The Day the Earth Stood Still

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

**Contains Spoilers!**

I went to see the new remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and while the special effects are better than in the original, the meaning of the story was changed significantly. In the original, mankind was in trouble from the aliens when their representative was shot after trying to offer mankind a gift from the stars; in the remake, mankind is pre-determined by their research to be not worth preserving because of what man is doing to the earth. In other words, mankind is evil because he has a mind and can use it to his benefit.

I cannot even say that love saves the world in this version, which would be tacky enough, because though mankind is not erased from the earth by the end, he is not permitted to use his machinery to his benefit, because the aliens from above have declared that mankind is destroying the planet. He is being wiped out entirely, with no trace of man or his works being left as evidence for his existence at all -- in order to save the planet from man and his mind's ability to live in a civilized world. With all of the machinery turned off by the end, this would have to be taken as an act of war on the part of the alien civilizations. That is, to reduce mankind back to before the stone ages is such an evil ending that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. In this version, it's not even self-defense on the part of the aliens, except tangentially to their desire to wipe out mankind, and man acts against them before knowing this.

Don't go see it, unless you want to see the environmentalist's dream come true.

[01503]

Don't go see it, unless you want to see the environmentalist's dream come true.

Well, not really. We survive. So they are not done quite yet.

[FrolicsomeQuipster]

After which the aliens blow themselves up when they discover their machinery kills small hyperspace slugs.

Edited December 16, 2008 by FrolicsomeQuipster

[John McVey]

Don't go see it, unless you want to see the environmentalist's dream come true.

Thank you, Tom, you've saved me $20, as I had planned to go see it after seeing the trailer (and I have seen the original). Now I'll wait till it reaches "new to weekly" and cost $1/wk at the video store, if I bother at all.

JJM

[Maximus]

I'll stick with my original version on DVD. I can't envision Keanu as Klaatu. Save your money and get Forbidden Planet on DVD, the other classic from the '50's, and the debut of "Robbie the Robot."

[brian0918]

Yeeesh... that's pretty damn awful... oh well, at least I'm saved another Keanu Reeves performance. Thanks for enduring that for all of us Tom.

[D'kian]

I'm reminded of a dreadful Trek ep where they find out Warp drive is destroying the Galaxy. So the problem isn't the Borg, the Dominion or even the Romulans. No, it's the Federation zooming around the Galaxy that's a threat

I saw the original some years ago. I can't say I cared much for it, or remembered much of it, past the setting for Klaatu's initial meeting with the army, which has been copied countless times in serious movies and parodies since then.

There was a TZ ep, one of the new versions in the 80s, with aliens that are concerned about the war-like ways of humans, who then give us a chance to mend our ways. The major powers broker a world-wide peace treaty, whereupon we learn the aliens think we were not war-like enough. So the peace treaty dooms humanity to extinction. Silly, but better, or at elast different, than the suual love thine enemy crap.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it now: Good visual SF has moved to TV. Series like Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine (most of it), Babylon 5, Stargate (both of them), provide better stories, better drama and, ultimately, a lot mroe material than the movies do. One reason is that TV SF doesn't aim for a general audience, but for SF fans. So it winds up less topical and more timeless (that is to say, it's not written for its time), and it doesn't get dumbed down as much as the movies. the special effects are of lesser quality, naturally, due to both the size fo the screen and the budget. But with continuing advances in computer graphics they keep getting better (my beef with Stargate is the sets are too limited).

[kainscalia]

As a note on that, there was one very interesting episode in Star Trek The Next Generation called "Man of the People", which is a huge metaphor about what happens when you adopt the philosophy of "The Ends Justify The Means." It's one of my favorite episodes, along with "Lal."

I'm reminded of a dreadful Trek ep where they find out Warp drive is destroying the Galaxy. So the problem isn't the Borg, the Dominion or even the Romulans. No, it's the Federation zooming around the Galaxy that's a threat

I saw the original some years ago. I can't say I cared much for it, or remembered much of it, past the setting for Klaatu's initial meeting with the army, which has been copied countless times in serious movies and parodies since then.

There was a TZ ep, one of the new versions in the 80s, with aliens that are concerned about the war-like ways of humans, who then give us a chance to mend our ways. The major powers broker a world-wide peace treaty, whereupon we learn the aliens think we were not war-like enough. So the peace treaty dooms humanity to extinction. Silly, but better, or at elast different, than the suual love thine enemy crap.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it now: Good visual SF has moved to TV. Series like Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine (most of it), Babylon 5, Stargate (both of them), provide better stories, better drama and, ultimately, a lot mroe material than the movies do. One reason is that TV SF doesn't aim for a general audience, but for SF fans. So it winds up less topical and more timeless (that is to say, it's not written for its time), and it doesn't get dumbed down as much as the movies. the special effects are of lesser quality, naturally, due to both the size fo the screen and the budget. But with continuing advances in computer graphics they keep getting better (my beef with Stargate is the sets are too limited).

