The Day the Earth Stood Still

For some reason, I'm really looking forward to this. Anyone heard any rumours on how good it is (or otherwise)?

Kingp35

I watched the original today which is a great film with a message that's just as valid today.

Somehow I don't think the re-make will be quite as good!

geoffraffe

I've just seen it in Cineworld. It's pretty meh, to be honest. Another film with a decent plot that's too rushed, leaving the story with way too many holes, IMHO. The CGI looks pretty good and there's some really good action sequences. There's not too many scenes where it's CGI for CGI's sake, they use it well. BTW this is the part Keanu was born to play . The ending is................. I'll let you judge that for yourself.

Columba Rad

Seen it tonight, the last half hour is crap. Wouldn't recommend it.

Cactus Col

Saw it yesterday as well. Came away not caring that I saw it.

The reviews (both here and in the papers) really are painting a "meh" view of the movie. Maybe I'll wait for the DVD...!

constitutionus

seen it on wednesday at the UCI and it was awfull.

really depressed the hell out of me too as i havent been to the cinema in ages as nothing appealed to me since hellboy 2 and was looking forward to a good SCI/FI film.

its not that its BAD per se. the update ecological reason is actually a smart idea and theres some lovely little ideas in there.

its just the way it was executed and the over all crap special effects, you can tell a mile off that those helicopters aint real let alone some of the other stuff.

maybe that means its down to post production or editing but the over all result is like others have said is a resouding "M'eh". some of it doesnt even appear to make sence and the title of the film, which was a crucial plot point in the FIRST film, is pretty much just tagged on at the very end for reasons that well just seem to justify the title ! rendering it effectivly pointless.

and thats its cardinal sin. its the first sci fi film ive seen in ages thats fecking BORING .

its starts well i'll give it that but stalls half way through.

though i must say its one redeeming feature was GORT.

GORT looked fantastic, a beautiful blend of modern special effects and classic retro design. i really loved the scenes GORT was in. unfortunetly for a film that runs for over 1 and a half hours he's only in it for about 3 minutes

(im serious, 3 min - IF that)

i know theres alway fears people will colour their views with emotion for the original, and i have that and think its a great film , but thats not whats colouring my opinion here. its just a bad update -which is a real pity as theres the guts of a good film in it.

grimm2005

saw it tonight in cineworld. I thought it was quite good (never seen the original btw). I went in with pretty low expectations, tbh thought itd be fairly bad, not terrible, just not good but was pleasantly surprised.

Although i have a feeling if i had seen it on dvd or even one of cineworlds smaller screens it woulda been a lot more of a "meh" feeling from me (saw it in a packed screen 17 which is fairly impressive, that said it didnt save max payne )

Necronomicon

I have to echo the majority here and say I found it poor. The ending just really irked me.

Klaatu had no problem blowing the **** out of two helicopters but as soon as he saw Jennifer Connelly crying 5 minutes later, his wooden heart started the melt? Seriously, there was so little progression from him deciding to kill everyone to feeling remorseful. Then there was the execution of the ending itself, where it was enough to stick his hand into the sphere to stop the plague of insects.

Very disappointing.

faceman

This film was a big pile of poo. I couldnt even come to giving it any sort of merit on my blog review.

Awful from start to finish bar the 30 seconds or so that Gort actually did something.

Avoid at all costs!

projectmayhem

Disappointing thread... I was looking forward to this one

calex71

just got done watching it. OK it has good and bad points but it also has one whopper of a flaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that annoying f**king kid totally ruined this movie and made it worse than it really needed to be.

starn

Ah crap Constitutionus, Hellboy 2 and The Day The Earth Stood Still. Im suprised your not outside burning down the cinema,

The special effects are not not special and the kid really is annoying.

Really underwhealmed. An emotionless robot this was the role Keanu "Whoa" Revees was born to be play.

