The Day the Earth Stood Still ««½
PG-13, 110m. 2008
Cast & Credits: Keanu Reeves (Klaatu), Jennifer Connelly (Helen Benson), Kathy Bates (Regina Jackson), Jaden Christopher Smith (Jacob Benson), John Cleese (Professor Barnhardt), Kyle Chandler (John Driscoll), James Hong (Mr. Wu). Screenplay by David Scarpa based on source material from Edmund H. North’s screenplay, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Directed by Scott Derrickson.
Midway through The Day the Earth Stood Still, the alien Klaatu, in the form of a human being played by Keanu Reeves and impeccably dressed in the kind of dark three piece suits secret service agents wear, stands in the middle of a busy train station observing everyday life. He sees a young kid who watches him manipulating a snack machine so he can grab something to eat. Klaatu is on the verge of offering the kid part of the sandwich when the mother comes by grabbing him by the arm. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the mother yelled at the kid for either running off or scolding him about talking to strangers.
Klaatu also notices two people arguing over a train ticket when one of them is critically injured. The filmmakers could have used better, perhaps more powerful examples, of how society has become intolerant and violent towards others. The past few days I have read about how a former Utah police officer went on a shooting spree during the 5 p.m. rush hour on the Dallas freeways. Browsing the internet this morning on Christmas Day of all days for such carnage to happen, I came across yet another disturbing story about a divorced man in a Santa suit going postal at a Christmas party and then setting the home on fire. As of now, CNN has reported the death toll currently stands at nine.
These would make for perfect examples, and there is no doubt a lot more, as to why if I were an alien from a far more advanced race, would decide enough is enough. My race has given the people of Earth decades to change and they have only gotten worse. If what my race has witnessed watching the news is not enough to convince me the time has now come to extinguish all human existence, then surely that one gunshot from a military official mistaking my presence here on Earth as a threat to mankind would be reason enough to wipe out the planet as we see early on in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
If aliens do exist, I believe the reason they have not made their presence known to us with the exception of all those funny looking bright lights in the skies is because we are, in fact, a violent race bent on self-destruction and races from other worlds are far more intelligent to not engage war.
I know, I know. There is no doubt everyone reading this review will tell me for every rotten apple we have in the world who do harm to others, there are hundreds more who have compassion and believe humanity is worth saving.
The depressing news constantly reported on a daily basis, however, that I often hear about leaves me to believe otherwise. I have to confess, sometimes I wonder if the Almighty isn’t on the verge of deciding if He should create another worldwide flood as told in The Bible’s Book of Exodus, wipe out the human race and start over.
At one point midway through the movie, I felt as though the filmmakers had read my mind. When government officials notice faint images of giant octopuses and other creatures being transported into the thousands of giant spheres throughout the world, one adviser calls them “arks.” And what happens after that asks one, the president’s adviser (Kathy Bates) says, “The flood.”
That doesn’t keep astrophysicist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) from pleading with Klaatu arguing how when things get bad, the human race has the ability to change.
Call me The Grinch or Scrooge if you wish but I was actually looking forward to seeing humanity get its just desserts in The Day the Earth Stood Still. The original 1951 classic on which this version is based and what many will probably call this one completely unnecessary came out at the height of the growing Cold War. The alien Klaatu and his giant robot, Gort, planned to obliterate Earth because of our ability to destroy ourselves through nuclear war.
The Cold War may be over but that doesn’t mean fifty-seven years later with this remake, we still don’t have the ability for World War III. The filmmakers unfortunately decided to go another route with the screenplay. Instead of our nuclear capabilities, Klaatu says the human race must be wiped out because of the way we have treated Mother Earth.
“Your people treat the Earth the way you treat each other,” Klaatu says.
Alas, what we get here is a remake mindless college students will embrace who have been brainwashed by the impending threat of rising oceans and melting icebergs discussed by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth (2006). This is for people who stupidly think the winter weather sweeping over much of the country right now and the increasing number of hurricanes, or lack thereof, has to do with all the chemicals corporations have put into the Earth’s atmosphere. This is a movie employees who just happen to be environmentalist advocates, end their emails saying, “Do you really need to print this email out? Have a heart and save a tree.”
Were it not for the film’s unbelievable premise, I was ready to give The Day the Earth Stood Still my full endorsement. Even before seeing it, I didn’t believe any of the negative reviews the film was getting. I found there was a lot I did enjoy.
