The Day The Earth Stood Still-- Remake

[The Cooler King]

I went to see Hancock the other day, and the trailer for the Keanu Reeves remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still was in front. The trailer is up here. Looks interesting enough, even if the main message of the original lookes like it's been changed. The last shot in the trailer does seem to indicate that they've kept Gort pretty much the same, at least.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Gort = win.

However, Keanu looks like he's playing Neo again and the massive black nanotech cloud of death thing looks a tad excessive in the techno-wank area.

Plus, this story works better in Cold War settings.

[Oskuro]

However, Keanu looks like he's playing Neo again

Precisely the point, they cast him because he can portray an emotionless being so well

[Admiral Valdemar]

That is true. I just can't see him as being an alien so much as Neo with a spaceship and a loyal killer robot.

[Vympel]

That teaser trailer needed more robot.

[Admiral Valdemar]

It should have opened with Gort vaping an MP or National Guardsman.

Then followed by two minutes of Gort vaping various other people and objects.

The perfect movie, and no Neo.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

First of all, the stinger glimpse of Gort at the end is definitely pretty cool.

and the massive black nanotech cloud of death thing looks a tad excessive in the techno-wank area.

Any more techno-wank than Klaatu in the original claiming a single nine-foot robot was unstoppable and could reduce the Earth to a cinder?

I'm been apprehensive at best about this film ever since I first heard about it, mainly because it just seems so unnecessary due to the original's early Cold War topicality: the remake's update to the threat being Man Against Nature just seems a bit insignificant in comparison.

The release date and overall tone of the teaser is slightly relieving, hinting that maybe 20th Century Fox isn't going for a typical "opening Weekend blockbuster" with car chases through DC and a money-burning giant robot tearing shit up.

I'm also apprehensive concerning the lead casting of both Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly: Reeves simply because he just isn't that good in serious, dramatic roles (because his whole "whoa" factor overwhelms whatever character he plays); and Connelly because I personally think she's a dull, sleepy actress. Admittedly I did kind of like what little of Keanu as Klaatu was shown, so maybe he'll end up surprising me.

Basically, fingers crossed on my end.

[NecronLord]

Any more techno-wank than Klaatu in the original claiming a single nine-foot robot was unstoppable and could reduce the Earth to a cinder?

All he had to do was turn around, reprogram the ship to still all electrical signals in human brains... yeah, that's about all he had to do. Presumably he'd then huck a few asteroids at the planet for good measure.


Now, onto the trailer; what the fuck is this black stuff?

[VT-16]

Hmm, black nano-tech cloud, black Gort. Let me guess, Gort turns into the nano-cloud, right?

[Sidewinder]

Plus, this story works better in Cold War settings.

I was going to point out that we're currently engaged in a conflict similar to the Cold War, i.e., between the "Western" world and Islamists. Then I remembered that during the Cold War, the Soviets did NOT want to start WW3 because they knew a nuclear would affect them in a VERY BAD way, while the Islamists DO want to start WW3.

Anyways, I don't think the moral of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' will work on today's audience. Back then, people were more religious, and were willing to trust in God (or in the film's case, Klaatu and Gort) to protect them. Nowadays, people are VERY DISAPPOINTED in God for failing them, and are unlikely to believe in the moral that human nations become totally disarmed to avoid becoming a threat to other peoples, and that we can trust in an objective and neutral, but powerful, force (one beyond human control) to defend them from aggression. Besides, UN peacekeepers (I assume Gort symbolizes one, and the organization Klaatu serves symbolizes an idealized UN) are now seen as impotent and incompetent at best, criminal at worst; the audience will likely cheer when the alien who came to Earth to say, "I represent a higher power! Abandon your aggressive instincts and the weapons with which you express them!" is killed.

[NecronLord]

I really don't think Katuu's authority is anything like the UN. I haven't seen the UN bomb Israel/Iran flat for having nuclear weapons.

[Typhonis 1]

IfI remeber correctly wasn`t Gor supposed to be the aliens version of a police officer. Designed to keep the peace between the different races?

[Zac Naloen]

I like the trailer a lot.

Now whether film lives up to it i'll have to wait and see. But so far I'm sold on the idea at least.

[NecronLord]

IfI remeber correctly wasn`t Gor supposed to be the aliens version of a police officer. Designed to keep the peace between the different races?

Yeah. The robots were a supposedly unnacountable authority that operated according to some constitution, and seemed to have stupendously far reaching powers.

[DarthShady]

Great trailer.

I haven't seen the original. So I was wondering, what is that large ball thingie?