One for a mid week DVD

Sysiphus

As a life long devotee of the original, this had a lot to live up to. Then I read KR was going to be lead in it. Elvis may have a wooden heart, but KR has a wooden face! The usual american moralistic tale of how we can avoid world destruction etc (never mind the fact the usa hasn't signed up to most of the humanitarion/child protection / anti land mine (re designeted cluster bomb (sounds better, public - thick - short memory) the list is endless...) KR played the first 10 mins of Neo ex matrix for the enire movie, souless, character less, no empathy for him or JC or usual american smart kid a all.

I wanted OS cylons to appear and shoot all "by "our" command"

Bad movie save your life, play tidly winks instead.

Yep, definitely going to give it a miss now!


... shows how easily one can be taken in by a trailer! (well I suppose that's what they're there for!).

piece of crap.. bad cgi, boring and the secretary of state annoyed me when she was on screen

Capt'n Midnight

Deleted User wrote:

... shows how easily one can be taken in by a trailer! (well I suppose that's what they're there for!).

Most of the good special effects were in the trailer.
Gort effects were good but very little time on screen.

The kid was so annoying.
Morals got mixed up , "the US screws it up for everyone"
the old dark ages philosophy of getting baptised on your death-bed, do what you want you'll get absolution just in time !

Klaatu had superpowers and could regenerate
no sign that he was a mortal in service of the robots

He revived the cop, but had no problem killing both helicopter crews,
the kid showed no remorse at the deaths of the crews and expected klaatu to raise the dead after snitching on him ( just how spoilt/selfish was that kid and how could the audience be expected that the human race should be saved as a result )

I must have missed something in the fight at the train station, how did the guy with the ticket end up on the floor ?

too much CGI for stuff that didn't really need it ,too much rain as if like godzilla it was to hide the CGI seams

no delivery of the message "repent or die" to the world's leaders

plot full of holes and inconsistancies
like why were they using sidewinder air to air missiles to attack ground targets ? It's only got a 9.4Kg warhead
or in the real world they could have used a laser guided bomb with a much larger payload.

FunkZ

It was probably the worst film I've ever seen in the cinema, delete this thread!

faceman

the annoying kid is will smith's son

FunkZ

FunkZ wrote: »

It was probably the worst film I've ever seen in the cinema, delete this thread!

Jasus, I was only curious about the film! :mad:

Silenceisbliss

That was terrible. Absolutely mind numbingly boring. There was no climax. The entire movie was stale. The secretary of state and the kid were as annoying as conceivably possible. G.O.R.T (the massive robot) had unused potential. Predictable unoriginal plot: aliens come to earth, US represent the world view, US military want to blow it up, they’re unsuccessful, the benevolent protagonist saves the day by appealing to emotions. The movie finished, but never really ended.

Massive disappointment.

BlitzKrieg

the films major problem was there was no tension at all throughout the film. The original had more then this in spades (and thats without all the fancy technology we have today) You never felt they were hunting down Klatuu. The films moral subtext was blunt like a hammer and the scene that sets it up was awful both in acting and how forced it was

John Cleese saying man needs to be on the presipace to change then a scene where the son is hanging over a drop and klatuu saves him and suddenly the kid changes from annoying brat who hates aliens to annoying brat who supports alien.. CRINGE MIGHTY CRINGE

Also the changing of the ending was an offense to fans of the original

The original ends with a warning, change your ways or else, its not an upbeat ending. This one its all ET like *Alien touched by warmth of humans* grumble

personnally I thought Gort was useless and his new power was quite boring.

THe kid was quite annoying, but everyone in the film was. John Cleese was ok in the very short bit he was in, the battle of calculations was quite well done I thought.

I must have missed something in the fight at the train station, how did the guy with the ticket end up on the floor ?

He has a heart attack after taking his ticket back

One of the things that annoyed me was the message was meant to be changed to an eco one yet they never dealt with it directly, it showed humans fighting among themselves but nothing about us destroying the planet.


I thought the biggest idiot move was

THe US government release an all out manhunt using every form of law enforcement, yet he is able to be brought to a police station, ring jennifer connolly and be picked up and leave the station without anyone batting an eyelid and the two scenes directly follow each other too.

