Sometimes the Critics are Spot On!
Written: Dec 20 '08 (Updated Dec 20 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Special effects.
Cons: Almost everything else; movie seemed rushed.
The Bottom Line: There was a rushed feel to the film, like the screen-writer and director were stretched for time and had someplace else more important to be.
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| vemartin's Full Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still |
Sometime the movie critics get it right; not often mind you, but occasionally. Most of the established press has/had nothing good to say about the recent remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still and after seeing the movie I have to say I agree. The movie was just one bad clique after another with virtually no character development or coherent theme to hold it all together. By the end I was less than entertained, despite the major marquees resumes.
The Story
Directed by Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) The Day The Earth Stood Still takes place in there here and now as a multitude of small shinning balls plant themselves in various locations about the Earth, while one large sphere lands in New York City’s Central Park. Human fearing the unknown (don’t we always) marshal the military and come knocking on the door of one Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly – Dark City, A Beautiful Mind, Blood Diamond), an exobiologist, as well as several other noted scientists, including Michael Granier (Jon Hamm – Mad Men, The Unit, The Division).
Out of the Central Park sphere strides extraterrestrial Klaatu (Keanu Reeves – The Matrix, Constantine, My Own Private Idaho) only to be shot, whilst extending the hand of friendship. He brings a message that the Earth human inhabitants will be eliminated because they (we) are slowly killing the planet and other civilization around us (somewhere in interstellar space) cannot let that happen. It appears the Earth is one of only a few planets capable of supporting complex life form, so they don’t want it ruined by humans.
But in true form, the United States, refuses the rest of the world access to the sphere or Klaatu, and with the President and Vice President whisked away to an undisclosed location, Secretary of Defense Jackson (Cathy Bates – Titanic, Fried Green Tomatoes, Delores Claiborne) becomes the public face of the U.S. Government. And of course she wants information and takes Klaatu captive in order to get it.
However, Klaatu escapes and soon enlists the help of Dr. Benson to carry out his mission.
My Thoughts
Despite the very laudable special effects courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic, The Day The Earth Stood Still is a bit of an underdeveloped bore. There was a rushed feel to the film, like the screen-writer and director were stretched for time and had someplace else more important to be.
This new version of the enduring Robert Wise Cold War classic of the same name, is at least on paper contemporary; saving the Earth from human folly is the theme of the moment after all. Klaatu does not see much to convince him that mankind is worth saving, except for a contrived scene with a fellow alien who has been living amongst for the last seventy years. Despite his less than glowing report on mankind, he report at the end of it all that he loves humans and perhaps they are redeemable after all, but he never explains why.
And at one point Dr. Benson pleads our case exhorting that “we can change, we can change,” despite ample historic evidence to the contrary. And certainly human behavior in the film gives no indication that the human race, with it varying degrees of superstition and willful ignorance, is a race worth saving.
Both aforementioned scenes feel hopelessly contrived, last minute, and desperate attempts to try and introduce some emotional relevance and human depth into what proves to be a cold, emotionless enterprise. And so it goes for most of The Day the Earth Stood Still, there are several shoe-horned scenes in the movie that appear to be frantic patch jobs to try and save the film overarching concept because it just wasn’t working. There is not enough of a back-story to help explain the various disjointed scenes well enough to form a cohesive whole.
Any discussion of acting in the shallow film is close to irrelevant. Reeves is asked to muster up his now trademark cold blank stare; an increasingly emaciated Connelly conjures up her big-eyed compassionate stare, and; Bates is perpetually pompous and angry. Only Jaden Smith portraying Connelly’s step-son, really exercises his acting chops, but even his performance soon becomes an annoyance. And oh, the robot Gort (looking a lot like a giant Oscar statue), so relevant to the original concept, is relegated to a minor supporting role as a violence suppressor and tiny, tiny robot generator.
There’s very little chemistry between any of the principles in this visually arresting, but otherwise cold and flat film, leaving Klaatu’s eventual change of (cold) heart a lingering, head-scratching mystery; certainly Dr. Benson’s wailing and pleading didn’t do the trick. Or did it?
Director Scott Derrickson had Industrial Light and Magic do its thing it does so well, unfortunately, heart and even simple reason are missing, making this a movie an unqualified bore for most of its duration.
Oh, by-and-by, there isn’t really a moment when the Earth actually stands still. There is a miniature model shot of an empty New York City devoid of residents that provides much too little, much too late to keep this stinker afloat.
Recommended:
No
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Studio Screening/Premiere
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Epinions.com ID:
vemartin
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 - Top 50 |
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Member: Vincent
Location: Aurora, IL
Reviews written: 1384
Trusted by: 549 members
About Me:
...A Great Empire cannot be Conquered from Without until it first Destroys itself From Within...
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