The Day the Earth Stood Still
I was one of those people old enough to have seen the first one. I really liked it, and think it's at the top of the crop of all the 50s sci-fi movies that proceded after that one.
That brings me to the new one. I was really looking forward to this one and thought it had a lot of promise.
I was wrong.
The director and the screenwriter apparently didn't know whether this was a remake or a redo. They referred to many of the points/scenes of the original and, in the beginning, looked really promising. Then, somewhere along the way, they forgot how to make a movie.
You know the part in the original, where Klaatu was supposed to prove to the world that he was who he said he was - you know - the part that had everything to do with the title of the film - when the earth 'stood still' for 30 minutes. It seemed like the director said to himself, "hey - we need to put that in somewhere" and they did. It didn't seem to fit and it didn't have the same meaning as it should have. It was just there.
And then there was John Cleese - - I love watching John Cleese - in the original, Sam Jaffe had the same part and it was a big part. In this one, after the initial meeting, they seemed to have forgotten to put the rest of his part in the movie, altogether! There was so much potential that was untapped, it was ridiculous,
Then there was the ending - really, that's about it. Every movie has its own pace. It builds at a certain pace, and everything falls into place evenly, as it's supposed to. In this movie, someone must have said to himself, "hey, this movie has gone on long enough - we need to end it."
And they did. - - out of pace altogether. One moment, Klaatu thought the human race was the scum of the universe, and then, all of a sudden, he figured they were worth saving. And Gort - the big robot - what a joke - it seemed like he and Klaatu had no real connection at all. What a joke, in my opinion!
They both had their big political statements to make. The first one was an anti-war movie - this one was a global warming movie. However, it had no real sting. It just had a really big build up and then it ended. That was it.
And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that Keanu Reeves (who, in my opinion is rated far above what his real talent is) put in the worst acting job of his life.
If I were you, I wouldn't waste my money - I did and I'm sorry I did.