I liked the performances, in particular Reeves who actually acts as though he is from another planet, playing an alien inside a human being like he is a man trapped inside a woman’s body.
“This body will take some getting used to,” he says.
I actually felt like Benson’s character did in the beginning when she is told the world might end in a couple of hours. If you were told the world was going to end and you couldn’t get to your loved ones in time, don’t tell me you won’t sneak into a bathroom stall with your cellphone, despite the military’s ruling that all cellphones be confiscated, calling to tell your adopted son in so many words to stay in the basement tonight.
There are some memorable scenes as when Klaatu redoes some calculations a renowned professor (John Cleese) had been working on for years. I especially enjoyed an emotional scene where Benson’s stepson (Jaden Christopher Smith), after witnessing how Klaatu brings a police officer back to life after being threatened, the kid leads him to the grave of his father killed in the Iraq War and asks the alien to do the same. Klaatu tells the kid the difference is he didn’t mean to hurt the police officer. He can’t interfere with what’s already happened.
The movie can even be played for laughs. I found it odd that for a country in peril that the president of the United States is nowhere to be seen. Instead he sends his two advisers to investigate the giant sphere landing in New York City’s Central Park. I would think, as president, being visited by aliens would take much more precedence over everything else.
Then there is the Gort robot himself who reminded me of the African killer bees in The Swarm (1978) which when on screen was nothing more than a bunch of flying black spots. By comparison, Gort becomes a giant swarm of black flies that engulfs people and eats away at all the nation’s landmarks.
When it comes to movie remakes, I have always seen them as curiosity pieces; a chance to see what the filmmakers can do differently over the original. Now, given the slew of largely unnecessary remakes Hollywood is intent on making, if it turns out I haven’t seen the original, which was the case with The Omen (1976), I look at the new version as though I am seeing something new for the first time. And yes, I did like 2006 remake of The Omen.
By comparison, I still haven’t seen the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, though I am well familiar with the premise. This new version almost won me over. Thankfully, this is where the two and a half star rating with my definition “worth a look” comes in handy. Awarding this movie two and a half stars is my way of saying I am not endorsing it but I am not saying I didn’t like it either. My response is down the middle.
-Trivia note: It probably means nothing except maybe to Star Wars fans but the alien name “Klaatu” from the original 1951 classic was also given to one of the alien characters in Return of the Jedi (1983).
PG-13, 110m. 2008
Cast & Credits: Keanu Reeves (Klaatu), Jennifer Connelly (Helen Benson), Kathy Bates (Regina Jackson), Jaden Christopher Smith (Jacob Benson), John Cleese (Professor Barnhardt), Kyle Chandler (John Driscoll), James Hong (Mr. Wu). Screenplay by David Scarpa based on source material from Edmund H. North’s screenplay, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Directed by Scott Derrickson.
Klaatu also notices two people arguing over a train ticket when one of them is critically injured. The filmmakers could have used better, perhaps more powerful examples, of how society has become intolerant and violent towards others. The past few days I have read about how a former Utah police officer went on a shooting spree during the 5 p.m. rush hour on the Dallas freeways. Browsing the internet this morning on Christmas Day of all days for such carnage to happen, I came across yet another disturbing story about a divorced man in a Santa suit going postal at a Christmas party and then setting the home on fire. As of now, CNN has reported the death toll currently stands at nine.
These would make for perfect examples, and there is no doubt a lot more, as to why if I were an alien from a far more advanced race, would decide enough is enough. My race has given the people of Earth decades to change and they have only gotten worse. If what my race has witnessed watching the news is not enough to convince me the time has now come to extinguish all human existence, then surely that one gunshot from a military official mistaking my presence here on Earth as a threat to mankind would be reason enough to wipe out the planet as we see early on in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
If aliens do exist, I believe the reason they have not made their presence known to us with the exception of all those funny looking bright lights in the skies is because we are, in fact, a violent race bent on self-destruction and races from other worlds are far more intelligent to not engage war.
I know, I know. There is no doubt everyone reading this review will tell me for every rotten apple we have in the world who do harm to others, there are hundreds more who have compassion and believe humanity is worth saving.
