• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Grading & Discussion

Grade the 2008 movie and pick your favorite version...


  • Total voters
    76
keeping up with the reviews a

See the movie yourself, the reviewers apparently were not watching the great movie that The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) is. Seen it twice now

i went to see it today expecting very little after reading the reviews.i thought it was really good and about as faithful a remake as you could do in 2008! i was pleasantly surprised.:techman:

Cool, saw it a third time, enjoyed it again
 
Creating habitat is not the same as creating species. The arks that left Earth will preserve some of the existent species. They would function more like zoos than a replacement terrestrial biosphere, even if placed into an advanced space habitat.

As to the alleged lack of an ending, as to whether humanity wins? We know that humanity will suffer massive losses due to the destruction of technology. Whether humanity will rebuild the old social system (aka technology) to resume massive destruction of habitat and mass extinction of species is unknown. That is a real example of ambiguity. Despie the many cliches about moral ambiguity or shades of grey around here, very few people are comfortable with ambiguity and fewer like it.

The scene with James Hong, where his official report condemns humanity yet still he wishes to die with humanity foreshadows Klaatu's actions. As he observes humanity he understands the unnamed observer's dilemma. Turning the woman and child into stepmother and stepson makes their affection from a sentimental fondness for one's partial (genetic) self, into a bond between two unrelated creatures. It shows a capacity for loving the other. Instead of telling Klaatu that humans can love other species the Bensons show.

Similarly, the action scenes show how helpless humanity is. Since it is true that most of the destruction scenes were in the trailers, how can anyone claim that the last third of the movie somehow reduces to ten minutes? Perhaps the impact was so great they magnified the time? Or perhaps their distaste for the story leads to saying anything critical, no matter how absurd?

Also absurd are claims about Reeves' acting---can't people read body language?, Jayden Smith's acting---loving a little angel is easy but loving a brat isn't, or Michael Rennie's acting---the sudden discovery that Michael Rennie was amongst the British greats like James Mason, Claude Rains, and---dare I say it?---Laurence Olivier is so absurd as to raise suspicion as to the sincerity.

And yes, "Klaatu barada nikto" is uttered to stop Gort when Klaatu is first shot.
 
It was an ok film, but felt like some of it was cut out. I'd really wish there were more scenes setting up Klaatu's final decision.
I also don't understand what was the point of meeting the world's leaders if the decision to get rid of the human race was up to the sleeper agent anyways.
 
It was an ok film, but felt like some of it was cut out. I'd really wish there were more scenes setting up Klaatu's final decision.
I also don't understand what was the point of meeting the world's leaders if the decision to get rid of the human race was up to the sleeper agent anyways.

The decision was Klaatu's. The sleeper was there to advise. At least that's what I took from the movie.
 
I liked the original and I enjoyed this one. It's a good, not great film, but I am at a total loss how it could be kicked around so hard that it hovers around the 22% range at rotten tomatoes.

Doesn't matter though. There is no sequel riding on the success of this film.

From the start, I liked the fact that it took some time out to not insult us. In the 1950s aliens may step off of space crafts looking like humans and speaking the language, but not here. Klaatu's true form was so alien that just hearing about it "would frighten us". And I felt that Reeves played the dispassionate and otherworldly Klaatu very well. I also got a real sense of menace from Gort. In sleep mode he was as ominous as when he was creating protective destructive chaos; so powerful as not to expend a single iota of extra energy, no matter what was being done to him. And the scene where his single red eye followed Kyle Chandler around the military bunker was down right eerie.

It was interesting as well to see Klaatu as a powerful being. Combined with Gort's obvious and massive power, it added the the over all sense of the futility of the US Administration/military's action. Klaatu's escape amused me: after seeing a similar scene two weeks ago in the show Fringe, I laughed at the how whoever stands between a character and their escape, they will always be the same suit and shoe size as the character needing the clothes.

This film also did a good job of placing the mother in the center of the story, and keeping her, the son and Klaatu together to make the plot work better. Having them positioned as they were in the 50s film, would make it harder to pull the elements together such as Klaatu meeting the biologist, or the conclusion itself.


All in all, Above Average.
 
I wonder, is it worth seeing in IMAX, or should I wait for Blu Ray? Also, how did Gort look? Was he at least close to the original movie?
 
Also, how did Gort look? Was he at least close to the original movie?

Close enough to recognize.

vlcsnap-2042807.png





day-earth-stood-still.jpg
 
Saw this last night. What an absolute steaming turd of a movie.

