Right as rainy

There are numerous theories about aliens and what they would do if they had to encounter our planet. Some say that they are among us, living unrecognized and not revealing themselves because humanity is too immature. Others think that they came and ran away crying over the obvious lack of civilization and progress in mankind. (Personally I am quite partial to that one). Scott Derrickson’s ‘The Day the Earth stood still’, a remake of the 1951 original, propagates another thought. They will come here, save what needs to be saved, and destroy the rest because it has gone out of control and run out of chances.

‘The rest’ basically consists of humanity and nothing else. At least these guys have got their priorities straight. When you see the way the American government reacts to the arrival of the aliens (why do they always have to land in America anyway?) you feel a lot of empathy for the cause of the ‘visitors’. Whether the depicted paranoia and fear are intentionally exaggerated or just came out like that remains to be figured out. But if I had to visit another planet whose population and progress was clearly inferior to the one of my world, and they had to ‘welcome’ me as shown in the movie – I’d smack them over their heads as well. With a very big stick.

It’s a bit of a pity. The potential was there to tell an interesting story and convey an important message. Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly convince in the lead roles, the rest of the cast is spotty. Jaden Smith has got the spoilt brat down like no other – either he is like that in real life or he is a really talented youngster. John Cleese, the awesome, unique John Cleese, gets way too little screen time. But his role as the eccentric scientist is ever so fitting.

The message the movie tries to convey is simple yet important. Mankind is out of long runs – we need to change our ways and we need to do it now. Catchy one, isn’t it? Unfortunately that mission is a miserable fail. What eventually comes across, probably thanks to a botched script and/or people who toned it down to make it go down easier – is that it’s good enough to want to change. Strike that. It’s good enough to say that you want to change. Don’t worry too much about it – as long as you say so and someone else does the sacrifice, everything will be fine. At the end of the day a few tears are enough and you can go on as you did before.

What’s left is a fireworks of special effects with a mediocre script, an at times horribly monotonous and cacophonic soundtrack and a cast with some light and a lot of shadow. You’ll watch it, but it won’t leave any lasting memories – especially not good ones.