Lights Off

The Day The Earth Stood Still, a 1951 classic Sci-Fi flick with Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal was recently the victim of the Hollywood ‘remake’ syndrome, a condition so hideous as to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. The new version, now out on DVD stars Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, and Kathy Bates, plus a fortune in ’special effects’.The story borrows heavily from Edmund H. North and Harry Bates’ original treatment, but given an updated twist. The military and American leaders are even more arrogant and gung-ho than their 1950’s counterparts. Unfortunately, their intelligence level hasn’t improved much since then, according to screenwriter David Scarpa.

For those fortunate enough to enjoy the original, this film may be very disappointing. Reeves plays the alien Klaatu, and he pretty much looks like he’s sleepwalking through most of this. Even our favorite robot from the original has changed, Hollywood opting for a far bigger than lifesize replica of the original Gort. Must be an ego thing. Can’t have a slightly taller than man size robot kicking the army’s behind, can we?

What’s really disappointing is that the cult favorite phrase, ‘Klaatu Barada Nikto’, the line delivered to Gort in the original film was left out of this one. How dare they!? That’s like cutting ‘Frankly My Dear’ out of ‘Gone With The Wind’ (and I pray they never make a remake of that film). Connelly, even with all her charming looks, did little to take my mind off of how god awful this film was. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s son Jaden Smith’s little boy Jacob character was a little annoying, and I hope it isn’t an indication of what to expect in his next role as (get this) ‘The Kung Fu Kid”, which supposedly starting filming in Beijing recently. Yes, can you believe a remake of ‘The Karate Kid’?

Either they are dried up creatively, or just plain lazy there in Hollywood these days. Someone came up with the bright idea to make a ‘Green Lantern’ feature film. Lantern, as in DC comics. Why not just make the whole Justice League Of America film (for those of you not familiar with DC comics, the Justice League Of America had all the super heroes from Superman, Batman , Wonder Woman, and others in it). My guess is. they get an old Spiderman script, rewrite it to make it applicable to whatever ’super hero’ it is, and then make a film with lots of pretty colors and effects. This works fine for people with lots of dead brain cells, and that’s fine. It’s only when they start messing with classic films like “Stood Still” that I get fumed.

In all fairness, the feature film was not all bad, if you hadn’t seen the original. It follows in the mode of the latest action Sci-Fi flicks, which should please some. In the end however, it is over quite abruptly, and with some unanswered questions. This was forgivable in the original. Much less so in this. With the prices at the box office much higher than in the1950’s, we should expect much better product than this.

I rate this three out of five stars. (fair-good)

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