My written reviews have no title apart from naming the film
I’m reviewing. This is almost a shame as I could easily come up with something
clever to title them. For my Star Trek review I could have titled it “Red
Matter – No Matter” or for my X-Files review I could have used the title “I
Want To Believe, But I Only Sort of Do”. …Okay, maybe those aren’t so clever
after all. But surprisingly, if I were to title my review of The Day The Earth
Stood Still, I would probably go with: “Flawed but Fine”.
There is nothing to love about this fairly routine slice of
science fiction, but not much to hate about it either. It all starts out with
an alien landing on earth. His mistake! He doesn’t get three steps out of his
ship before we take him down. Fortunately he comes equipped with a big hulking
robot (or is it a cloud of robot roaches? I’m still not quite sure”).The
American government begins prodding him for information, but the resourceful –
nearly omnipotent – alien escapes, thus begins a race to convince this being
that humanity is worth saving.
That’s right, the alien has come to destroy us all –
surprise, surprise. Actually – almost astonishingly – you might be surprised by
his motivations. This alien does not hate us. He wants nothing from us. What
Klaatu (that’s the Martian’s name) is doing is essentially protecting rare real-estate.
As the aliens plans became more flushed out, I found my self
interested in the character and what he’s doing. Klaatu is not an evil
harvester of blood. He is not a locust-like being moving from planet to planet
to harvest natural resources. He is – in fact – a pragmatist. This sets The Day
the Earth Stood Still apart from virtually all other alien attack films. I have
always said that aliens – in any film – have never had a good reason to come
here and do what they do. The Day the Earth Stood Still forces me to take that
back.
Still, if the alien’s motivations sets this film apart, that
is the only thing that does. On the whole, the film suffers from being far too
routine – particularly towards the end. Giant robot attacks, large structures
being obliterated without a trace. Who really cares? We see this all the time
…. every summer in fact.
Even when exploring humanity the film feels far too
familiar. It tries to do what films like Terminator 2 and The Abyss did, but
with less than stellar results. We never feel like Klaatu has learned anything
about humanity in his experience. He simply up and decides this and then up and
decides that. We are also never given a clear answer on what we can do to
change – or how we need to change. We just need to, and the film moves on.
In addition to the flaws is some of the most bizarre casting
decisions I’ve ever seen. Interestingly enough, the only casting decision that
feels right is Keanu Reeves as Klaatu. Granted the role is not terribly hard to
play (the man, or being, has virtually no lines. And those he does have are
barely above a whisper.) But Reeves comes off as distinctly alien. Any other
acting talent would likely have tried too hard to do this. Reeves pulls it off
naturally.
Apart from that, the rest of the cast just feels off. We
have Kathy Bates as the secretary of defense. Bates? Really? To make this even
more bizarre they have her dressed up in old grandma clothes in every scene - Like
she had just come from a flea market or something. Try as I may I just couldn’t
see her as the secretary of defense. She just came off as Kathy Bates doing a
bit part.
Then we have John
Cleese in a cameo role of a professor. One of the oddest cameos I’ve ever seen
in my life. Why Cleese? He’s not being funny and he’s not saying anything of
interest. Anyone could have played this part.
The last of the flaws comes in the form of the most
anticlimactic endings you may ever have seen. I can’t even honestly say the
film has an ending. It feels like someone came in and stopped the movie before
we find out how it ends.
There are a lot of things wrong with this film, but none of
it’s flaws go to the core. When it comes right down to it this is an average
science fiction film, but still on the good side of average. A viewing of T2 or
Wrath of Khan will likely make me forget the whole thing, but as the film
stands, it truly is “flawed but fine”.
