Alright. So I did it. I went to see the remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still". I can't really put into words my disappointment. Oh I knew that this was going to suck, but I had to see it anyways. Originality in scriptwriting seems lacking the last few years. There's been plenty of good movies come out over the last while, but the remakes are generally a travesty. This latest one just shores up that last point.
Now I'm a fan of old cheesy 50's sci-fi flicks because they are... well... cheesy. They represent a lot of base ideals, like progress, hope, vision, and various others. The original TDTESS had a simple message: clean up your act. We know your race has potential, but if you keep going this way, we're going to fix the problem... permanently. The original Klaatu had a semblance of emotional content which Michael Rennie displays throughout the entire film, but Keanu Reeves comes off as a cold fish, lacking one quality one might think the messenger has. After all this is a significant event the character is about to undertake, so why not show a little bit of emotion? It must have been the whole impartiality scientist thing that you might see in someone who was enacting a purely academic experiment. But now that I think of it when scientist hit that 'Eureka!' moment they're usually pretty excited.
Now admittedly the original movie is not as action packed as the remake. The glitz and special effects is regrettable in most newer movies, as bigger explosions and blue screens replace story content. Why spend the money on developing a complex character when you can have some pretty lights do something eye catching on the screen? The remake of this movie is chocked full of explosions, flying machines, and cool looking CGI. Even the robot (and I use that term loosely for the remake) Gort is rather cool looking and imposing, but in someway over the top.... but wait! This ties in with my next comparison....
In the original movie Klaatu comes to the Earth to deliver a message to the leaders of the world, and Gort is there to protect him, and do whatever Klaatu needs him to do. The remake changes this simple dynamic drastically. In the remake Klaatu comes to talk alright, but the message is something like "Hey you guys. Yeah you, stupid. You're finished. Don't bother packing your bags, I'll take care of everything." He's not really there to deliver a warning as in the original, but instead tell the leaders of the world that they're a failure, and now he's going to destroy them all. Wow. So instead of an interstellar ambassador, you now have Hitler about to commit genocide. Nice. Oh, and did I mention that Gort: the robot and protector, is now GORT: the acronym and doomsday machine? Yep his sole purpose is to commit the heinous act of wiping out all human life on the Earth. Again. Wow.
If I was to see this remake on it's own with no prior knowledge of the original I would likely be singing a different tune right now. But knowing what I know, I really wish they hadn't done this to a science fiction classic. I can say that all was not totally lost. The message that the original purported wasn't completely lost, although it was changed, and the method of delivery to the audience of said message was brief. Like I said to my wife in the theatre "Blink and you might miss it."
See it if you must, but please keep your disappointment contained to throwing popcorn at the screen.
And just for effect, I'll end this post like the remake ended: abruptly.
Freeman
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