Please be forewarned that there are spoilers in this review. People reading this will know the entire movie by the end of this review.
I have heard critics say that the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is a disappointment and others say even worse. It is now a controversial film because movie goers shot this one to the number one rating over the weekend it was made. In two days this movie, which cost $80 million to make, earned $70 million domestic and internationally combined. Fix will make back its investment without a doubt.
If you are an old movie fan and you saw and liked the original hit sci-fi, this one will make you teary-eyed with compassion for mankind and give you the same effects as the first, except technology will be impressive even if you don't get the chance to see this in an IMAX. 3-D TV's are on the way.If you're young and have never seen the original, you should be struck with awe. However the content may be disturbing in its gravity.
It recreates the original, paying homage to a finely directed 1951 film that still places in the top 30 greatest sci-fi films of all time. This same thing cannot be said of some of the other sci-fi remakes.
I thought that this film was edited so beautifully to flow from one scene to the next without in-between rubbish that sometimes is enough to disrupt plots to the point that one could lose interest. Sci-fi movies should be made to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, or at least hold the audience captive with special effects. No scene was wasted. Everything that was said had some significant message in it. As one major newspaper put it, the movie gets right to the point and moves on. I didn’t see one person get up and go to the refreshment stand or leave the room after the show began. This, to me, indicates that the audience was under the spell of either the 3D effects or the plot kept them going. For me it was both.
An object is spotted in space and a trajectory shows it to be on a collision course with the Earth. The Earth has seventy-eight minutes to count down, when suddenly the UFO slows down at count zero and code red goes to yellow as the mother ship releases the smaller ones to circle the globe. This "sphere" or rather I should say “mother ship of many spheres” has now landed in Central Park and is approached by a cautious scientist, Helen Benson, who is played by Oscar nominee (A Beautiful Mind) and Golden Globe winner, Jennifer Connelly. She is the scientist assigned to study the alien species and chosen for the team to make first contact.
An alien comes forth from the foggy mist for first contact and as usual, mankind can't control his urge to shoot first and ask questions later. Klaatu has brought with him a gigantic robot, and from its first behavior, appears to be only his protector. But the robot, GORT, which is the acronym for Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) is actually a weapon of mass destruction...the terminator of all human life on Earth. The robot is programmed to activate only when there is hostile or aggressive activity or when the emissary is threatened.
In fact, this is also the nature of Klaatu as well. His destructive nature only activates when threatened. The robot disarms all of Earth's weapons, sends out an ear drum bursting high pitch and causes everything operational to shut down or to "stand still" while it moves out of the fog toward Helen and the emissary. This brings everything to a halt at least for the moment. The scientist calls for a doctor and the robot retreats.
Keanu Reeves, international superstar and earned a Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, as well as top 10 favorite actors globally, plays Klaatu, the emissary from another galaxy who has been shot down, hauled off to a classified information facility, interrogated, and operated on by a doctor who suddenly is enlightened telepathically on how to extract the bullet. Klaatu has an embryonic type outer skin which will allow him to be born as a human on Earth. The doctor begins to remove this outer skin as it starts to peal away. While in captivity, Klaatu evolves into a human cloned from a mountain climber in India many years before. All of this evolution takes place in a matter of hours.
Klaatu's mission is speak to the Earth's leaders to enlighten them on how to restore a dying Earth, as it will effect their galaxy if it were to come to sudden destruction, but who cares? Homeland Security must obey the orders of the president and those orders are to take the alien into custody and interrogate. The old "take me to your leader," will not work with a leader who believes he/she speaks on the entire Earth's behalf.
The Secretary of Defense, played by Kathy Bates, is trying to find out whatever she can but her boss, the president, lacks diplomacy and compassion for alien life forms or just doesn’t want to listen to anyone else’s advice. Klaatu is put through interrogation but instead of giving answers to his interrogator, he first gives a warning and you can predict the rest as Klaatu would not be here on Earth without some resourceful powers. At any rate, it is now Klaatu who gets answers from the interrogator. Klaatu makes his escape with a little tip from Helen who was supposed to administer a truth serum for this interrogation but administered a saline solution instead, whispering in his ear "RUN!"
Klaatu hides out in a busy train station and finds himself with the new human feeling called, "hunger." He is able to manipulate a vending machine to drop a sandwich down for him to eat. He stops to observe humans while he is eating and sees a struggle between two men over a train ticket. Irritated by the arrogance of the man who owns the ticket, he causes him to have a heart attack while his impoverished enemy grabs the ticket and runs. He still has not been able to control his reaction to aggressive behavior so far and his inclinations are to side with the underdog.
He goes to the bathroom (I'm sure he found this to be a disgusting human habit as well) and realizes that his wound is bleeding and manages to manipulate people to make a call to Helen to get some of the embryonic salve from his outer skin samples.
