don't waste your money at the theaters. It might not even be worth a rental but to those of you who are like me and love science fiction, wait until it comes out on one of the movie channels. On a scale of 1 to 10, The Day the Earth Stood Still gets a big 3 out of 10.

-Phil