This movie is on my list of movies I want to see this Christmas season. I'll start my review with two comments. As the closing credits were rolling a lady walking past said to me, "Not as good as the original." Then a couple went by and I heard the woman say, "It was kinda hokey." Both true statements.
I didn't expect to see Oscar-nomination-worthy performances; I just wanted to see stuff getting blown up. Surprisingly, this movie really doesn't have a lot of that. For example, you just know that in every disaster or alien-attack movie, NYC will be destroyed. In this movie, we see parts of it destroyed, but not how you would expect. This movie has way more drama and way less action than I expected.
Plus, there is a message that is overdone to the point of being preachy. And in the end, it was a little too, well... easy to get rid of the aliens.
Keanu Reeves was good at being robotic and unemotional as Klaatu. Seeing him in a suit for much of the movie was weird because I couldn't stop thinking about the bad guys in The Matrix. Jennifer Connelly is the sympathetic scientist who wants to help Klaatu. Jaden Smith seems too bratty and smart alecky most of the movie, even after we learn his situation. Kathy Bates is tough as nails as the US Secretary of Defense. In my opinion, the star of the show is the huge, indestructible, super robot that comes out of the spacecraft. He (It?) was named Gort in the original movie, although I don't remember them saying his name in this movie. Anyway, I would like to see Gort get his own starring role.
I would give the movie a two and a half out of five. My advice if you want to see this movie: either go to a matinee (absolutely do not pay full price) or wait until the DVD comes out. In better news, yes, I had my requisite Slurpee, plus I saw a preview for the upcoming Star Trek movie, which looks promising.
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2 comments:
But... did someone utter the massively anticipated Klatuu Nictu victu..or something like that I think.I can't keep it straight. Thank you for seeing this movie for me..now I can avoid it.
Thanks for the review, Val. The original, which I have seen about a million zillion times (taught a Science Fiction class, so there you go) was preachy too, but just in a "we need to stop killing each other" type of way.
I can't stand Keanu Reeves. He can't express emotion to save his life... this is probably the only movie where I actually agree with his casting. Emotionless Alien. Typecasting.
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