The Day the Earth Stood still
I went to watch it today with Zed:
It was watchable and good in the entertainment sense but by no means perfect, far from it actually. Most of the problems it had were very much avoidable too and the sort of thing that is too common in modern day movies.
Spoilers:
The Good:
- Watchable all the way
- No crazy stuff that kills your suspension of disbelieve like a normal person jumping out of a building and suriving, etc.
- Extremely strong begining that very much set the mood.
The bad:
- Blatant product placement that really got too much. It was more subtle than say a Michael Bay movie (X-Box, anyone?) as they tried to merge it into the scene but it was still very much in your face and distracting.
- The kid was extremely annoying and even though he had a defined purpose in the film, it wasn't very well executed either so putting up with him doesn't pay off at all.
- The bit that was supposed to 'convince' Klaatu that humanity was worth it was hopelessly executed and unbelievable. His only exposure to humanity's 'better side' was the kid and his mother and frankly, there was a lot of selfishness there than goodness and its not convincing that after all that, the kid crying at his father's grave with his mother was enough of convincing Klaatu that humanity has hope. They should have expanded that bit with the professor guy instead or some better act of selflessness like someone sacrificing himself for others. For me this was the movie's biggest deterrent as it was a flaw at the heart of the plot.
- The movie had a lot of potential in portraying its message of where humanity was going but it was very hard to take that seriously when you get an in your face McDonald's or LG mobile product placement.
Overall, it was an ok movie and watchable but it wasn't great and many of the flaws are cringe worthy and all too familiar in modern Hollywood films. It's biggest flaw was at the core of its plot with how the annoying kid and his mom showed klaatu the better side humanity in such an unimaginative and unconvincing way. This could technically make it a bad movie even though I didn't mind it as much because overall, I was entertained BUT I can see why someone could walk away hating it due to this alone.