Keanu Reeves and his alien chums needed a big steaming cup of 'jog the fuck on and mind your own fucking business' bunch of fucking space hippies....'oooh we need to save the poor widdle animals'. FUCK OFF. You do not prove your moral superiority by commiting genocide you bunch of twats, fuck off and look after your own planet. Wankers.:scream:

The only way this film could be saved is if they made a sequel set thousands of years in the future where humanity, grown bitter and twisted from the attempted genocide come calling for revenge. After all, its only on the cusp that change happens or whatever John Cleese said and who's to say we wouldn't fully embrace our barbaric nature and focus it at the aliens after the billions of people who would starve and otherwise die after modern technology shuts down traumatise the human race? :devil:

Also Will Smith's kid needed a fucking slap.
 
So why couldn't they make the new movie with the same theme? An alien trying to make contact, gets captured, and the Humans are made to look foolish for not being open to the idea of otherworldy visitors? After all, what do you think would happen if an alien craft landed in the middle of Washington today? How would we react? Just have it sit there, and see the reactios of the world. The finale is Gort and Klatuu's actions from the original movie. I don't know whay they had to ad an ID4 element to the movie. To me an Alien craft landing could make for great tension, and drama.
 
Saw this last night. What an absolute steaming turd of a movie.

Keanu Reeves and his alien chums needed a big steaming cup of 'jog the fuck on and mind your own fucking business' bunch of fucking space hippies....'oooh we need to save the poor widdle animals'. FUCK OFF. You do not prove your moral superiority by commiting genocide you bunch of twats, fuck off and look after your own planet. Wankers.:scream:

Even the original needed a rebuttal like that. In it, Klaatu said that they created a race of robots to be their police force. Nobody ever fucking thought to ask him two things: 1) What happens when the robots malfunction and/or become despotic tyrants, and 2) What gave the aliens the right to impose their will on Earth in the first place?

The only way this film could be saved is if they made a sequel set thousands of years in the future where humanity, grown bitter and twisted from the attempted genocide come calling for revenge. After all, its only on the cusp that change happens or whatever John Cleese said and who's to say we wouldn't fully embrace our barbaric nature and focus it at the aliens after the billions of people who would starve and otherwise die after modern technology shuts down traumatise the human race? :devil:

Quite. If humanity manages to rebuild their technology, the aliens should tuck their pseudopodia in between their other pseudopodia and kiss their pseudopodia goodbye. :lol:
 
Welcome to completely missing what little message the film had, guys.

There were plenty of questions for it to ask, and it didn't quite get there, IMO. What gave us the right to impose our will on Earth in the first place? What makes us the dominant species? Are you sure about that?

Is the Earth ours to do with as we please, or on loan from our grandchildren?

I wish they'd gotten into those notions a bit more instead of the usual testosterone-fuelled VFX-fests.
 
Welcome to completely missing what little message the film had, guys.

There were plenty of questions for it to ask, and it didn't quite get there, IMO. What gave us the right to impose our will on Earth in the first place? What makes us the dominant species? Are you sure about that?

Is the Earth ours to do with as we please, or on loan from our grandchildren?

I wish they'd gotten into those notions a bit more instead of the usual testosterone-fuelled VFX-fests.


No I got that, its just a stupid question to ask. When dolphins build a fucking skyscraper then we'll talk about who the planet belongs to and who the dominant species is.
 
I feel like I'm missing something. What did the original movie give us that this remake didn't? The original didn't delve too deeply into the issues it raised either.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to completely missing what little message the film had, guys.

There were plenty of questions for it to ask, and it didn't quite get there, IMO. What gave us the right to impose our will on Earth in the first place? What makes us the dominant species? Are you sure about that?

Is the Earth ours to do with as we please, or on loan from our grandchildren?

I wish they'd gotten into those notions a bit more instead of the usual testosterone-fuelled VFX-fests.


"Admiral, if we are to act as if these whales are ours to do with as we please, we would be as guilty as those who caused their extinction."
 
Jeez. Change Klatuu's name, eliminate Gort and the token power blackout and the movie is almost an "original".

I figure two things happened:

1. The writer wrote what he thought was an "original" screenplay, was told how much it resembled TDTESS, so changed a few elements and bloodsucked off the title of the original.

2. The intent was to make an update, but the writer decided he could "do better" and so changed almost everything.

I would have preferred it trying to pass as an original without the references or character names of the original.

And what the hell was the kid in there for?

But I DID actually like the prologue. I was hoping for that explorer to show up somehow at around 100+ years old.

--Ted
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top