I need a little clarity on this.
Have you heard the one about Keanu Reeves? You know the one where he’s in a remake of a classic Sci-fi film — one of the best of all time? The one where he plays a super intelligent alien?
Oh, wait… that’s not a joke. Nor is it that funny.
To sum up: Keanu Reeves has been cast and is currently filming a remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. In it, Keanu plays Klaatu, an incredibly intelligent alien sent to Earth with a message for humanity.
Read that sentence again, it’s real.
Now, if you haven’t seen The Day the Earth Stood Still, then the sci-fi community has failed you. This is one of those films that you really have to see to call yourself a sci-fi fan. It’s one of these Rosetta stones for geeks, a commonality that allows Star Trek, Star Wars or even robot tech fans to get along without falling in to endless “Borg v. Death Star v. Robot tech Masters” arguments (besides: Borg). True science fiction fans are historians — guardians of earlier generation’s visions of the future and this is one that everyone can agree is a classic.
But the primary reason to see TDTEST is that’s it’s a damn fine movie. Good science fiction is always a reflection of that generation’s hopes and fears and in 1951 the world was just starting to figure out that the atom bomb, while winning the war, was also really, really scary. It was science fiction in the here and now — a device that was literally of the doomsday variety — thrust into a world that was still dealing with the aftermath of WW II racial tensions and television (we still haven’t work out the last problem).
The Day the Earth Stood Still confronted that fear by bringing something even scarier in: the Unknown. With A-bombs and Commies everywhere, only something from another world could really get our attention. Director Robert Wise and company did just that by landing the alien craft in Washington DC and revealing it held a spaceman and a giant metal monster, Gort that could basically obliterate the entire planet with a wink of it’s single eye. A-Bombs are scary, but Gort’s are scarier.
And yet, while the obvious move would be to have the alien demand our surrender or just level the Capitol with lasers (not that terrifying an idea) the movie gave us something else: a savior. The spaceman, Klaatu, was not here to menace us, but rather to deliver a message. Acting like a superior being should, he looked upon humanity as a father sees children: aware of their faults but fascinated by their potential. Despite being shot, captured, chased and shot again, Klatuu does not get angry, for he knows that we simply cannot help ourselves. His final message: a warning not to play with our atomic matches, but to grow up and join the rest of the universe, still resonates today as we try desperately how to get along.
This was a shockingly adult movie in a climate of paper plates on strings and aliens with green skin from Mars (in 3-D no less!) populating the silver screen. The deliberate tempo of Wise, the incredible acting of Michael Rennie and the eerie score of Bernard Herrman all combine to make this one of the best science fiction films ever.
So this brings us to the current problem: Keanu Reeves. Do I even have to go into the glaring problem with why he is such a bad choice? Do I have to remind you that his entire career is based upon characters who are either at the low end of the IQ bell curve or are perpetually stunned by almost any object that enters his field of vision. Should I even bring up that when he utters the word “Excellent!” it is automatically converted into our brains as “Dumbass!”
Do I need to tell you all this stuff?
No, even though I just did.
To be honest, I can’t blame Keanu for being in this picture. To me, Mr. Reeves is like a force of nature. He’s the El Nino that shows up every couple of years: you don’t necessarily like what’s going to happen because of it, but you can’t stop it.
Nor can I blame the producers. These guys are in the business for one simple reason: To preserve the legacy of Hollywood classics. Ha, just kidding. They want MONEY! Lots of dirty, dirty money and they’ll put facehuggers on their grandmothers if they think there’s money in her chest (Wow, that is gross… hmmm). When they look to cast a movie, they don’t look for the best actor, they look for the one who has been the most PROFITABLE! Despite the fact that 66% of The Matrix Trilogy sucked it still made a billion dollars and when our intrepid producers IMDb to see who starred in them (They don’t have time to actually WATCH scifi, mind you), handsome, vacuous Mr. Point Break stares back at them and it is all they can do to not bow before his visage as their God of summer box office.
So if we can’t blames those guys, who can we blame? Bush? The Democrats? Michael Bay (Who has nothing to do with this but is still a popular target)? Subprime Lending?
Nope. I think we have to blame ourselves.
