The Day the Earth Stood Still (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
by Scott Derrickson
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Actor: Jaden Smith, Jennifer Connelly, John Cleese, Kathy Bates, Keanu ReevesDirector: Scott Derrickson
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: David Tattersall
Producer: Erwin Stoff
Producer: Gregory Goodman
Producer: Marvin Towns Jr.
Producer: Paul Harris Boardman
Writer: David Scarpa
Writer: Edmund H. North
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-07
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Those rascally aliens from the 50's decided to come back now, and even they're going green!
Summary: 3 Stars
Remakes are surely a dime a dozen these days. Most major pictures are either remakes or one of several sequels. I don't mind remakes on the whole, but I do get annoyed when films that came out barely 20 years ago are being remade. Now when it comes to The Day The Earth Stood Still, I thought this was a good remake idea. All they had to do was update it, modernize it, and replace the original's theme with a more relevant one to modern audiences(though, with the extreme Muslim fundamentalists we face now trying to obtain nukes, maybe the original is more modern then we want to admit). This film did all the requirements of a good remake. The problem is that the way they are written into the original's basic story are so ham-fisted that it becomes tiresome and plodding. Eh, you win some and then you lose some....
Can't provide a plot synopsis, it's too boring a task for me to perform....sorry.
I love the original The Day The Earth Stood Still. It is a classic in the arena of smart sci-fi. Sure, the characters aren't very deep and the themes under the plot are blunt, but it works and it is still interesting and entertaining to this day. The only real thing I can fault about the original is the final speech at the end, which basically pushes for the great things to come from forming the United Nations. I mean, the idea was obvious before this sachirine scene, but the final monologue just sends it over the top into parody, almost. Think about the ending to the original Psycho, it's like the psychiatrists conclusions regarding Norman Bates. It's too long, over-written, and kills any mystery the character had previously. The original film is basically about how aliens want to wipe us off the earth because we're too violent, and that they don't want our disease of extreme violence and all-destroying nuclear war to spread to them. Remember, it was written in the 50's not too long after the ending of World War II. The remake takes more of an ecological point of view, but also keeps the destructive nature of man with it.
You're going to read a bunch of empty political diatribes on this site calling this film liberal propaganda. I haven't read any reviews for this film yet here on Amazon, but I'll bet you five bucks they're on here. The film just uses ecology as part of its modernization process. The film isn't propaganda. The state of the planet is on people's minds these days more then ever. The writer was smart to incorporate it into the narrative, similarly the way the original used nuclear warfare. It takes the theme of the original and then adds the ecological stand point on top of it. It loses alot of the religious metaphors, with the exception of arks sent around the world to gather up various animal species that would be otherwise destroyed along with man. Though, one has to wonder, if at least two humans would've been 'beamed' up too. Just skip any reviews ranting about their political point of views when it comes to this film. I assure you that Al Gore wasn't a producer on it. The film is pulpy sci-fi with a modern relevant issue as its center. If you truly feel man has nothing to do with the destruction of the enviorment, then you're a good little automaton and Limbaugh be with you, but you'll have to explain to me who's fault that island of garbage that sits in the ocean is. The film isn't preaching. It doesn't hit you over the head with it's theme. It's just there. Get over it. Go blog or kill yourself, whatever seems easier.
What the film does, as part of its updating process, is bludgen the viewer over the head with its characters' inner turmoils. The original's main characters were a part of an estranged family, and so is the remake's. This time Jennifer Connelly(Dr. Benson) is the stepmom of a boy who's father died in Iraq(again, making it modern and relevant, not propaganda. The film makes no stance against or for Iraq. Stop reading into things...moron). Of course this means stepmother and son don't click, and he's all teenage angsty, despite not being a teen, about the loss of his father. It's so poorly written and feels so false that the scenes involving this sub-theme become unaffecting and just plain obvious and worse, obnoxious to watch. Jaden Smith plays the boy in question, and he is sooooo ANNOYING in this film. Every scene he's in you just want Jennifer Connelly to slap the little brat. He comes off less in turmoil about his father, and more like a spoiled kid. When he finally has his big, close-up, crying in the grave yard scene(the only believable emoting the kid does the whole film) it's too little too late. There's actually a scene when Connelly and Smith have an argument while choppers are circling them, choppers with machine guns and missiles!!!! Ugghhhhhhh!!!!!!
Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, one of the most iconic alien characters ever conceived in cinema. Reeves plays it like he's been playing a lot of his characters since he starred in The Matrix, unaffected, tacitern and watchful. For the first two acts, as he's coming more familar with the human race it kind of works, but once we get to the final act, when he makes his big change, it's like the change of heart happened off screen. You never feel a legitimate transition from his character, something the original did pretty well. Reeves just seems to be playing the same note throughout the entire film. Just think how bad T2:Judgement Day would've been if the relationship between John Connor and Shwarzenegger character had been rushed or not fully developed. That's the problem with Klaatu in this film. Connelly does fine in this film. She has nothing to be embarassed by acting-wise. Though, one gets the feeling the producers only wanted her in the film because of her dramatic acting pedigree. I guess they thought she'd help make the whole stepmother, stepson drama feel more natural and real, but the writing kills that with extreme prejudice.
With all this remake's faults, one is left with the usual special effects bells and whistles that films like this seem to require. The thing is the effects aren't all that special. They look fine and they're produced well, but they never really awe you. They just feel tacked on for the brain-dead masses to wake up out of their comas. There's nothing in this film that you haven't seen in countless other sci-fi or disaster films of the near past or far. They're just there and they're not, not leaving a trace of impact. One never feels threatened by the oncoming doom of the earth. Everything is just by-the-numbers. Even horrible sci-fi films like Armageddon and Independence Day got that part right, if not much else.
Fans of the original, I'm sure, were all wondering if the faithful side-kick/earth destroying robot Gort would appear in the remake. He does. He's a whole lot bigger, think Godzilla big, and basically looks the same as the original. They didn't really do a major redesign on the character. He even has the lazer slit in his head that the original had. Gort never seems menacing in this film. The special effects on this character are mostly mediocre. There's some shots where you actually think you're looking at a guy in a suit, the way the original did it, just blown up to super-size proportions. Gort does hold one surprise in this film though. The remake offers some details on how exactly this 'machine' will bring the end of days. It's fairly creative. I always wondered how the six-foot silver robot from the original was going to snipe out the entire earth.
Sorry fan-boys, Reeves never utters the words, "Klaatu, berada, nicto!" It's not here, despite early reports, from Reeves himself, that that was dialogue retained from the original for this film's climax. Now the climax is effective. But if you've seen the ending of Escape From L.A. it won't seem original. I did like the stark nature of it though. There are times as I'm roaming my local streets that I wish something like the ending to this film would happen. If it did maybe people would get back in touch with their humanity and their true will. Which leads me to the thing the film does very well, it makes jabs against humanities over-reliance on technology, and how that may lead to the further destruction of earth. I once saw a show that did a speculation of the earth if humans were missing from it. Computers and cell phones would be some of the last things to decompose after 20,000 years. Interesting stuff. I would've enjoyed more of this type of thinking and less explosions with disaster movie cliche's and poorly written family melodrama. This line of thinking, buried deep within the cliche's could've made this movie a contender.
The movie is worth a rent. It's no classic and I doubt it will ever be viewed that way. It's not awful, but it's not that good either. In other words, it is worth having The Day The Earth Stood Still over for dinner, but you're not going to want it to move in with you.
PS: I did some minor research into the production of this film. Apparently, the revisions on the script weren't able to be made due to the writer's strike, which might explain some of the ham-fisted melodrama. Also, Fox deemed the film not 'action-packed' enough which would explain some of the pointless but brief action scenes involving the military and Gort. I do understand the circumstances but not notating why they negatively effected the final film would be irresponsible.
Description of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL - DVD MovieImpressive special effects are the key selling point for this big-budget remake of Robert Wise's classic 1951 science fiction parable about an alien visitor who delivers a chilling ultimatum to the leaders of the world. Keanu Reeves, who seemed ideal at first blush but ultimately turns into another case of miscasting, steps in for Michael Rennie as intergalactic watchdog Klaatu, who with his robot Gort (now super-sized), promises global destruction unless the powers that be unless drastic measures are undertaken regarding the Earth's environmental issues (or so one assumes). Jennifer Connelly is largely wasted in the Patricia Neal role of scientist/single mom assigned to study Klaatu, who offers a somewhat chilly father figure to her son (a grating Jaden Smith). Connelly isn't the only fine actor in the cast left standing idle while director Scott Derrickson's effects team constructs eye-popping scenes of wholesale mayhem; Mad Men's Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, John Cleese and Rob Knepper are all adrift in the aimless script by David Scarpa, which never even fully explains why Klaatu is so bent on blowing us to smithereens. That lack of focus, as well as the B-movie quality of the dialogue (say what you will about the effects in the Wise version, but the film was polished from top to bottom), all help to cement what science fiction fans have been muttering about the film since its inception; the original film needed no high-tech updating --Paul Gaita
Stills from The Day the Earth Stood Still (Click for larger image)
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