Stand Still and Read This Post

I just got back from seeing the Day the Earth Stood Still.  PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW IN MY FOOTSTEPS.

I love the 1951 version of the Day the Earth Stood Still.  Love it.  That's why I was so disappointed in this film.  You're probably thinking, "Why did Ben even have high expectations for this movie?  All remakes suck."  Well everybody, I didn't really have such high expectations, considering the recent lackluster science fiction remakes of The War of the Worlds and Planet of the Apes.  I just expected it to be okay.  But it didn't even meet those expectations.  There are countless flaws in this movie.  So many that I need to bullet them.

• This is a terrible remake.  However, I didn't mind that it was nothing like the original.  What bothered me was that it didn't even have to be the Day the Earth stood still.  It could have been any movie.
• The characters that are actually in this that were in the original do not cross over well.  The character of GORT was given muscles so that he would look modern, but it really just made me roll my eyes.
• There are far to many environmentalist undertones in this film.  I'm all for stopping global warming, but this is overkill.  There are more environmentalist undertones in this movie than in Happy Feet, the Mist, and Wall-E combined.
• There is a lot, a lot, A LOT of product placement, including one scene in which two otherworldly beings have a meeting in a McDonald's.  I think Microsft, LG, and McDonald's covered the entire budget on this movie.
• Jaden Smith(Will Smith's son)'s character is extremely annoying.
• 2 great actors are put to waste in this film (Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly)
• The ending is not good.  It's just another hollywood ending that makes you, once again, roll your eyes.
• Last but not least, IT'S TERRIBLY WRITTEN.  This is some of the worst dialogue I've heard.

The only thing I liked about this movie at all was the fun appearances by a bunch of great actors, including John Cleese, Kathy Bates, and, my personal favorite, James Hong.  Who is that you ask?  Well, among other things, the Chinese Restaurant manager in the classic Seinfeld episode in which he yells one of my favorite Seinfeld lines: "CARTWRIGHT!"

Even James Hong doesn't save this picture.  It's a fun time if you like to make sarcastic remarks at the screen, but that's about it.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - 1.5 out of 4

-Ben