We let this movie slip through the cracks. We were too busy on message boards debating who to cast as Predator #5 in the new AVP: ATV! Movie, too absorbed in a chat over who is doing the cover for the “G.I. Joe” theme song and much too preoccupied by the announcement that Samuel L. Jackson is cast as Papa Smurf to notice that they went ahead and cast this movie without our approval. The announcement came out that Keanu is Klaatu and everyone just stopped and looked at each other. We were so focused on the small stuff, tiny fanboy details of our own pet projects, that we missed the titanic heading toward the Keanuberg.
And that’s the sad part. If we truly care about Science Fiction, if we truly are historians and guardians, then we should have moved on this. Shows this old are like the elderly, they need champions to protect their dignity and legacy. They passed the torch to us and just asked that we “have their backs”, not turn our backs.
Could we have really done something about this? Absolutely. Hollywood floats names all the time to the fans to get reactions. We can be their biggest ally or their worst nightmare. Even if they hid this announcement (like I think they did) until they started filming we could have sent a message: we’re not pleased.
So whenever this film does come out (It’s been pushed to December), we’ll all have one of those deep sighs. They will be cool trailers showing space ships flying, Gort (Played by Samuel L Jackson!) blowing things up, presidents demanding action and Jennifer Connelly looking… well, hot. We’ll start to turn on this, start to think “Well, maybe, just maybe this could be cool to watch… ”
And then they’ll show Keanu, and we’ll all sigh. Because we know we let this one get by us, and that we’re not in for an “Excellent” adventure, but a “Bogus” one.
“Keanu plays Klaatu, an incredibly intelligent alien sent to Earth with a message for humanity. Read that sentence again, it’s real.”
Let me take a moment please… are you implying in that sentence that Mr. Reeves should not be cast as Klaatu because Klaatu is a super intelligent alien and the actor (in the silly notion that you must have about him) isn’t properly able to display that type of characteristic on screen because he doesn’t have it? So, for that, should we get that only “Einsteins” should play intelligent characters on screen? Should I consider Russel Crowe a mathematic genius because he PLAYED one in a movie? Should we cast a REAL alien as Klaatu because that way it would be more believable?!
Have you EVER watched a Keanu Reeves’ movie that is not Bill an Ted and The Matrix (both works recognized as classics in their genres?). Are you one more of the ones that truly believe the 43 years old Keanu Reeves IS Ted Logan? I don’t remember Mr. Reeves playing a stoned confused guy in The Gift! Nor in The Lake House! or in Constantine! Much less in Street Kings! In Scanner he was stoned but, man… so perfect that you could tell he was real… and that was good acting.
But…if you say he plays confuse well… look! You see, the confident Klaatu isn’t a normal guy, he is a curious creature discovering a new specie and a new world. To think that any creature trying to understand human beings would act just as if they were walking around in their own planet is just a silly and ingenuous attitude in an attempt to forgive all the flaws that the acting of the original movie had. And something that the much more critical audience of our time would not accept. So, it’s easier to blame Reeves for the characteristic he has that makes absolutely sense that he is cast in an improved version of Klaatu and then turn around the facts and blame him for the same thing. No win situation for Mr. Reeves as it always happen when he “dares” to deal with material some “sci-fi fans/geeks/whatever” consider their own property.
How many pre-concepted afirmations about an actor who has one of the most solid careers in Hollywood and has so many fans around the world. Keanu Reeves was the actor who first introduced the cyber punk genre in Hollywood for a new generation with the “bad” Johnny Mnemonic. We can even forget about that movie, but can’t say that it’s ideas were not modern and original. He was the actor who saw the beauty and intelligence in The Matrix script when other actors only saw a “weird concept” and he was the one who showed to be enough of a sci-fi fan when decided to make the underrated A Scanner Darkly, a super dark and indie movie that finally had the balls to keep the original ideas and mood of Phillip K. Dick away of the action spectacle in what turns all movies based in his stories.
The original TDTESS was, yes, a shockingly original movie for the politics of the 50s and only still be that way in some fanboys heads that can’t see that the movie is dated and was flawed, with it’s United Nations propaganda, something that would not fit in our time anymore.
