The Day The Earth Stood Still — Hold the Logic
I don’t know what it is, but any time Keanu Reeves comes out with a new movie, I immediately get this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. In my eyes, a role either calls for Keanu or it doesn’t . If you need a weird, aloof, gothish freaky person, it’s a Keanu role. So I guess an alien with no understanding of human emotion or behavior in a human clone body pretty much screams for him.
Admittedly, apart from the iconic images that are part of pop culture I remember little from the original Day the Earth Stood Still. So the plot, in a sense, was fresh for me. In essence I guess my skeptic sensors hit overdrive when I go into critical mode for a movie like this. First, I can release my mind enough to buy the premise, which I was prepared to do, then I start having to ask the questions. In this case, if you’re an alien race with the power to basically just shut down all human electronics, weapons, and so on, what’s the real purpose of doing it with a hundred foot high giant human formed robot? Seems like a lot of trouble doesn’t it?
Also, we have a situation where a consortium of alien civilizations want to come and communicate with the human race. They take one of their representatives and give him a biological human being clone body so as not to “alarm” the human race with a bizarre or scary alien looking monster. So, with such genetic care taken not to alarm us, how to do they greet us? By screaming their alien space ship into the solar system looking like a massive planet killing asteroid on a collision course with the Earth then landing in a grand, flashy manner in the middle of the largest city on Earth and then sending the giant hundred foot robot out to “welcome” the living bejeezus out of us.
Now, let’s take a break in this review to talk about PETA and militant Abortion Rights Activists. For those unfamiliar, PETA is the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. When I refer to militant Anti-abortionists, I’m not talking about protestors, but those that take it upon themselves to bomb clinics and murder doctors who perform abortions.
I am very sympathetic the philosophy of what PETA is trying to achieve. Basically, that animals are living beings and it is only civil not to out and out harm or cause unnecessary pain or injury to them. However, I believe that at the highest ranks of PETA exists some borderline psychotic creative minds that despite well-intentions take every public action they can to make themselves look like a bunch of crazy nutjobs and make decision after decision to show a public face that causes more harm to their cause then sympathy.
With militant anti-abortionists there’s just that complete and utter insanity that murder, death and destruction of people and property will prove their case. In other words, they believe that the ends justify the means. It’s an egotistical belief that what they perceive as “murder” is wrong unless they personally perpetrate it.
Now imagine Keanu represents Galactic Militant PETA. Now I may be treading into semi-spoiler territory for The Day the Earth Stood Still, but really nothing you couldn’t surmise from watching of the trailers, but you have been warned. Probably about a paragraph too late, but you have been.
So basically, as a skeptic, I have some serious logical hurdles with this movie that are hard to overcome. Earth is one of the handful of planets in the galaxy that is ripe to sustain life. In order to preserve it, we have to…wait for it…wait for it…DESTROY ALL LIFE ON THE PLANET.
Let’s finish the plot summary with film metaphor: and now the only hope for mankind is if the T-800 machine can somehow make a connection with the true human spirit by experiencing the human condition by observing and being a part of the special relationship between John Conner and Sarah Conner.
If you’re willing to just accept some basic inexplicable insane logical justifications for the events that unfold, you’re actually liable to have an enjoyable 90 minutes or so in the theater. Beyond that, it’s a tough pill to swallow. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some great performances, cool ideas and pretty slick special effects that work to bring the film into a nice little science fiction package by the time it all comes to a close. In the end though, I have a lot of personal issues with the the story line and how it unfolds.
First, the aliens have had an investigator, disguised as a normal human being, that has lived amongst the humans for 70 years. When the time comes, he is tapped for his “report” on whether the human race is worth saving. He explains that over 70 years he has learned to come to love the human race and wants to finish his existence on this planet among them. But ultimately his report’s conclusion is “Fuck ‘em. I may love them but they’re too stupid to live.” Yet we have the T-800 (sorry back to the movie metaphor) that spends about 48 hours around some mom and his kid and he has a change of heart.
Now for me, as a long term Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fan, I have to admit that the high point of the film is the surprisingly top billed (in the opening credits at least) supporting role played by John Cleese as a Nobel Prize winning social scientist. His role is quite brief, but is honestly one of the best performances I’ve ever seen him give. A real highlight of the film. Cheers to Mr. Cleese! Worth the price of admission. Comes to make me wish we had seen him sink his chops into a tad more serious roles over the years.
In any case, as much as I enjoyed certain elements of this flick I’m going to have to say pass on Day the Earth Stood Still. There is some coolness here and there and I found myself reaching out to the movie emotionally throughout in an attempt to connect with it just enough to sell it to myself, but I couldn’t do it. I can swallow tons of outrageous science fiction premises, but when you start throwing logical behavior out the window, you lose me. So bookmark this for one of those bored Sunday afternoon on cable type of affairs. Kinda like the original these days!
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Tags: Movie Reviews, Sci-Fi
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6 Responses to “The Day The Earth Stood Still — Hold the Logic”
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December 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Nicely put, I have to say I think most of the movies that have Reeves at the front are “renters.” I will probably watch it when I can stream it or borrow from someone else.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I refuse to watch this movie. As a HUGE fan of horrible early Sci-Fi, I do not need to see any of this remake crap. I will not even waste my bandwidth on NetFlix for it.
Mickulz
December 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
P.S. That was sarcasm.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I know it’s been over 20 years, but I CAN NOT see a Keanu movie without thinking Bill and Ted.
Still wating for Bill and Ted part 3. Pity George Carlin’s dead. Great flicks. I might have to a do a piece on them.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Hey thanks for the comment on my small blog. I do love Robotech. Hey I agree with your assessment of Keanu Reeves for movie roles. I thanks for the great review of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”
December 17th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Thanks for visiting epwait. Scuzz is our resident critic and I’m just a big Wiiitard =)
I’ll hook you up with a link when I get a chance as I also enjoy Robotech.