The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Calificación de los usuarios:

5.6/10   

Director:

Scott Derrickson

Escritores (WGA):

David Scarpa (screenplay)
Edmund H. North (1951 screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

12 diciembre 2008 (USA)

Género:

Drama | Ciencia-Ficción | Suspenso

Frase comercial:

12.12.08 is the Day the Earth Stood Still

Plot:

A remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Giant Robot | Scientist | Robot | Military

Premios:

1 win & 6 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Mildly entertains, but never reaches its potential.

Reparto

Keanu Reeves	...	Klaatu
Jennifer Connelly	...	Dr. Helen Benson
Kathy Bates	...	SecDef Regina Jackson
Jaden Smith	...	Jacob Benson
John Cleese	...	Professor Barnhardt
Jon Hamm	...	Michael Granier
Kyle Chandler	...	John Driscoll
Robert Knepper	...	Colonel
James Hong	...	Mr. Wu
John Rothman	...	Dr. Myron
Sunita Prasad	...	Rouhani
Juan Riedinger	...	William Kwan
Sam Gilroy	...	Tom
Tanya Champoux	...	Isabel
Rukiya Bernard	...	Student

También conocida como:

D.T.E.S.S. (USA) (promotional abbreviation)
The Day the Earth Stood Still: The IMAX Experience (USA) (IMAX version)
El día que la tierra se detuvo (Argentina) (Mexico) (Venezuela) [es]
El día que la Tierra se detuvo (Peru) [es]
El día que paralizaron la tierra (Venezuela) [es]
Ultimatum a la tierra (Spain) [es]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sci-fi disaster images and violence.

Duración:

104 min

País:

USA | Canada

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS | Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Clasificación:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44866) | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Finland:K-11 | South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Singapore:PG | Norway:11 | Germany:12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Portugal:M/12 | Czech Republic:12 | Malaysia:U | Sweden:11 | Australia:M | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | South Africa:10V | Brazil:10 | Taiwan:GP | Peru:PT | Netherlands:12 | Mexico:B

Locaciones de Filmación:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Compañía:

3 Arts Entertainment

Trivialidades:

Klaatu uses the phrase "tipping point", which is a climatological term meaning the point at which the reversal of climate change becomes impossible. Some scientists believe that this has already happened.

Errores:

Errores que Revelan: (At 1:08:03) When the television speaker announces the latest news that there was riots in "London, Chicago, and many cities in China", on the screen you can see some vandals breaking stores, police on horses, and the third video is not from listed cities, but from Belgrade (Serbia). They used a historical event which occurred on 5th October 2000, when 500,000 demonstrators set the Parliament building on fire. On that day, Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown from power.

Citas:

Professor Barnhardt: I have so many questions to ask you.
Helen Benson: [addressing Klaatu about the music playing] It's Bach.
Klaatu: It's beautiful.
Professor Barnhardt: So we're not so different after all.
Klaatu: I wish that were true.

Conexiones de Película:

References Star Wars (1977)

Mildly entertains, but never reaches its potential.

The epic science fiction blockbuster is slowly but surely becoming a dying form of cinematic entertainment. Not since the days of cold war paranoia and the initial splurge of CGI technology back in the nineties has the genre seen much love either from its core enthusiasts or those looking for something big but different. Yet there are numerous obvious reasons for its decline in demand, most of which are unavoidably apparent in this, the latest and arguably first of its kind for over a year now, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Based upon a movie from the genre's heyday, director Scott Derrickson's version lacks the same sense of awe, conviction and relevancy to our current social climate. Bombarded with underdeveloped themes, an incoherent plot and extremely rough characterisation, the movie suffers not just from a lack of significance in its arrival, but also in its implementation. Most disappointing of all however is that in spite of the many technical flaws present, the biggest let down is that the movie simply doesn't convince; the effects are impressive and the story can be gripping through its thick layer of foreboding atmosphere from time to time, but an overall lack of substance hurts the film's ability to truly draw you in and take off. It's a routinely enjoyable experience sure enough, but an over reliance on this safe-play structure stops the feature from excelling beyond mere light entertainment.

Telling a first contact story that involves rather heavy handed themes of a doomsday like prophecy, like most good science fiction movies big to small, The Day the Earth Stood Still retains a sense of wonder and mystique to its tale, particularly early on. During these initial moments of exposition which come to an eventual climax of contact with an alien presence visiting Earth for unknown reasons, the movie achieves its only real piece of coherent and engaging drama; the way in which it unfolds is magnificent and capitalises on the movie's big effects budget in ways that feel impressive and yet substantially eerie at the same time- there are moments when this big shot sci-fi movie actually feels like a genuine product of imagination and heart.

Disappointingly however, this does not last very long. From here on in the feature slowly but surely declines in both mystique and interest, culminating in a third act which is about as convincing as it is exciting; which believe it or not, isn't much at all. It's around this point that things take a drastic turn from intelligent and insightful science-fiction to big dumb blockbuster action movie; the themes that are brought up during the movie's initial stages are belittled to a deux ex machina that never quite seems justified, and the climax –if you can call it that- feels stunted and perfunctory for the sake of giving a clean feeling of catharsis. It's perhaps the biggest reason why most major productions based on sci-fi scripts never seem to work; the balancing act between catering to the mass public and those wanting intelligent drama is a hard one to pull off, and nobody here seems quite sure how to do such a thing.

If there is one thing that I can praise the movie for, outside of its opening act that is, it would simply be within its excellent aesthetic design. From the dynamic score penned by Tyler Bates to the often endlessly interesting photography of David Tattersall, The Day the Earth Stood Still gets most of its outer shell right, even if everything that lies underneath is a less than inspiring mess. One also has to draw attention to lead star Keanu Reeves who plays Klaatu, the alien/human hybrid visitor and mediator who is welcomed to Earth with a less than hospitable, but terribly human introduction. Reeves is an actor known for his alien-like, wooden style- which is why he is so often found in these kinds of films- and it suits his character adequately enough here. Co-star Jennifer Connelly holds her own too, and while she isn't given much to work with throughout, she does a fine job in playing as Keanu's contrived human sociology lesson.

When the credits roll however, despite the movie's impressive effects, imaginative premise and somewhat entertaining moments, The Day the Earth Stood Still simply feels like an empty experience. As science fiction, the movie conjures up some intelligent questions and yet David Scarpa never seems quite up to the task of taking them any further; and as popcorn fodder, the movie simply doesn't do enough rule-breaking to come off as anything but standard fare. This awkward need to balance both crowds irrevocably results in a feature that indeed avoids polarising, but only to the point where mostly everyone will leave feeling under-stimulated. It has its fair share of compelling and visionary moments, but a distinct lack of development, coherency and substance stops The Day the Earth Stood Still from being one worth remembering. Light sci-fi with a dash of social intrigue that mildly entertains, but never reaches its potential.

- A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)