I won’t blame myself for going to see TDTESS, and I truly doubt we will hear deep sighs around as well, as I have no doubts that the remake will be a good movie all in it’s own, in story AND acting ( if anyone condemns Reeves for being “wooden”, they should feel joy to have him playing what Rennie played only a little bit short of the own Gort’s woodness in the original movie). I have no doubt that Reeves will improve Klaatu, and at least we will see a modern and multicultural actor playing an alien, and not a white-handsome-perfect-American-male-role-model-of-the-50s playing a creature who should not be identified with any race or country of our planet (and I believe that this detail must “shock” the so open minded fanboys that attack the actor).
The sad part is that some people love to live in the past and then play the super wise and intelligent fans of original stories, and just can’t see that everything in Hollywood, and in the world, is a re-invention. Some of them are worse, but some even better than their original sources. But for the “super wise and intelligent fans of original stories”, who know better than anyone that good stories of the past should NOT be made in good movies to the younger audiences, will never get past their own stereotyped visions of the world, and in the specific case, their own pre-concepted visions about an actor who defies the ideas that they themselves had defined as perfect characteristics to identify what is good and what is bad (sighing in pain, no wonder).
Mike I don’t know if you read these comments and shame on you if you don’t, either way I’d like to know if you do.
Now first of all I’ve never seen The Day the Earth Stood Still, nor have I seen a host of other movies you’d probably consider Geek essentials. Why not? The a answer is simple I’m in my early twenties and when your in my generations trying to discover find and view the Classics well is really really hard. Nevertheless I am unquestionably a True Geek and would invite anybody to challenge my status.
So clearly you mention two beefs here first that it’s a remake and second that it stars Keanu. Now remakes are one of the universal discussions where most geeks can find a common ground and usually agree the it is a violation of the original art piece. Here’s the truth however.
Mike say that Hollywood is only interested in money he says dirty money but all money is dirty so it’s a moot point. True they are looking for money money money but everyday there is this group of people called Directors and good or bad try to chip away at that ice flow the studios think is the best purpose for all that money because trust me they don’t want to spend it they just want to say they have it. But those Directors they break it apart and try to reinvest it into the system unfortunately nine in ten of them fail miserably but those failures aren’t always bad movies not at all in fact most of the time some of them are worth seeing but they didn’t make money they shouldn’t exist according to Hollywood. But they DO why because somebody takes an idea that can sell like Hitch Hikers or Sweeny Todd or The Sound of Music or the Day the Earth Stood Still and they say ok these movies will make money and will cover our losses on the other films that didn’t and truth be told it’s a trade I’m willing to make because I simply don’t have to watch it if I don’t want to.
That said remakes aren’t all that bad an idea, seriously! Even though the track record is somewhat poor for them the fact remains this. We know how to make better movies today, not that we do but we can. I haven’t seen The Day the Earth Stood Still but I can assure you that the cinematography is poor, the music is bland, the sound effects sound fake, and the sound mixing is crap, the editing blows, and things like backgrounds and establishing shots are practically nonexistent or look like nothing that makes sense.
Oh right and lay off Keanu he can’t play a human being properly so he may be perfect for the part of an alien.
Also only 50% of the Matrix trilogy sucked half of reloaded was good.
I’m behind you 100% Lizzy. In fact I’m quite certain Keanu Reeves is a very intelligent person.
now if I simply hope Mike will actually see our post otherwise I go searching for his email address.
Some of the special effects were very realistic the actors were excellent, story line almost as good as the “Forever War”by Joe Hald man
If “the Day the Earth stood still” is remade the only thing “they” can is make the robot Gort and the space ship more
believable and improve the music ( it was sort of corny)
either way was a good film. Should be be required viewing for all film producers and directors.
Max Casebeau
Aw how cute! Making fun of Keanu’s IQ. Wouldn’t it be fun if Mr.Cafferty were to meet Keanu and get an eye-opener from him on what it means to be intelligent, open-minded, and tolerant of other people? I hope that opportunity comes along one day for this poor soul.
Surprise! Reeves’ IQ is 160. What’s yours Mike? 124?
Keanu is quite expressive when the role calls for it. See The Last Time I Committed Suicide, where he plays a manipulative, drunken poolshark. Watch him in Devil’s Advocate and say he can’t portray intelligence (unless you’re one of those class snobs who thinks everyone with a Southern accent is automatically stupid.) Watch the arc of his character in Thumbsucker.
