The Day the Earth Stood Still - Grading & Discussion

Well I just got back from seeing it this afternoon. Hmm, I wanted to for in between Average and Above Average, but I'm feeling generous so I went for the latter.




Ok, spoiler alert
I did enjoy the film, but I just have to say [comicbookguy]Worst Ending Ever![/comicbookguy]
What the frak was that?! After Klaatu walks into the sphere and it ascends, and Connelly and kid watch it go the screen fades out. At that exact point I thought to myself "hmm, I hope it doesn't end here. Nah, they won't do that, they'll be an epilogue. That would be a terrible ending" But then, all of a sudden, the credits appeared! And I thought

Er, so what the hell happened? Was the freezing of all the Earth's technology a permanent thing forever? Just a temporary thing? If so what was the point when the aliens had already left?
Felt like they just slapped that it in so the title of the movie would make sense


Other than that I mostly enjoyed the rest of the movie. Although god that kid was annoying as hell! Totally ruined the film. I really wanted to just punch him in the face, a lot.
"ooh we should kill them all. That’s what my daddy would do. Ooh my daddy knew best, he was great. Ooh my daddy, my fucking daddy." SHUT UP!
I know there was kid in the original, but this film would have been about 10 times better if he weren't in it. And that bit at the end with him crying with Connelly "ooh I love you / I love you too" Bad bad bad bad
Who even was that little brat, I bet it was Will Smith's son *checks*, yes it bloody was as well. Jesus

Another annoying thing, just how stupid were those scientists at the start? An object is spotted moving through our Solar System going very fast, and it changes its trajectory to intercept Earth. And all the scientists are going "oh my god what could it be? Oh Christ what is it? Oh shit is it an asteroid?"
I felt like shouting at the screen HOW RETARDED ARE YOU PEOPLE! What sort of asteroid suddenly changes its course to intercept a planet? It was SO obviously an alien spacecraft, but yet no one even considered that possibility. Idiots


I don't read too much info about films anymore before I see them as I find it detracts from the experience, so I was bit worried when I saw John Cleese's name in the opening credits. I got worried he was gonna be playing some clowning fuckwit, but luckily he was pretty good actually, and not much more than a cameo anyway.


Still, Gort was awesome. And looked even awesomer. Sort of like what could have been for the Sentinels in an X-Men movie. Shame we didn't get to see him stomping around blowing shit up, because that would have been excellent.


So, an ok film, but in desperate need of some sort of epilogue IMO. Felt like they ran out of time/money and didn't film the end or something.
And it also didn't really say why Klaatu was even there to stop humanity from doing. Like they didn't have the balls to just say "Global Warming", or "War", or "Paris Hilton", or anything.

 

well his dad was Hancock so maybe he could have done something

 

This movie has been getting tons of bad reviews from critics. It currently has a 23% on RT.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1193610-day_the_earth_stood_still/

 

Movie was excellent and so was the Terminator (4) Salvation trailer and X-men : Origins - Wolverine trailer!

 

^ I didn't get any decent trailers here in Blighty. I was hoping for some T3, Wolverine, Watchmen, Trek XI etc.
But all I got was gash like The Spirit, some war films with Daniel Craig and Tom Cruise, and Australia.

btw was I the first person on the TrekBBS to see this film? Oh yeah, aren't I great

 

I voted Above Average. I liked the film with none of Ethros's reservations.

 

Above Average. I thought this was a decent movie. It did play like your typical modern-day action/scifi movie with a faster pace and lots of special effects, but it was far from bad. Keanu Reeves did well as the stilted alien Klaatu and the story itself came off about as well as it did in the original. In the poll picked the 1951 movie as my favorite, but only because I think it has a certain charm that the remake lacks. I think K-Pax beats both of them though.

Before I saw the movie, I was wondering if Klaatu would actually call his guardian robot "Gort" since I didn't think it would come off right in a 2008 remake. He didn't as I suspected, but I liked what the movie did do. They made it "G.O.R.T.", an acronym that they U.S. military came up with. Now someone please remind me what it stood for.

 

Yipe! I just saw it half an hour ago and I have no idea!

 

It could've been better but I don't think it was as bad as the 23% shown on RT. I found the editing a bit disjarring or maybe it's because the plot lacked coherence in the first place. The dialogue was a bit too cliched ridden. Not sure if the writers were influenced by this campaign season but there were a half dozen moments in the movie where the word "change" were repeatedly uttered without an adequate follow up on how such change might come about. Also I found Klaatu's own change of heart at the end a bit too abrupt and almost without any real motivation. Overall it's a decent movie if the original never existed.

