The Day the Earth Stood Still

Sunday night we were down to just one kid, my 14 year old son. Being that he is 14 he was in a funk of unknown origin and my wife being my wife was about up to her neck in sports television we decided maybe with just the three of us we could find a movie we could agree on. I had Step Brothers on Tivo and while I am sure it is a movie and that my wife and I might enjoy, well at least I will enjoy at the right time we knew two minutes in that it was not a movie my son should be watching. Or as he would say at least not a movie that he would want to watch in our presence. Sometimes embarrassment goes two ways. So we flipped through what HBO had on demand for free and The Day the Earth Stood Still looked harmless enough.

For those of you who saw The Day After Tomorrow and did not think that the environmental message was not heavy handed and preachy enough this movie is the one for you. To further complicate matters the movie itself was as dumb as they come. Keanu Reeves starred as an alien who had come back to Earth to save not us, but the planet from us. Jennifer Connally played a single Mom who as a scientist had to change his mind that we humans did have a capacity for change.

Movies with a message have their place but it is assumed that the message will be told in a coherent manner. There was not a likable character in this movie, the plot was dumb and preachy. I feel like I need to read some Dickens or Twain to get my brain cells back.

I am not a snob. Far from it, see the aforementioned desire for Will Ferrell. This movie was the worst movie I have seen in a long long time. The only redeeming value was when the Big Metal GI Joe creature made all the electric and motor driven items in the world stop. As an amateur historian I love the idea of a time without modernity. Ironic to be blogging that statement I know but there it is. But outside of that glimpse this movie was just ........awful