Tomorrow Comes THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL...But Will Anyone Care??

Merrick here...
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL remake (or whatever it is) hits tomorrow. Not surprisingly, screenings of the film appear to be spotty - thus we've seen little-to-no assessment of the movie by media outlets (so far, no reviews have appeared from either Hollywood Reporter or Variety, for example). Nothing indicates studio confidence more than... However, AICN readers are everywhere...and managed to penetrate a few screenings undetected. HERE are a few perspective we published earlier in the week, and below you'll find two more write-ups from Chris and Damocles.
Let's star with Chris...

Hi Harry, hey AICN and all... I just came home in Germany from a premiere screening of "The Day The Earth Stood Still". What can I say? I saw the original movie not long ago in order to go in prepared. And boy, did they miss up with the overall script. I wont delve too much into spoiler territory, but I want to summarize it like this: - They tried too hard to explain stuff. They invented a super-duper special effect just to explain pretty much every ability that Klaatu or the robot have. Oh, wait, it is not a real robot (sorry, must have been the doing of Rothman). Its some genetic thing. Some G.O.R.T. or something. Yeah, they really pull this off. Talk about forced inclusion of "hommage material". - They changed the story so much that actually it feels like a sequel rather than a remake. What the movie generally lacks is the sense of direction and emotions... it all feels pretty much like a placeholder. Not to blame Keanu, though. Generally, the acting is okay, but the story cant give them enough to work with. The sense of dread and panic of the population, the exploration of Klaatu, how he starts to perceive humanity, all this is dumbed down greatly. What the movie HAS, though, is of course some great effect shots, although those could have been easily changed in order to NOT leave the awestruck onlooker with a big red glowing questionmark above his head. WTF, people, why did they invent this last plot device and not go with the robot all the way?? It felt so stupid. Also, what the movie has, is some rare occurances of humor. It was fun to spot all those different "in your face" product placements, even though the fun resulted in a general groan in the audience. Okay, to be fair, Klaatus and his companions abilities were worth some chuckles here and there, but of course it didnt save the whole experiment. To summarize this: Save your money for something else. Unless you are into some nice special effects, a crying Jennifer Connelly and Keanus robotic performance. (Again, blame the script for that) I would really rather have a decent remake that would capture the essence of the original movie, transported to a modern world. But this one failed. Dont get your hopes up, folks. Chris

Here's what Damocles had to say...

Just caught today a preview of the remake / re-imagining of The Day The Earth Stood Still here in Edinburgh. First let me say I've only vague childhood memories of the original TDTESS. One of those usually cheesy old sci-fi movies BBC2 would stick on in a weekday early evening as a schedule filler. The only aspect I do recall clearly is Michael Rennie, whose presence and voice possessed a gravitas and solemnity no modern actor seems capable of even emulating. In his place we have Keanu Reeves. I'm not a big Keanu basher, he's a limited actor but at least seems to be aware of this. His character is an alien though one in a human body and Keanu plays him probably the only way he could, with a cold detachment. Ruthless but not evil. And like pretty much every thing else in the film it's a competent job but deeply uninspiring. There's no charm which surely is essential for us to believe in his condemnation of humanity. But most of all there is no otherness. A braver or perhaps just better actor (Jeff Bridges? David Bowie!?) could have pushed this role in a much more interesting direction, used Klaatu's alien perspective and struggle in human form to better understand himself and thus mankind, Reeves suggests this at best. It would have given greater resonance to the ending. Jennifer Connelly carries the emotion centre of the film, her character's relationship with stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith) allows Klaatu insight into us messy contradictory earthlings. Surprisingly the kid is not completely annoying but the movie simply doesn't give us enough time with the characters to understand them or even really want to. Connelly is fine but not exactly stretched. Also I still wish she'd gain a bit of weight. What happened to that body from the Rocketeer? Paul Bettany's still a lucky bastard though. I guess any film with a sympathetic alien figure must have an arrogant and reactionary government official. Here played by Kathy Bates as the Secretary of Defense. She imposes herself on the role and is at least given some dimension in the closing moments but the character is still underwritten. John Cleese's casting is a bit distracting but actually plays it straight rather than the usually smug and smarmy pompous Brit. It's not much more than cameo anyway. Also how many scientists actually have blackboards with long incomplete mathematical equations just waiting for an alien superbeing to walk in the door and finish it off? In Hollywood, apparently all of them. And hey it's good to see James Hong getting some work, even if I do always think of the suicidal Japanese officer from Airplane whenever I see him. The Day The Earth Stood Still doesn't disgrace the original but adds absolutely nothing to it. It possesses neither the awe and grandness of the (otherwise deplorable) Independence Day or the questioning and thoughtfulness of intelligent science fiction like Contact. More than anything this is a missed opportunity. There is no poetry here, there is no vision. This doesn't make it a bad film just a dull and pointless one. If used I sometimes go by the name Damocles.

A new WOLVERINE trailer will be released with this film; you an find more information about it over at Collider (HERE). If you choose not to stand still this weekend, it's likely the WOLVERINE material will hit the net over the weekend, or early next week. So stay tuned...