Review: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

All the pieces are there. The Day the Earth Stood Still could have soared into becoming a highly iconic remake of a highly iconic Sci-Fi film of the 50s. However it is a clear example of a big budget film that is afraid to step in the deep end of the pool. I am not saying it is a bad movie, in the contrary it is a highly enjoyable film, which I highly recommend if you are looking for good old fun. As a remake of a classic it is what War of the Worlds should have been and it does not even carry the name of Steven Spielberg in its credits; yet it underachieves enormously and thus it is reduced to merely an entertaining film with some social discourse rather than a film about social problems that also happens to be fun.

The plot is simple to follow and avoids complications. Aliens land on Earth. Klaatu, (Keanu Reaves) one of the aliens informs US Secretary of War (Kathy Bates) “It is not your planet”; referring to the fact that it belongs to all living things within it. Thus he plans to kill every human by using a giant automaton called GORT. That way humans wont pollute the oceans, tear down the forest or clog up the atmosphere in CO₂. A military biologist, (Jennifer Connelly) must convince Klaatu that humans can change in order to save the race, and more importantly her late husband’s ex-wife’s child. (I almost expected her to break into Sadam Hussein’s song “[We] Can Change” from South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut, while attempting to do so). She is such a progressive woman that she even cares for a child that is totally not related to her in any way that’s understandable to the average nuclear family.

As far as the directing goes, well there is not much to it. It is your average Sci-Fi end of the world thriller and it offers nothing new. The same goes for the acting. We have seen Keanu in other completely non-expressive roles and I can say that here we see him at his best, which is not much. Jenifer Connelly plays the same progressive woman we saw in Blood Diamond with a hint of her lost love trauma we saw in Ang Lee’s Hulk where she also plays a military biologist. The photography offers some nice backlighting and ominous shadows where it is required to do so and the music creates suspense right where it has to. Thus it offers little that we had not seen before in countless other movies. Where does it achieve? Well surprisingly for a big high concept film like this one, its charm is in the writing and its intention.

The Day The Earth Stood Still adapts the 50s classic perfectly onto modern times. The 50s version was about not blowing up each other into smithereens with nukes. This one is about not consuming our planet out of recourses with our low mileage SUVs. Like the 50s version it maintains a naïve perspective on its dissertation of current affairs and intents mostly to entertain the masses and maybe touch a few in the audience. In this way it is a perfect adaptation of a classic. It even keeps the automaton’s ridiculous look and preposterous name for a killing machine.

So if you were too lazy to sit through Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, or you want simple harmless entertainment for one afternoon then this is the perfect movie for you. I highly recommend it though I wish Hollywood tried harder next time.

Futurama: Boldly Going Where No (well very few) Cancelled Shows Have Gone Before

Cancelled science fiction shows have a way of perfectly working to come back as movies. Firefly came back with Serenity, X files came back with The X files Movie, and Sex and the City came back with Sex and the City earlier this summer. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. For Futurama, it is working.

Futurama was created back in 1999 by Matt Groenig (The creator of The Simpsons). It ran for four seasons and was an animated series about a guy named Fry who was frozen by cryogenics in 1999, and woke up in the year 3000. The show chronicled Fry's adventures for the next few years as he settled into New New York and his new job as a delivery boy for an interstellar delivery service.

The show was ripe with great humor, most of it being clever puns on our modern day activities, or great references to famous sci-fi movies or television shows (often Star Trek or Star Wars). Then it got cancelled, but DVD sales have led to it coming back in a new form - four feature length 'straight to DVD' films, which constitute as a 5th season and will hopefully lead to Futurama being picked back up for television broadcast for more seasons in the near future.

The most recent series to make a film based on DVD sales was the animated series Family Guy. Several years after being cancelled, they released a straight to DVD film which did so well that Family Guy was picked up for four more seasons. This is the plan for Futurama.

The movies are titled as follows: Bender's Big Score (Released), The Beast With a Billion Backs (Released), Bender's Game (Bender's Game), and Into the Wild Green Yonder (February).

Each film picks up immediately after its predecessor, making it very similar to a live action one hour drama on television. The most recent film - Bender's Game hits the shelves for purchase today, so go check it out. It should be pretty funny, though I recommend you see the previous two first.

Here's the trailer for Bender's Game

Upcoming DREAMWORKS Film: Monsters Vs Aliens

Monsters vs Aliens is next years DREAMWORKS film. It will be the first animated film to go to theaters that is 100% 3D and made for it properly (no more throwing stuff at the screen). The animation and rendering looks simply fantastic, and based on the leaked trailer (which is no longer available online, the premise and jokes are quite funny too.

Here is a synopisis according to Wikipedia:

When California girl Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) is unexpectedly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall (An inch short of being 50 feet tall, a joke on Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) and is instantly labeled a "monster" named Ginormica. The military jumps into action, and she is captured and held in a secret government compound. The world learns that the military has been quietly rounding up other monsters over the years. This ragtag group consists of the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (voiced by Hugh Laurie); the macho Dagon the Missing Link (voiced by Will Arnett); the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen); and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement time is cut short however, when a mysterious alien robot named Gallaxhar (voiced by Rainn Wilson) lands on Earth and begins storming the country.
As a last resort, under the guidance of General W.R. Monger (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), on a desperate order from The President (voiced by Stephen Colbert), the motley crew of Monsters is called into action to combat the aliens and save the world from imminent destruction.

This trailer also seems to lampoon every single one of its cast members current or past careers as well. Hugh Laurie (HOUSE) plays a Dr. Will Arnett plays a wierdo who is quirky. Seth Rogen plays a blob who is basically Seth Rogen animated (as all his roles are. Kiefer Sutherland (24) plays a war expert Badass. Stephen Colbert plays the president (a nod to the Stephen Colbert for President Campaign).

Based on the trailer, the film is fast paced with a joke a minute, with great rendering and animation. The only oddity is the human male characters faces look a bit... too... caricatured. Almost like MAD Magazine. It seems to be a hilarious take on the B sci-fi movies, and a fresh source of humor that has not been seen in animated films for a while, and before this only seen in Leslie Neilsen movies.

I'll check it out.

Monsters Vs. Aliens hits theaters May 2009