If all you know is Ted and Neo, you don’t know enough.
Mr Sim,
While I agree with some of your sentiments, assuming that the cinematography, music, editing, sound, and backgrounds are crap is to do exactly what you are upset at Mike for doing. Do not assume such things, please. I think the re-make could be good, though I worry that Gort will be some CG monstrosity, but I also know that the original is very good. Dated? Yes. But the cinematography and editing, while simpler, is very good. No quick cuts, or shacky cam action, just thoughtful point and shoot work the likes of which Speilberg is heralded for.
Mike sinned by assuming Keanu will be awful, but then you sinned by assuming the original had nothing to offer today’s audience, and I think that you both are wrong.
Personally, my only issue is that the movie is being remade at all… I don’t care who they would have cast as Klaatu, the idea of remaking it bothers me. I also wonder why Keanu keeps coming back to roles where there is some element of stiffness to the character, but maybe it’s a cyclical thing.
I don’t care that Keanu is in the remake. I care that it’s being remade at all, that it might suck from the get-go with more CGI than story, and possibly chase people away from seeing the original, which for historical reference and an appreciation of cinematography (and the theremin!) is something scifi fans and film history buffs should see.
Also, we talked about this movie on Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Show #24, and people got feisty about my commentary then, too.
And since we’re also bitching about remakes, I do wonder how Keanu feels about “Excellent Adventure” being remade so frakking soon (another movie I don’t think needs a remake).
ok Deven Science I didn’t assume anything about the production first I’ll admit my weakest argument is for the editing basically I’m comparing that era to the modern era my point was this: we could make a better version today but chances are against it.
What I’m talking about is that production today is better no questions asked as for the people doing the production that is a who other argument.
When I talk about cinematography I include every thing from lighting to lenses to exposure to white balance to so many things that are better understood today. and sound well don’t even try arguing that one, heck TDTESS was 1951 just take Indiana Jones from the 80’s and in the hand of the best technical support around and the sound still sucks. my point of the editing is the small things that are sometimes so easy to do on a computer but simply don’t happen on a Steinbeck and really if you have crappy sound how do you expect to have good editing.
You people can defend Keanu all you want. And I don’t care if he’s so smart that he invented wetnaps. The fact is, he’s a crappy actor. And he has the personality of a sleepy sloth. So I don’t wanna see him in ANY movies.
Change careers, dude. Whoa.
There are PLENTY of sci-fi novels in existence to make into films until the end of time. So why remake a classic film? No other reason but money. If you think otherwise, then you truly are clueless.
Oh! YEAH!!! Keanu Reeves should change his career after billions of dollars, lots of fans, 23 years and more than 50 movies, because some geek named ‘zeeterman’ wants it! Let’s congratulate him for being so humble in asking so little! meh.
You guys are sick. Not even saw the movie and are already bashing it. The original was so-so at best. It’s best feature was having the courage to talk about that subject in the 50s. That doesn’t make the movie perfect, it had lots of bad lines and the music and edition was weak. Younger audiences would never accept that kind of movie and would laugh their asses out seeing a man in a rubber suit playing a robot! You are losing it because Keanu Reeves is perfect to play Klaatu and you guys won’t know how to bash him for doing exactly what the original actor did and you love so much. Stay home watching your old DVD and let the new movie for open minded people to enjoy.
BTW, for such a fan, get facts straight. The main title is written wrong! It’s “Klaatu, BARADA, nikto”. Barada, not Barata.
Remakes begin as a lame excuse for inspiration. Most of the time, that leads to a sub-par story idea for the “update” that gets a greenlight (we still haven’t cracked the mystery on how that happens). Later, 20 other people put their 5 cents in, and the end result is usually a train wreck.
More often than not, these remakes run off the rails. Any optimist in the world can have a glimmer of hope that it’ll be good. But how many times are remakes written by people who have some grounding in history and deeper looks at the metaphors in the tale (another lost art in filmic storytelling)? Rarely, I’d say.
Why remake something “for the money” and not give more instead of less? I can’t think of a recent remake off the top of my head that fits the bill, and the only one that comes to mind is actually John Carpenter’s “The Thing”.