[Matus1976]

**Contains Spoilers!**

I went to see the new remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and while the special effects are better than in the original, the meaning of the story was changed significantly. In the original, mankind was in trouble from the aliens when their representative was shot after trying to offer mankind a gift from the stars; in the remake, mankind is pre-determined by their research to be not worth preserving because of what man is doing to the earth. In other words, mankind is evil because he has a mind and can use it to his benefit.

I cannot even say that love saves the world in this version, which would be tacky enough, because though mankind is not erased from the earth by the end, he is not permitted to use his machinery to his benefit, because the aliens from above have declared that mankind is destroying the planet...

So billions die from starvation because mechanized agriculture grinds to a halt? America's agricultural industry alone makes about 1/2 of the worlds food supply. Did all machines stop? All cars? Lathes? hand powered drills? Did nobody say, 'hey, why don't you just give us fusion reactors you jerks!' to these aliens? Their 'become cave men or die' attitude certainly is an act of war.

[Matus1976]

I'm reminded of a dreadful Trek ep where they find out Warp drive is destroying the Galaxy. So the problem isn't the Borg, the Dominion or even the Romulans. No, it's the Federation zooming around the Galaxy that's a threat

I haven't yet watched through the old trek episodes of TOS, but I caught one the other day which featured a planet with two major warring continents that had developed a 'computerized' form of simulated warfare. At the end of the battles they would shuffle the required number of casualties into these incinerators. They end up holding spock hostage, kirk comes and kicks serious ass, blows up the incinerators of one of the groups ensuring a full scale war will erupt. To their complaint against this, he says "war should be real, and ugly, and devestating, so you'll want to avoid it" Prime Directive? no where in sight...

I've been forcing myself to watch through ST:TNG episodes for research as I make my 3D model of the Enterprise D (pics here - http://www.matus1976.com/3d/Star_Trek/Ente...D/in_progress) which are hardly more that feel good communist propaganda half the time. In one episode in TNG, an asteroid is heading toward a planet and they debate doing anything about it since it would 'violate' the prime directive, the natural course of development of a civilization. Moral relativism run amok. In another an alien impregnates Deanna in the middle of the night. They hold a conference, Worf says "I think we should kill it!" a reasonable reaction, I would think, given the circumstances, Deanna says "NO its MY BABY I'm Keeping IT!" Wtf? some alien parasite is growing inside you and you want to keep it?

Edited December 18, 2008 by Matus1976

[JMeganSnow]

The trailers made it look so awful that I spent at least 20 minutes convincing my housemate NOT to go see it. Ugh. Although I was expecting some sort of Jesus-like sacrifice on the part of the "if you die, the earth survives" chick.

If some asinine jerktard aliens presume to present ME with a choice like that, my only response is going to be "Go to hell."

And how the hell did the aliens acquire so much power if it wasn't through some sort of technological civilization? Did they just magic it out of their ass?

Idiocy.

That makes me curious, though, when did the original come out? Because I'm now reminded of Heinlein's novel Have Space Suit, Will Travel, in which humans are "put on trial" by powerful aliens and that's basically what the protagonists say: "Go to hell!" It makes me wonder whether Heinlein wrote his story as a rebuttal to this kind of plot.

Edited December 18, 2008 by JMeganSnow

[Maximus]

The original came out in 1951.

[D'kian]

I haven't yet watched through the old trek episodes of TOS, but I caught one the other day which featured a planet with two major warring continents that had developed a 'computerized' form of simulated warfare.

That's one of the best.

I've been forcing myself to watch through ST:TNG episodes for research as I make my 3D model of the Enterprise D (pics here - http://www.matus1976.com/3d/Star_Trek/Ente...D/in_progress) which are hardly more that feel good communist propaganda half the time.

there's some of that. To begin with the Federation allegedly uses no money, but they never say what they sue for trade then. But, yes, the philosophy is altruistic nearly the whole time. And there are Prime Directive idiocies aplenty, like letting a whole planet die rather than to interfere with it.

But they did come up with some great episodes now and again. In one where they capture a Borg drone, Picard has to come up in defense fo individualism, and the drone himself becomes an individual. And although the holodeck plot device was massively abused, they did have some interesting holodeck episodes. IN one the Moriarty hologram traps Data, Picard and, I believe, Barkley, in a holodeck simulation he makes them think it's real. Data eventually discovers, by objective evidence, that it is a simulation. No bull about reality being the illusion or anything like that (aside from a comment near the end).