Capt'n Midnight

BlitzKrieg wrote:

the films major problem was there was no tension at all throughout the film. The original had more then this in spades (and thats without all the fancy technology we have today) You never felt they were hunting down Klatuu.

amen.
also remember back in the 1950's there was real tension so the impact would have been much stronger
The new Klaatu never seemed in danger

with his super powers and super senses, why did he kill the cop with the when he could just have zapped him ? or turned off the helicopters engines so the could autorotate into a controlled crash

The films moral subtext was blunt like a hammer and the scene that sets it up was awful both in acting and how forced it was.

I haven't seen "an inconvenient truth" but that's what I thought.

John Cleese saying man needs to be on the presipace to change then a scene where the son is hanging over a drop and klatuu saves him and suddenly the kid changes from annoying brat who hates aliens to annoying brat who supports alien.. CRINGE MIGHTY CRINGE

Disagree, IMHO the kid didn't change everyone asks for help when in a near death situation also he selfishly demanded a big favour shortly afterwards, just another spoilt brat .

Also the changing of the ending was an offense to fans of the original

The original ends with a warning, change your ways or else, its not an upbeat ending. This one its all ET like *Alien touched by warmth of humans* grumble

the first ending was so much better and explained the relationship between Gort and Klaatu in a way this film just ignored. Kinda important.

He has a heart attack after taking his ticket back

fair enough , but what had that got to do with the plot except to show that Klaatu might be vulnerable

constitutionus

i think it was a very clumsy attempt to show two sides of human nature.

the theif robbing the man and the paramedics trying to save him.

i may be wrong but i thought they tried to shove in a few microcosms of the world here and there so klaatu could make a judgement on humanity

if memory serves the thief was sitting next to him in the cop shop

any way i slapped on the original on DVD last night and you just cant compare the two.

MUCH tighter plot. and as mentioned by others ACTUAL tension. the paranoia about his intentions was very well done and theres a kind of knowing humour suffusing the character that was wholy missing in this remake. you really got the sence of an outsider making judgments on us as a species. ok paranoia isnt a big part of the update but that doesnt excuse them not replacing that with a similar device reflecting the new motivation of eco friendliness i.e example of people trashing the planet and the like.

i'd forgotten how likable klaatu was in the original and TBH just shows up how annoying some things in the update are

the meeting with the scientist was central to the first one as it got klaatu his audience with world figures, here he just had tea and listened to some clasical music.

and the ending just doesnt compare.

BlitzKrieg

Disagree, IMHO the kid didn't change everyone asks for help when in a near death situation also he selfishly demanded a big favour shortly afterwards, just another spoilt brat .

Never said it was well handled but thats what they were going for with that scene, It was set up to show that humans when put in near death situations *learn* from their mistakes. Course like you alot of people wouldnt see that because the character was so badly handled before hand and afterwards.

MisterAnarchy

Saw it last night ,its not half as bad as people are making it out to be.
Sure it is full of massive plotholes and lacks logic.
I think some people were expecting huge explosions and intergalactic ray guns and were disappointed that its quite slow moving.

Film issues outside, this is probably the most successful thread I've ever started!!!

constitutionus

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Saw it last night ,its not half as bad as people are making it out to be.
Sure it is full of massive plotholes and lacks logic.
I think some people were expecting huge explosions and intergalactic ray guns and were disappointed that its quite slow moving.

well in fairness the marketing campaign pretty much sells the film on that front.

practically ALL the special effects peices are in the adds.

but from my own perspective its just a bad update. the orignal wasnt exactly action packed either, in fact there IS more action in the update, but that didnt stop the original being a superior film (even if the special effects are crap . lord the strings ! ) and that came down to better story telling.

i mean the whole point of him coming was to deliver a message and he never bothered his hole.

Capt'n Midnight

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Saw it last night ,its not half as bad as people are making it out to be.
Sure it is full of massive plotholes and lacks logic.
I think some people were expecting huge explosions and intergalactic ray guns and were disappointed that its quite slow moving.

Have you seen the original ?