 

When they ran under the bridge in central park near the end, did anyone else think it was gonna turn into Cloverfield?

 

^ Cloverfield did come to mind. I was also wondering why the swarm didn't eat them and the surrounding structure instantly.

 

^ Klaatu was keeping the robotic locusts out.

 

So far from Klaatu's change of heart coming out of the blue, it was telegraphed in the scene with James Hong.

Klaatu warned there would be a price to pay for stopping the nanoswarm and that our way of life would change. The obvious implication is that the dead machinery stays dead. Some or all of it revivable? Hard to say.

But the reason for the end with Klaatu's ascension into the heavens and the humans bravely stepping forth into the new world should be obvious---that's the climax of the Christ allegory. Ending on the climax is always okay, even if the denouement gets short shrift. Or so I think.

The original movie is safely embalmed in its classic movie status, especially since it's b&w and has its own problems. The new one will suffer from the resentment of the very idea that humanity is destroying its habitat, that aliens would be so powerful that we would effectively be helpless, that an alien could be analogous to Christ. The modern kid is much more believable, much better written, much more integral to the plot but not so mindlessly sentimental as the kid in the original. Jennifer Connelly is also more active in the plot---it's Helen Benson's actions that come out of the blue in my opinion (and Connelly doesn't sell it well, either, I think.) And the bleak scene in the railroad station says nasty things about human nature. (Yes, people talk about dark and gritty etc. but most of that is a cover for making the hero an asshole so that assholes in the audience can identify with him.) That sort of thing never goes down well.

I think the biggest howler is a Nobel laureate for biological altruism (presumably about the evolutionary roots of human notions of justice) is spending his time working on General Relativity. At least, I'm pretty sure the equations on the blackboard were GR equations.

Excellent. But be warned---anyone who thinks scifi is stupid won't like it.

 

Loved it, very true to the original. And people can bugger off about Reeve's acting.
Watch the original and get a clue. He was perfect.

Very much a Scifi drama with great FX scenes. Not the typical action movie.

Excellent movie and another good spot for the Trek XI trailer.

Critics can eat my ass, they never get anything right...

 

Someone shoukd put up a spoiler tag.Not all of us have weekends off lol...

Back to topic,I'm looking forward to seeing this movie.Since critics tend to despise movies that aren't five hours long and don't star Oscar candidates,I'm not counting their opinions.

You have to admit,if what happened in the original movie(stopping electricity everywhere) happened today...oh man.Talk about sh*t hitting the fan....

 

I saw it tonight, and I thought it was really good. I had a few issues with it however.

I thought some of the "strategies" of the US Government ie the the Secretary of Defense where questionalble at best. I can't believie they didn't nuke the sphere at the end of the movie.

 

I saw this today and loved it. I confess I haven't seen the original, and I know that's film-sin, but the previews looked great and I couldn't wait! I would type a long review but I agree with basically everything Ethros said here. My semi-review:

*I felt like the ending (lack of) left me hanging. I sat through some of the credits before breaking out of my confusion and leaving the theater. I am not entirely sure what happened, other than Klaatu died to stop silicon locusts and all our tech died. I am glad the movie didn't just say what our problems were, as I lean to the right and hate it when movies get too preachy about all the 'humans are destroying the planet' stuff.
*GORT scared the shit out of me. Except for the first time we saw him (that CGI was pants). Frickin' red lazer beam, homg!
*James Hong!!!! I met him at DragonCon, lovely man. I jumped for joy when I saw his name in the opening credits. His scene was easily the most moving of the film.
*Alpa Chino, er I mean, Brandon T. Jackson. Saw his name, but he only had one line! How do you get your name under James Hong in the opening credits and only have one line
*Jennifer Connelly's eyebrows: less distracting than other films!
*Trek XI trailer on the big screen: frickin' awesome
*Wolverine trailer: needs separate review! Too much awesome: Danny Huston, Gambit, DEADPOOL!

Would see this one again

 

Not everything was destroyed when it went by other buildings

 

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/author/smason/

These are just estimates

STEVE MASON’S EXCLUSIVE EARLY FRIDAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox) - $12.5M, $3,511 PTA, $12.5M cume

STEVE MASON’S EXCLUSIVE EARLY 3-DAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox) - $33.75M, $9,480 PTA, $33.75M cume

I hope it makes more than that, it is a good movie

 

As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of the original, and was going to see the remake with my dad and uncle...but we've all been keeping up with the reviews and we're just thinking our money could be spent better on finally seeing Quantum of Solace. -Dan