[Ted C]

and the massive black nanotech cloud of death thing looks a tad excessive in the techno-wank area.

Any more techno-wank than Klaatu in the original claiming a single nine-foot robot was unstoppable and could reduce the Earth to a cinder?

Smilies aside, I never thought that Gort was going to walk around the entire planet and personally vaporize every human in the original. Given the power demonstrated by Klaatu's ship (to selectively control electricity distribution planet-wide), I always figured that Gort would just commandeer the ship, take off, and use superweapons of some kind to destroy the Earth from orbit. Supposedly Klaatu came visiting in one of the "police" robot ships, anyway.

[Sidewinder]

The robots were a supposedly unnacountable authority that operated according to some constitution, and seemed to have stupendously far reaching powers.

IIRC, the censorship laws at the time the original was made, didn't allow scenes where law enforcement officers were portrayed negatively, e.g., stymied (the criminal gets away with murder and other crimes) or corrupt. The people THEN might buy the idea that Gort and his breathren are incorruptible and, therefore, can be held unaccountable by those they're supposed to protect. The people NOW are too damn cynical to buy the "incorruptible" part, thanks to too many news reports on dirty cops, and too many sci-fi stories on "good" robots that harm humans due to a design/manufacturing error or outright reprogramming by the villain. They will NOT accept the idea that we're supposed to surrender all our means of aggression (which we'll see as means of self-defense, as with the controversy over gun control in the US) and submit to a power that's unaccountable to us, trusting that this power will protect us and NOT abuse its position.

[NecronLord]

The robots were a supposedly unnacountable authority that operated according to some constitution, and seemed to have stupendously far reaching powers.

IIRC, the censorship laws at the time the original was made, didn't allow scenes where law enforcement officers were portrayed negatively, e.g., stymied (the criminal gets away with murder and other crimes) or corrupt. The people THEN might buy the idea that Gort and his breathren are incorruptible and, therefore, can be held unaccountable by those they're supposed to protect. The people NOW are too damn cynical to buy the "incorruptible" part, thanks to too many news reports on dirty cops, and too many sci-fi stories on "good" robots that harm humans due to a design/manufacturing error or outright reprogramming by the villain. They will NOT accept the idea that we're supposed to surrender all our means of aggression (which we'll see as means of self-defense, as with the controversy over gun control in the US) and submit to a power that's unaccountable to us, trusting that this power will protect us and NOT abuse its position.

You know who doesn't give a shit?

Me.

Seriously, the very idea of this remake is an abomination, as far as I'm concerned. If I had my way, the writers and producers and funders would have cause to get out of the film-making business right the hell now. I'll clarify things about the original, which was a pretty much perfect film, especially for its time, but don't expect me to endorse the remake. I don't care what a modern audience expects a new version to be like, because I disapprove of the very idea of a remake.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Smilies aside, I never thought that Gort was going to walk around the entire planet and personally vaporize every human in the original.

No, I've decided. They need to make this. I'd watch it.

[Molyneux]

Smilies aside, I never thought that Gort was going to walk around the entire planet and personally vaporize every human in the original.

No, I've decided. They need to make this. I'd watch it.

Given an estimated global population of 6 billion, and assuming that Gort can vaporize one human per second, every second, without stopping, it would take him...

Approximately 190 years to vaporize everyone. That's assuming that no humans have any children during that time period, except to replace those humans who die of old age while waiting for Gort to get to them.

That would be a fairly long movie.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Good. Then I'd get my money's worth for once.

[Molyneux]

Good. Then I'd get my money's worth for once.

You want a nearly 200-year-long film for $10?

[NeoGoomba]

You know who doesn't give a shit?

Me.

Seriously, the very idea of this remake is an abomination, as far as I'm concerned. If I had my way, the writers and producers and funders would have cause to get out of the film-making business right the hell now. I'll clarify things about the original, which was a pretty much perfect film, especially for its time, but don't expect me to endorse the remake. I don't care what a modern audience expects a new version to be like, because I disapprove of the very idea of a remake.

Seconded. Not only is it a terrible cast to have assembled, theres no fucking NEED to remake it. The wave of destruction thing shown in the previews already shows that they are seriously altering things, and if they are doing so, why even bother with a remake when they could try and make something, oh, I don't know, original.

[Patrick Degan]

I'm inclined to agree. Sounds like the makers of this "update" have forgotten the whole point of the original movie. Not that they could be expected to care, of course. Casting Keannu Reeves as Klaatu is simply a sick joke.

[Darth Ruinus]

Is it really a remake if they alter large parts of the story? That what it looks like they did here.