Helen comes to his rescue but must bring her stepson, Jason who is played by famous actor Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith, the child star of, "The Pursuit of Happiness."
Jason knows aliens have landed because he has been monitoring the TV which depicts the planet in a stage of "standing still" while everyone who can loot continues to do so and the stocks fall to below sea levels.
When Helen and Jason arrive, she asks Klaatu, if he is our friend. He answers in partial truth by saying that he is a "friend to the Earth." He asks her to take him to meet someone who turns out to be an alien scout who was planted on Earth seventy years earlier, so it can be determined if man is a species that they can reason with. At this point, Klaatu still lacks emotions of a human being and still resembles the robot that actually is made in their likeness...all reasoning, apart from emotion.
That’s when the decision is made that the humans on the Earth can't be reasoned with since Klaatu's attempt to reach the United Nations has failed. Without the cooperation of some cohesive authority representing the entire Earth, Klaatu is not willing to negotiate with the inferior people of the hierarchy.
The dialogue between the aliens definitely moved me to sympathy for mankind. “I will not leave Earth,” the alien scout said. “I find that being a human is difficult,” but he went on to say that as he grew near the time for his life to be over, he was happy that he had lived it. He had learned to love the humans. This puzzles Klaatu but his mind is made up.
Klaatu explains his mission to Helen. He must destroy humankind to preserve the planet Earth as it is one of just a few that is able to sustain life... and we are killing it. He tells Helen, “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives."
Helen pleas with Klaatu to tell us what to do to change things and we will make those changes. Klaatu is persuaded to at least hear her out for the time being. He follows along with her to a scientist, a Noble Peace Prize winner, in hopes that Klaatu will be convinced that man can understand, learn, and develop to something greater than he is right now. Klaatu shuns the scientist’s idea that mankind is moving in a new direction. He shows Klaatu an equation that mathematically proves man to be a species that makes an evolutionary change on the precipice of extinction. Klaatu sees the equation differently.
Klaatu, still pragmatic and not convinced that those equations are right, asks Helen to take him to the sphere to carry out his mission. Helen’s stepson is brought along due to circumstances beyond her control and Klaatu is exposed to the child’s input on what Klaatu is about to do. Klaatu has, after only a few hours of being human, started to become sensitive to their ideology. Klaatu shuts out their pleas so he can put the wheels in motion and the spheres start gathering male and female of all species of life forms on Earth...except for mankind.
Meanwhile, The Secretary of Defense has collected data from every surveillance on Earth and found that Klaatu has been collecting species from all over the globe and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what comes next.
But the chain of command in this situation is already breaking down. The Secretary tries to give time for Helen to change "its" mind, but tells Helen that there isn't much time left for negotiation. Reminding Helen that she (the Secretary of Defense) is under obligation to report directly to the president, she orders the department of defense to stand down until further orders. But there are others who will stop at nothing to capture Klaatu.
The military uses a peaceful non-aggressive approach to capture the robot and he's under study when suddenly he starts to break down into tiny insectoid bots. (Metallic looking locusts would be a good description to people who are not familiar with sci-fi terminology.) With the use of the DMR sound, the insectoids can be heard crawling on the roof of the theatre. Again, special effects are part of the success of a good sci-fi.
The fugitives from the government now are Klaatu, Helen, and her stepson, Jason. Jason soon discovers Klaatu’s true identity, and out of fear he secretly makes a call on his cell phone and alerts authorities of their location. This hinders the plans of the Secretary of defense taking matters into her own hands to buy Helen some time to persuade the alien that he is wrong about mankind.
While they are about to get into a car to leave, a police officer points his gun at the three and uses the usual threatening tones for them to freeze, telling Helen to get the child out of the car. Klaatu responds like the robot and interprets this action as violent. He tells them, this will not hurt but just a second. Then he crushes the policeman between the two cars but when he sees the reaction of Helen and Jason he realizes that "death" and "trauma" are both something that humans find to be a very difficult thing to deal with. Klaatu then restores both policeman and his vehicle. He's still learning what it is like to be human at this point. "It was only my intention to stop him," he explained.
Helen can now see Klaatu as a species with a nature similar to that of the robot and she must try to convince him in a logical way to change his mind. "What's the matter with you? You just killed a man and brought him back to life and what for, you’re going to kill us now?" This begins a breakdown in Klaatu's logic. His emotions have been sneaking into play.
Jason starts to see Klaatu a little less menacing, because instead of seeing him as evil he sees his lack of understanding of the human race, but he's not convinced to trust him yet. Klaatu and Jason are separated from Helen when the authorities come in by helicopter and take Helen first, but Klaatu resists them, using similar powers as the robot.
