the Mind’s Chew Toy

Synopsis:

Klaatu (Reeves), a humanoid alien, arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar. A remake of the 1951 film.

Our Thoughts:

Usually, a film wants a buzz when it’s release date is still more than half a year away. Unfortunately for the upcoming remake of the ‘51 sci-fi classic, the Keanu Reeves-starrer The Day The Earth Stood Still is getting nothing so far but negative buzz.

With fans of the original film crying that Keanu and Hollywood are going to destroy their beloved classic, I figured, as someone who’s never seen the original, that I’d jump in with my two cents.

Let’s start with all the whining over Keanu. A lot of his naysayers will tell you that he can’t act his way out of a paper bag - and then these same people will go off and enjoy the latest Vin Diesel flick. All I’m saying is, there’s no accounting for taste.

Personally, I think Diesel is one of the worst actors still in business today - but has that stopped people from clamoring to see him play another thug? Nope. As for Keanu, I’m not his biggest fan, but every time I think he’s down and out, he comes back with a hit (like The Matrix (1999)) to change my mind.

As for remakes, well, that’s just inevitable, so get over it. People are saying Hollywood is running out of ideas, but I think it’s a lot simpler. To the execs at Hollywood, it’s all about the bottom line. If a film has developed a cult following over the years, why wouldn’t they want to milk as much as they can from it?

And, if the movie tends to lend itself to an update that includes the latest hot button cause (in this case, changing Klaatu’s message from “stop killing each other” to “stop killing your planet”), then it’s all the better! Why wouldn’t Hollywood want to go ahead with a remake?

With Keanu’s recent success with sci-fi, it’s only natural they would pick him to star in the film.

The only thing I can’t figure out - why Scott Derrickson? While The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (2005) was decently done, it’s quite a leap from that into redoing a sci-fi classic. Guess he knew the right people.

Of course, all this backlash on the remake could help the film - after all, the same was said about War Of The Worlds (2005), and look at how much that ended up grossing!

But will the combo of sci-fi directing newcomer Derrickson and the much hated Keanu be too much for audiences to overlook? Or will Keanu be able to pull another one out of his hat and throw all the doubters for a loop once again?

Basically, is The Day The Earth Stood Still going to turn out more like The Matrix (1999) or Johnny Mnemonic?

Guess we’ll have to wait for December to find out.