[JMeganSnow]

*Blows moderator whistle* FWEEET!

If you wanna talk about Star Trek, I think there's a thread for that around here somewhere.

[Thales]

I'm reminded of a dreadful Trek ep where they find out Warp drive is destroying the Galaxy. So the problem isn't the Borg, the Dominion or even the Romulans. No, it's the Federation zooming around the Galaxy that's a threat

Had to be the worst episode. I think there was another one that had endangered species in it, also pathetic.

Edit: Addendum:

Oops, didn't see the moderator whistle.

As to The Day The Earth Stood Still, the original version was very well done, in that it appealed to reason very strongly, even if the message was altruistic. It sounds like the remake is pure emotionalist junk.

Edited December 19, 2008 by Thales

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

As to The Day The Earth Stood Still, the original version was very well done, in that it appealed to reason very strongly, even if the message was altruistic. It sounds like the remake is pure emotionalist junk.

For the most part it was an appeal to emotions. A Nobel prize winner advised the leading lady NOT to try to reason with Klaatu, but rather to be herself. And, of course, no one in the movie said that man has as much right to use his mind as the other animals are free to use theirs.

**spoiler**

I think it is also significant that the aliens released a swarm of insect-like drones onto the world to destroy man -- as if it was the revenge of nature against man.

[Jim A.]

By the way, from the previews it looks like the new Day the Earth Stood Still has alot of green light in it, as if the moviemakers are trying to say something about being Earth-friendly. Is that true?

Recently, I wrote a (rather awful) short story that presents aliens I would like to meet and would have the proper attitude toward us--and themselves. I welcome any criticisms (I'm pretty new at storytelling, and it shows), and any of them would be helpful to me. The story's called "The Engine": http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgjr99hw_0s8cp3.

[John Link]

Did they just magic it out of their ass?

What an expression! Although I don't really accept "magic" as a verb, in this context it works beautifully.

John Link

[Benpercent]

After seeing previews for it on television, am I the only one that thought the alien looked like a Starman from the Super Nintendo video game "Earthbound"?

[DirtyHarry]

Spoilers ahead -

A lot of Objectivist and pro-capitalist blogs and forums really seem to have a problem with this movie that I just don't get at all. This movie had no coherent central moral question I could find. Regardless of the ethical stature of the original film it did have a clearly stated moral problem - human violence technologically advanced - as well as a story which artfully developed this problem with a clear and dramatic threat from the alien community. The remake has a problem - people exist, or maybe we're violent, or we eat too much or we have broken homes or well something I guess. We might spread our problems or not or something, and Klaatu is here to warn us, or kill us, or warn us we will be killed or something? And the solution is the bratty kid calls Klaatu a him not an 'it'?

What!?!?

Where is the message? I didn't see one, environmentalist or otherwise.

To give an example, this is actual dialog as closely as I remember -

John Cleese - But Klaatu, we only advance and grow when faced with true existential threats,like the one your people have given us, surely you only advanced in a similar way.

Klaatu - Yes.

John: Then let this be the moment when we rise to a knew level of rationality.

Klaatu: No.

?!

Also, John Cleese has a Noble Prize for his work in "Biological Altruism". ??

How does anything about this movie make enough sense for anyone to disagree with it?

[JMeganSnow]

The fact that the message was spotty and poorly-delivered doesn't mitigate the fact that this movie is fundamentally anti-man. It's a bad movie with extremely bad philosophical premises that amount to pick your poison:

1. Possibly, the message is that technology (man's means of survival) is evil, and thus humans are evil.

2. Possibly, the message is that the universe is a malevolent place where random disasters such as alien attacks just happen and there's nothing you can do about it, so give up on thinking because it won't get you anywhere.

Contrast this to a movie like Wall-e, which had at least the appearance of an environmentalist message but where humans were portrayed as fundamentally good and in control of their future.

[Jake_Ellison]

You guys told me, but I didn't listen, I went and saw this piece of crap. Just judging by the acting and the plot, compared to this "The Happening"(which until today I thought was the worst made movie ever) was a masterpiece.

As for the message, well, both it and the premise are the same as any sermon His Holiness the Pope would deliver: that an omniscient and omnipotent being says that we are inherently evil and destroying the Planet, so shut up and do what the priest tells you to do. But whatever you do "don't use reason, use your heart". (That actual line is in the movie, it's the one thing that stuck in my head out of the whole crapfest)

Oh and even the music was awful and clichéd.