Again, like the robot, Klaatu begins to become protective of Jason because of the logical nature of his species is overcome with the interference of a human body and therefore, human nature now developing in Klaatu. He is forming a bond. Nevertheless, Klaatu is still determined to move on with his plan. Man and everything that man has built will be consumed by GORT.
Later Klaatu talks to Helen on a cell phone and it is agreed that Klaatu will take Jason to a cemetery for Helen to reunite with before the final destruction of mankind takes place. Jason suggests this as he has a secret plan of his own by now.
Meanwhile GORT senses that the elected creatures are already taken into the spheres and it is now time for him to carry out his own mission. Everything has begun. GORT disassembles into trillions of tiny insectoid bots that multiply rapidly. They are to consume human life and anything made or needed by humans for their survival. The main joke here among former fans of this movie is, "What was the robt for?" My reply is, "What was he there fore in the first movie?" Some of these questions asked make me truly feel embarrassed for the mindset of the people asking. The robot (unlike the original story) is not supposed to be something to scare people. It is a weapon of mass destruction, built similar to the original so that the old fans would not ask, "Where is GORT?" Sometimes, there's just no way to win.
Jason's plan to meet his mother in the cemetery turns out to be a scheme to get Klaatu to use his power to bring life back into a dead body. He wants Klaatu to raise his father up from his military grave. He thinks Klaatu has this power after seeing Klaatu restore the life of the dead policeman. Klaatu hears Jason's plea but he explains to Jason that there are some things that he can't do. He explained that we never really die, but rather we are transformed into something better. Jason's father has been gone too long.
Klaatu contemplates the many tombs of the dead military that fought for mankind and he starts to evolve in his own thinking. Helen arrives and Klaatu turns to them and says, "There is a side to humans that I did not see before." Although Klaatu does not actually say it, the crosses marking the graves of our military means that man is willing to die for man. That makes him a higher form of life than Klaatu had anticipated.
However, the dye has already been cast for the mass destruction of humans.
I also saw a lot of points well taken in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" 2008 version that critics overlooked. I did not find it to be one-sided at all. The dialogue gave us a lot of food for thought.
I saw the pros and cons both exhibited equally for humankind as well as the environmental viewpoints... the loss of our ecosystems from man's folly.
I have never seen so many critics with bias against politicians and environmentalists who took it out on Fox. I think we should all suck it up and move on from the issues of the last election while trying to be objective about a movie. Give Fox a break. They took old material and made it look very new. Some critics called this film "preachy" and others thought it all translated into a "save the Earth" type movie and ignored a brilliantly laid plot.
CNN said Jaden Smith was getting a good taste of success in this Fox film.
It was thought out from start to finish casting Oscar and Golden Globe nominees and winners for some very difficult roles.
I would like to point out here that in the first movie, the robot was more powerful than the emissary and was a representation of God and all of God's power to strike down the Earth. In this 21st century movie the theme really doesn't have a heavy religious allegation. This could be the complaint of those who loved the first. The emissary is higher in the ranks in this movie, than the weapon of mass destruction.
This movie is entertainment at its best. The producers used two cameras for certain 2D and 3D effects, and this is the first Hollywood movie to be filmed from start to finish for IMAX theatres.
Children under thirteen should have parental guidance in an IMAX due to the fact that some sci-fi scenes could be interpreted by young children as horrific.
In a regular theater or a theater that has the 3D technology and digital sound that wraps around, other violent scenes can be easily excused by saying it was no more violent than “Hancock," although the overall tone of the movie was very sobering and serious in content.
People who are slow to pick up fast moving plots will get left behind in this one. If you were not able to catch on to what was happening in the Matrix by the end of that movie, then you are going to miss some of the storyline in this. If you can't watch a video game or fast action arcade type scenes then you'll fall through the hole during the first ten minutes of this film. I have read many reviews where the people said, "What was the movie about?" Attention deficit could be a problem with children but no doubt they will be impressed with special effects. If watched in an IMAX they would be ducking now and then from bullets and other ammo flying through the air.
Summary of the plot. An alien attempts to speak to world leaders about a dying planet but fail and carries out orders for mass destruction while saving a ark of creatures to populate another planet of equal environment. The alien determines from the evidence that man gives up their life to save man and therefore merits a better end than annihilation. The final results was to allow mankind to live and evolve with paramount control over the decisions concerning their own fate.
Few people saw past the comment, "We are a friend to the earth," and whined that it was a movie made for environmentalist or other off-beat political remarks when none of it even leaned in that direction.
There’s no nudity, sex, or foul language, which disappoints a few. This movie is very high in altruism and moral ethics. One critic said perhaps this was its downfall. What a shame that films have to have sex, nudity, or foul language to achieve the highest ratings. Perhaps Transformers II would be more to the liking of the ones who couldn't understand this movie. The Think Tanks know how to keep the dead, dead.
