Movies - The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) #1

Ron_Beckett · 11-17-2008, 09:53 AM

Quote:

In the original movie, a flying saucer orbits Earth, and lands in Washington, DC, on the Mall. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) steps out and is shot by a jumpy soldier. Gort (Lock Martin), an indestructible robot steps out of the spacecraft and proceeds to melt all the weapons, including tanks. Later, the Earth comes to realize that Gort has used very little of his power to make this happen.

While lying on the ground, Klaatu orders Gort to stop, and is then taken by the military to a hospital from which he later escapes in order to learn more about this planet called Earth and its human inhabitants. He meets Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Billy (Billy Gray); takes Klaatu on a tour of Washington, DC; and finally stops in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Klaatu reads the words uttered by Lincoln many years ago and realizes that there might be hope for Earth.

The 2008 remake about an alien and his indestructible robot will star Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, Jaden Smith as Jacob, and Kathy Bates. Gort has not been cast at this time and will most likely be created using SFX.

The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still will supposedly remain true to the original movie. However, there is a chance the remake will more likely remain true to the short story upon which the 1951 movie is based. In either case, the alien weaponry seems to have been upgraded. In addition to a city going dark, and a very brief look at the new Gort, the film trailer shows a cloud of black smoke, capable of rapid movement and disintegrating matter on contact.-imdb

I saw that there wasn't a topic for this movie yet. When I first heard about it, I knew instantly that it was a movie I desperately wanted to see. I still want to rent the original 1950's version before seeing it though so hopefully soon.

ROCKSTAR · 11-17-2008, 03:57 PM

Thanks for the thread!

I really want to see this. I've always heard about the origina, and while I haven't seen it, I'm interested in a remake. Maybe the original will be on tv since this will be released soon!

Ron_Beckett · 11-18-2008, 06:27 AM

No problem

I've heard of the original too. While I'm not a fan of black and whites, I might make an exception in this case only so I know what exactly is going on and who the characters are.

I really don't mind a remake in this case though. It's best that one of those classic movies is updated for the generations.

jackiehydelover · 11-18-2008, 07:25 PM

I saw this panel at Comic Con over the summer and it looks pretty good. Can't go wrong with a Keanu Reeves action movie... Especially when he's an alien

LittleMilkJug · 11-19-2008, 04:05 AM

The original is a classic, really good..I'll definately be seeing this at Christmas

jackiehydelover · 11-19-2008, 06:48 PM

I haven't yet seen the original. I think I'm going to have to see it before I see this one. I hate not seeing the original before the remake

Lovie · 12-05-2008, 07:52 AM

I just heard they made a remake. I wonder if after seeing the original, you all will think of it as a classic. It use to come on all the time on TNT or TBS. I am ready to see how this version compares.

Ron_Beckett · 12-11-2008, 07:09 AM

I was able to rent the original last night. Tried renting it last week but it was checked out. Thankfully it wasn't the case this time.

I am not a fan of black and whites but I gotta say that I really enjoyed this one. It was definately one of those great 1950s' UFO classics. I'm really surprised I never heard of this movie before hearing about the remake because I used to research this stuff like crazy.

As the movie comes out Friday, it's the plan to go see it on Saturday.

Kenjigirl · 12-14-2008, 02:15 PM

I saw this last night, and I was actually pretty surprised as to how much I enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting that much from it, but it was entertaining and a pretty good film. In my opinion it is worth seeing in the theatres. And Jayden Smith is just tooo cute for words.

BlindReaper415 · 12-15-2008, 12:03 AM

I can't wait for this movie, it looks awesome

Ron_Beckett · 12-15-2008, 07:05 AM

Here is my review on the movie:

This past week we rented the original version just to see it before hand.

And Saturday we went to the 11:25 showing at Tinseltown. Totally worth the wait!

Keanu Reeves performance of Klaatu, the extraterrestrial entity who has come to Earth, was absolutely incredible. No showed emotion just simple truth of the impending fate that awaited Earth.

Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, one of the scientists did an excellent job. Her passion and emotion that she showed towards this visitor from another world was pure heart. She was the only one to befriend Klaatu despite knowing the truth and she still stayed with him.

Jaden Smith as Jacob Benson, Helen's step-son- this kid has such a bright future ahead of him. I kind of wanted to strangle him in one scene when he called the government on Klaatu's location but at the same time I couldn't blame him since he was acting like any other human would (terrified and afraid of the big bad "alien"). Jaden definately held his own among Connelly and Reeves.

"Gort" was cool. Especially at the end when he broke down into the alien disease and started destroying the human aspects of things. Gort might've destroyed a lot of the human stuff but he was just doing what he had to when feeling threatened.

Because this was an Extraterrestrial related movie there was no doubt I would love it. Definately had some moments that were true to the original 1950s version but at the same time it was easy to notice the differences such as the fact that in this version it was decided on that humanity would be wiped out whereas the original version left it for the ET's waiting on Earths' decision.

One quick thing, granted this was a remake: You would think that with all of the movies out there on UFOs and Aliens, that humans would learn their lesson by now: Our weapons do not work on alien civilizations! If extraterrestrials have a way of coming to our planet, it's pretty obvious that they would have better technology than the weapons we use for human to human warfare.

***dancing in the rain*** · 01-05-2009, 11:36 AM

Thanks for the review. I knew I wanted to watch this ever since I saw its trailer the first time, and from your review, it seems that I'm really going to enjoy it.

Hopefully I'll be able to watch it soon.

J.R. MacReady · 01-05-2009, 06:14 PM

I Saw it on the 12th (My B-Day) with my family and we enjoyed it as well. I Plan on watching the Original soon, as well.

***dancing in the rain*** · 02-12-2009, 02:51 PM

^ So it was a good bday gift

I finally watched it yesderday. It was a really great movie. I agree with R2Roswell, the acting was amazing from all three: Keanu, Jennifer, and Jaden. They all knew how to portray the exact emotions of their characters.

The effects were really good. How "Gort" was literally breaking down the human elements in everything and those little bugs. Amazing.

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