The depressing news constantly reported on a daily basis, however, that I often hear about leaves me to believe otherwise. I have to confess, sometimes I wonder if the Almighty isn’t on the verge of deciding if He should create another worldwide flood as told in The Bible’s Book of Exodus, wipe out the human race and start over.
At one point midway through the movie, I felt as though the filmmakers had read my mind. When government officials notice faint images of giant octopuses and other creatures being transported into the thousands of giant spheres throughout the world, one adviser calls them “arks.” And what happens after that asks one, the president’s adviser (Kathy Bates) says, “The flood.”
That doesn’t keep astrophysicist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) from pleading with Klaatu arguing how when things get bad, the human race has the ability to change.
Call me The Grinch or Scrooge if you wish but I was actually looking forward to seeing humanity get its just desserts in The Day the Earth Stood Still. The original 1951 classic on which this version is based and what many will probably call this one completely unnecessary came out at the height of the growing Cold War. The alien Klaatu and his giant robot, Gort, planned to obliterate Earth because of our ability to destroy ourselves through nuclear war.
The Cold War may be over but that doesn’t mean fifty-seven years later with this remake, we still don’t have the ability for World War III. The filmmakers unfortunately decided to go another route with the screenplay. Instead of our nuclear capabilities, Klaatu says the human race must be wiped out because of the way we have treated Mother Earth.
“Your people treat the Earth the way you treat each other,” Klaatu says.
Alas, what we get here is a remake mindless college students will embrace who have been brainwashed by the impending threat of rising oceans and melting icebergs discussed by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth (2006). This is for people who stupidly think the winter weather sweeping over much of the country right now and the increasing number of hurricanes, or lack thereof, has to do with all the chemicals corporations have put into the Earth’s atmosphere. This is a movie employees who just happen to be environmentalist advocates, end their emails saying, “Do you really need to print this email out? Have a heart and save a tree.”
Were it not for the film’s unbelievable premise, I was ready to give The Day the Earth Stood Still my full endorsement. Even before seeing it, I didn’t believe any of the negative reviews the film was getting. I found there was a lot I did enjoy.
I liked the performances, in particular Reeves who actually acts as though he is from another planet, playing an alien inside a human being like he is a man trapped inside a woman’s body.
“This body will take some getting used to,” he says.
I actually felt like Benson’s character did in the beginning when she is told the world might end in a couple of hours. If you were told the world was going to end and you couldn’t get to your loved ones in time, don’t tell me you won’t sneak into a bathroom stall with your cellphone, despite the military’s ruling that all cellphones be confiscated, calling to tell your adopted son in so many words to stay in the basement tonight.
There are some memorable scenes as when Klaatu redoes some calculations a renowned professor (John Cleese) had been working on for years. I especially enjoyed an emotional scene where Benson’s stepson (Jaden Christopher Smith), after witnessing how Klaatu brings a police officer back to life after being threatened, the kid leads him to the grave of his father killed in the Iraq War and asks the alien to do the same. Klaatu tells the kid the difference is he didn’t mean to hurt the police officer. He can’t interfere with what’s already happened.
The movie can even be played for laughs. I found it odd that for a country in peril that the president of the United States is nowhere to be seen. Instead he sends his two advisers to investigate the giant sphere landing in New York City’s Central Park. I would think, as president, being visited by aliens would take much more precedence over everything else.
Then there is the Gort robot himself who reminded me of the African killer bees in The Swarm (1978) which when on screen was nothing more than a bunch of flying black spots. By comparison, Gort becomes a giant swarm of black flies that engulfs people and eats away at all the nation’s landmarks.
When it comes to movie remakes, I have always seen them as curiosity pieces; a chance to see what the filmmakers can do differently over the original. Now, given the slew of largely unnecessary remakes Hollywood is intent on making, if it turns out I haven’t seen the original, which was the case with The Omen (1976), I look at the new version as though I am seeing something new for the first time. And yes, I did like 2006 remake of The Omen.
By comparison, I still haven’t seen the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, though I am well familiar with the premise. This new version almost won me over. Thankfully, this is where the two and a half star rating with my definition “worth a look” comes in handy. Awarding this movie two and a half stars is my way of saying I am not endorsing it but I am not saying I didn’t like it either. My response is down the middle.
-Trivia note: It probably means nothing except maybe to Star Wars fans but the alien name “Klaatu” from the original 1951 classic was also given to one of the alien characters in Return of the Jedi (1983).
©12/26/08
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