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Originally Posted by Dog Star
So, no. I'm not real optimistic of this currant re-make that we apparently had to have, but I'm going to see it anyway and hopefully, just maybe, it will fill me with wonder and awe, just like the original did.
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I've been thinking about this a little (I said little!! LOL). "Wonder and awe" is what you experience when you may see or be introduced to something new for the first time. I doubt that we have much "wonder" left in us after 50+ years of scifi film making at all - I think that it's all been covered by now. New films will never instill that sense in us again - so we are, I think, looking for something else nowadays. I don't see that it's a requirement any more, but nice if it happens.
The first generation of 50's scifi films had a clean slate on which to deliver new notions and ideas about what may be out there (or in "here"). Some say that it was a partial reaction to the cold war politics of the day. There was a range of films that took several similar visitation themes and each ran with them in their own way - with just about all of them moralising in some way or other to make the hometown team feel that they were safe while they were in bed tucked up under the blanket.
The Day the Earth Stood Still was a film made to highlight the threat implied by the then nuclear arms race, and that if humankind weren't smart enough to do something about it themselves that an alien society would play daddy and smack us from afar. It's a different world today. Nuclear threat isn't as dominant in the headlines as it was back then.
Whether you scientifically agree with it or not, today's (supposed) threat is that of humanind falling foul of global warming by their "own" doing. I personally have a problem with this, but it seems as though the media has revved it up as a cause worldwide, so we are going to get films about it - that's inevitable. So - don't expect a remake that's trying to be as "good" as the first. They are two different films - entirely. The only common thread is that of humanity's own propensity to annahilate itself if it doesn't snap out of its daze once in a while, and that there "might" be some external influence (be it a "God" or an alien super-society) that we should be afraid of making sure of it if we decide to forget or neglect. "Fear" what you can never see...
I'm going to see it for the special effects, and the the pure (as was mentioned before) "leave your brain at the door" experience. I can't wait. Box office takings in America are way down on expected, and even lower than those of I Am Legend, so it may turn out to be one of those cult films that the mainstream just doesn't have time for any more. Either that or it's the world reacting to Keanu Reeves taking himself a little seriously. Every time I see the guy I think of Bill & Ted. Maybe it's true - a film is only as good as the reputation of the lead actors.
