The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

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I think it's a fatal flaw to cast Keanu as an alien. Seems like a huge mistake! It will make the tone of the film comical instead of menacing. Should have cast a complete unknown, or at least go with a good actor that looks alien like Christopher Walken.
 
I was watching them film this at my school a few months back. Very cool. Army guys running everywhere with tanks and helicopters.

I was allowed to watch pretty close up with the guy from Mad Men and the director. It's amazing how quiet a film set is - everyone whispers.
 
At least it's good to see Jon Hamm getting big screen work now because of Mad Men. Hopefully there's more to come.
 
This looks really dumb. Or at least, this trailer makes it look really dumb. I don't know. It feels cheesy or something.
 
I don't know. The original is kind of cheesy at parts, very uneven and dated. It's a great allegory/story, but I just can't get past the overly-expositional scenes with the very '50s-sounding dialogue. Most of it goes like this:

Klaatu solves a complex math problem.

TIMMY: Well gee golly, Mr. Carpenter, you sure are smart.

KLAATU: Well you see, Timmy, I come from another planet.

TIMMY: Gee wiz.

The scene where Gort appears before the army is great though, and I appreciate the social commentary, but it's just so hard to take it seriously. This re-make looks lit could be interesting. I won't be expeting much, but I'll check it out.
 
cheesy writing aside, It looks like the only thing they took from the original was the name and the fact that there is an Alien that looks human. I hate it when they do this, if your going to keep the name, keep the story. if you're not keeping the story, thats fine, but if you're creative enough to come up with a new story, you're creative enough to come up with a new name.
 
This was about 60 percent of a good movie. The set up was intriguing and well paced, but in the end it all fell kind of flat. Keanu works here, although this version of Klatuu is less interesting than the original. I could watch Jennifer Connelly hang laundry for two hours. Jon Hamm is utterly wasted. And Jaden Smith has a few bad scenes, but I blame the writing for that. The biggest problem is that the changes they made to the premise don't hold up to scrutiny.

SPOILER

Klatuu was sent to destroy mankind because we are destroying the earth, saying there are very few planets capable of sustaining complex life. For one, we are at most a bad skin rash on the earth's crust. We will die out long before it does, after which other species will flourish. Secondly, for an alien civilization as advanced as the one depicted, it would make more sense to give us the technology to make cleaner energy rather than just exterminating us. The writers try to head off this question with a brief exchange between Klatuu and a scientist, but I didn't buy the explanation. Couldn't Klatuu just help a brother out and give us zero point energy or something? Even on its own terms, they missed an important scene at the end, where Klatuu gives earth a warning before leaving. Here, he just takes off, and the finale has no impact.

A well-intentioned and decently crafted misfire. Oh, and I have to mention I saw the IMAX version, and the uprezzing process created some horrible edge halos. I felt like I was watching a DVD with the sharpness jacked all the way up.
 
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