And don’t get me started on “When Worlds Collide”… at least that one CAN be drastically improved upon, but with the run on movies dealing with comet and asteroid impacts the past 10 years, will anyone really get excited about another one?
I bitch because I care, dammit.
Woo calm down a little Akiira no need to be flaming on Zeetermsn like that.
Take a chill pill I can only see a couple comments against Keanu and frankly the ones in favor of him are both more elegant and numerous.
And as for you Zeeterman news flash sci fi movie they’re generally really expensive so it they use TDTESS as a cash cow so be it. It helps prove the value of sci fi and generates money for those adoptions you want.
err Summer your Bitching is getting kind of old. I’ll start paying attention again when you get around to saying something nice once in a while about a movie or director then you can go back to bitching but it seems like you hate every non indy film that comes out.
Somebody who makes up their mind about something before they have seen it is an idiot…and an arrogant one at that.
As for Mr Reeves…how can any self respecting movie fan deny the positive impact he has had on film making during his career? Those who dont like him but like a particular movie put it down to the direction, the supporting cast, the food served in the canteen – in fact anything but admit he did a good job. When a film fails, they blame him totally because he’s a ‘bad’ actor. Now, either he carries a film or he doesn’t. If he does, that means that your beloved Bill and Ted, River’s Edge, The Matrix and Speed were great movies because of Keanu – not despite him.
All you do by belittling one of the most popular actors of our generation is bring your own opinion into question. Why would anyone take you seriously when you are obviously unable to see past your own bias?
I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I know the director went to Biola and he’s very talented. This is going to be awesome.
Wow!
I was away all day shooting, of all things, a sci-fi series for HBO and all this happened! Huzzah!
First, I do read and respect each of your well thought out counter-points. Even when you’re insulting me, at least it’s clever (and for the record, my IQ: 10! Beat that!) and your arguments are spirited. Whether you agree with my primary thesis, you do qualify as guardians of Scifi with your defense of your passion.
Secondly, if you want to flame me on a personal level and maybe receive a response: mccafferty/at/sliceofscifi.com. I shirk no duty (although I need to figure out where to log in).
Third, I DID misspell ‘barada’, and I knew someone would catch it. I even double checked the spelling, but late last night I wrote the title in the subject line and made the error. BTW, in the remake, the line has been changed to “Klaatu Barack Obama!” Spoiler!
Fourth and finally, Summer is also right that my main beef is actually with remakes. Whether or not you like the original TDTEST or Keanu (or me, for that matter), don’t you think that we deserve better than this? Science Fiction holds dearly to the theme that there are limitless possibilities and yet every other movie is a remake (Or at the very best an adaptation). Are we out of ideas? Is there truly no new story that we can create? Must we be relegated to ‘reinventions’ of old material. Hell, YOU’VE probably got a good idea, let’s get Keanu and shoot that!
As strange as it may sound, we’re on the same team. Scifi is pizza, we all like it in pretty much any form: cold, warm or on the ground for less than 5 seconds. I’ve both eaten and made the metaphorical pizza and I challenge all of us to ask for higher quality. We’re in a great time for scifi when the powers that be actually listen to us from time to time. I say we stop lurking and start telling them we want better.
Mike McCafferty
My issue with the remake is I heard the anti-nuke/war message is removed replaced with an environmental message. If you want a sci-fi environmental movie then create a new one but “leave TDTEST alone” (insert whiney voice here).
hey Chris there was such a movie it was called The Day After Tomorrow by Roland Emmerich.
As a side, I also noticed that Mike had misspelled Barada but left it unedited because I know sometimes he does those kinds of things just to piss people off….he is, a man after my own heart in that regard. 🙂
As far as remakes are concerned, I generally don’t have a problem with doing a remake of a film that came out over a half century ago as long as it remains good, relevant to contemporary times and not just done because writers may be too lazy to be creative with original material.
I will wait until TDTEST comes out before making a judgment call on it. I am a fan of Keanu’s work and have appreciated nearly everything the man has done over the years. He is a unique talent that can be under-appreciated by some and over-lauded by others.
