The Day the Earth Stood Still review

This movie was a mixed bag for me. I liked the plot and the special effects, but the execution was just sub-par.

The movie starts off with no real explanation of anything, which is guess is kind of expected, but it still leaves you with a feeling of "what the fuck happened!?" Then you meet Jennifer Connelly. She looked sickly. But that's the way everyone looked in this movie. I don't know if its the way the movie was shot or if it was just bad makeup, but no one really looked that good. Most people looked sickly or anorexic. I also don't believe that Jennifer Connelly can be that kind of scientist. This has nothing to do with her being an attractive woman, she just was not able to convince me that she's that smart.

On the topic of characters, I'm going to comment on my least favorite: Jacob (Jaden Smith). He was just such a whiny bitch. He complained about everything and he didn't have any logic, reason, or common sense. He gave me no reason to like him. In fact, I despised him, through out the whole film, even when he somehow saved the day. I just couldn't like him at all.

Another character that I didn't like was Regina (Kathy Bates). I guess she was a character to parody the incredible destructiveness of the United States, but that probably makes me hate her more. She embodies America's "shoot first, ask later" mentality. She doesn't want to reason with Klatu (Keanu Reeves), she just wants to make him leave or kill him. Seriously, is that how people think? No one can be that unreasonable, can they?

Enough with the bad, let me talk about the good. I like Reeves' Klatu. I think he did a good job at remaining mysteriously dangerous. He didn't give much away, but still did quite a bit. He did look a little too skinny and sickly though...

The animation/CG was pretty damn good though. I enjoyed the scene when the sphere first landed on Earth. You didn't know what was going to happen and it all had an epic feel to it.

I did like the movie, I just think the execution and some of the cast could have been better. 7 out of 10.