TDTEST is sacred ground but no so much that it doesn’t deserve to be seen through a 21st Century lens.
Mr Sim,
wow, you really don’t listen to the shows do you? I’m the only one in there who sticks up for Shyamalan (except for “The Village” and “Signs”)! Now, if I can only get Mike to stop calling him names…
Did you not hear me say I was excited by Transformers and Iron Man before they came out? Did you not hear me say that I wanted to see “Rise: Blood Hunter” but it only played at one theater for one weekend here and I missed it? Did you hear me say I liked “A Scanner Darkly”… which also starred Keanu?
Hell, I wanted to like “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” because it looked promising. I was disappointed, but I was more than willing to give it a chance. I’m also hoping that “Hancock” executes it’s superhero premise far better, and based on the newest trailer, it just might.
I’ve been in favor of a lot of classic and B-movies, and a couple of C-movies, too, so my only guess is that you’re really not listening to what I’m saying unless I sound angry about it.
There have been a lot of movies I support, even fair to middling ones, but I don’t have to keep quiet when I see a bad idea coming before it even gets off the ground. I have good reason to be hypercritical of remakes, because the track record with them has been so abysmal, and we’re getting more and more remakes every year.
If that doesn’t make most movie fans angry, then how can we call ourselves movie fans? The endless stream of remakes coming out for merely the sake of making a buck rather than telling good stories is something worthy of a little anger.
While I am not looking forward to this remake, I am willing to watch it. I like Keanu, but I really like the original. Many people have made good points here. Seems like “Firefly” was one of the last great new ideas. I’m all for adapting books, as there is thousands of good SF books that have never been adapted, which makes all of these remakes all the more shameful. In the end, though, the biggest reason for the remakes is not money. Well, it IS money, but more specifically, it’s because these are properties that the companies ALREADY OWN, so therefore a remake or reboot or reimagining is more profitable, because they don’t have to fork over money for the rights. That’s why TV-to-movie was so popular a few years ago. Because all of these conglomerates suddenly found themselves owning these old TV show properties, and decided to milk them for some money. And if the movie drives up the TV series DVDs, so much the better.
TDTESS was an important film in more than one respect.
I mean more than entertaining SciFi – the world is more than SciFi.
Many say it was message that needed to be told.
Some even say it was message that the authorities wouldn’t allow to be told in any other way.
I do agree that Hollywood needs the courage or smarts to tap the vast untapped good scifi out there, but in this case, I think the message is worth retelling (well, hopefully) for the sake of what new audiences might learn.
Well, the movie came out, and the reviews are in: IT SUCKS LIKE A BLACK HOLE!
I can’t help wondering how many of the above Keenu worshippers are committing intellectual suicide while attempting to defend him now!
The original movie featured a kind, charming “space man” named Klaatu who came here to warn us that his people had created a race of robot policemen, “who patrol the planets in spaceships like this oneâ€. They gave these robots absolute authority over human aggressive behavior- so the people of that galaxy were forced to live in peace or else be vaporized for their violence. That was the big surprise ending; the message was nothing at all like “Stop fighting among yourselves or we will destroy you†(as many have foolishly interpreted it)- the aliens themselves were harmless, the danger was with the ROBOTS, and ONLY “if you threaten to extend your violenceâ€. As [the real] Klaatu said, “It is no concern of ours how you run your own planetâ€â€¦ so, how did this hour and a half of silly, Political Correct NONSENSE merit being called “a remakeâ€????
Hey, we knew it was going to be PC crap. This is Hollywood. It’s run by high-school dropouts who vote Democrat. But Keanu was just fine as an alien. In fact, everyone’s said for years that he’s so detached he seems almost inhuman. Well, there ya go. He was perfect. I still will pay for and sit through anything he does.
Akiira you ignorant douche. It makes no difference if he made a gazillion dollars “acting”, Keanu is a sucky actor (IMO). Since when does making lots of money make you a good actor? Why does he keep getting acting jobs? Good agents I suspect. Just because Keanu is in a band (Dogstar) doesn’t mean he’s a good musician. Frankly, Keanu should retire on a deserted island somewhere, before he decides to become a writer, a painter, a pro basketball player, etc. BTW, how’s the boxoffice look for TDTESS? 😉