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OK, let me forward by saying that I had very, very low expectations for a remake of a seedy 50's sci-fi movie. In fact, I would say that the original is only really known due to the cult status given to such old movies. That said, I absolutely hate the 2008 remake. Don't get me wrong, the beginning had potential, and even most of the changes I could tolerate, because I thought the direction of the movie was going to be bearable. But then, three simple words, the entire catalyst for my paying $8 to see this pile of poo poo, were never uttered; and for that reason, this movie gets a 1/5.
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Dec 13, 2008 03:47
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:07 |
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The film seemed to have potential in the first few minutes, but any hope was soon washed away by writing that is lazy in its best moments but just plain bad most of the time. I was subjected to a parade of incredibly clumsy moral messages and characters that act mindbogglingly stupid simply because the plot requires them to. There's the ridiculously incompetent and eeeevil government/military that is basically only there as an excuse to have a bunch of explosions in the film. Then there's the pointless and tacked-on kid character who is as annoying as he is stupid. And of course the aliens, whose plan obviously is to destroy mankind before they "destroy earth". They intend to do this by destroying earth more thoroughly than humanity could even dream of. Nice plan there, hypocrites. I haven't seen the original, so I can't say on how faithful the remake is. What I definitely can say is that this movie is not very good. 2/5
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Dec 13, 2008 18:24
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there are random bees in this movie I saw this in IMAX ($16) and I didn't have high expectations for it, I just expected to see crazy effects since me and my mates were pretty chilled.   I must say that GORT (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) looked rediculous [[why was he facing the computer control room in the flash chamber? hahaha]] 2/5  Also, Klaatu Verata Nikto wasn't said. :\
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Dec 13, 2008 22:17
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Never saw the original, and I have never thought Keanu was a bad actor. Just got back from seeing this, paying full price, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of it was Hollywood cliché but what isn't nowadays? People are going to act high and mighty and try to act like they're "above" this film but it was a popcorn flick, worth full price of admission and I will probably watch it again. 4/5 I thought GORT was bad rear end, gently caress the haters.
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Dec 13, 2008 22:34
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Taken by itself instead of expecting it to be a perfect remake, it's actually pretty good for a blockbuster sci-fi. The special effects were nice and grey goo scenarios are still pretty underused in movies, which is a plus. And as Coffey said, it's a popcorn flick, as well as a Keanu Reeves flick. You go for the shiny, science-y things, not for the drama or for a moral. 4/5
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Dec 15, 2008 00:52
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Hologram posted:Also, Klaatu Verata Nikto wasn't said. :\ Yeah it was, when Klaatu gets shot and Gort starts to go apeshit, but very shittily: Wikipedia posted:At Reeves' insistence, the classic line "Klaatu barada nikto" was added to the script after initially being omitted.[10] The line was recorded many times, and it was decided to combine two versions; one where Reeves just said it, and a reversed version of a recording where he said the line backwards, creating an alien effect. I went in expecting crap, and that's pretty much what was put on the screen. Reeves' acting was actually very good for the character he was playing. There were many plot holes - the Central Park sphere has survived all the Sidewinder missiles we could throw at it, but right at the end let's hit it with four more, see if that does the trick! With all of Manhattan evacuated, why wasn't it nuked? - but the stepson was hands-down the worst part of the movie and the most disappointing change in story. In the original, Helen's son Bobby was nice to Klaatu, and was basically responsible for orchestrating Klaatu's realization that humanity was worth saving. In this one, he's a terrible little poo poo who is responsible for siccing the authorities on Klaatu but then kisses alien rear end the split second it becomes advantageous. gently caress that kid. I saw it on a standard screen with five friends - we made up about 20% of the entire population of the theater. About ten minutes after ours got out, the IMAX showing it next door let out and it was evidently packed. There wasn't a single smiling face and one could hear a lot of grumbling. Even IMAX couldn't save it  Pros: Reeves's acting suited the film, John Cleese's cameo was good. A colonel in the military who was commanding some remote drones looked sort of like a young John Cleese, and that's a neat concept. Cons: Plot holes mostly - the military's actions made no sense at times, and were there no plants going up in the arks? Also gently caress that kid. 1/5
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Dec 15, 2008 04:00
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Yeah, the kid was pretty much the worse part of the movie to me too. I was hoping against hope that the Earth gets wiped anyways, just so he could shut up. 2 plot points that served no purpose: 1. Did he have to be black? And if he did, did Connelly need to not be the mother? What were they trying to do with that? 2. Meeting John Cleese was a nice scene, but was utterly pointless to the plot. 1/5 The movie made 30m, pretty weak. Femur fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Dec 16, 2008 |
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Dec 16, 2008 03:02
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First 30min or so I was really into it. It was looking great. Then we started with the "humans destroying earth" bullshit that just wouldn't stop. I could live with Keanu saying we're killing it but for some reasons the humans begging for mercy saying they can change just got old fast. And please for the love of god smack the poo poo out of that kid. I hope he was intended to be annoying. If not, the kid actor did a terrible job with the script. Pros: Started really strong. Cool female lead. T-bag! Cons: Ended like poo poo. Annoying as gently caress kid. 3/5
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Dec 18, 2008 06:27
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I went to see this even with all the 5/10 and 2/5 reviews I'd seen, but I went IMAX just for the hell of it, also fellow goon and college buddy Heintje was with me, and he's aussie-like. I really enjoyed the first 30 minutes like everyone else, and the whole humans destroying earth thing did get old. I went for the effects, and I was not let down. They went big on these, the spheres were awesome, and the dissolving effect was quite the multiple moneyshot I wanted. GORT was loving kickass, until he changed into that cloud, I really wanted to see him just tear poo poo up all by himself. All in all I'm going to give it a 3.9 out of 5. Also I'm a sucker for New York Pros: Jennifer Connolly, GORT, Visual FX, poo poo getting destroyed. Cons: Keanu Reeves has to save the world AGAIN, No Al Gore cameo.
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Dec 21, 2008 06:32
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Ugh, skip this movie. Lets start with the plot. To be fair the movie is a remake, so I can understand why the plot wasn't given more renovation. Still its uncreative, and the only real change from the original was to change the threat from nuclear weapons to environmental issues, which the movie doesn't specifically discuss. Aliens invade the Earth. Ho hum. Lets go see whats in the theatre next to us. Then there's Will Smith's kid, whose name I can't remember at the moment. Personally I thought he was at least as annoying as the kid who played Anakin in Phantom Menace. He constantly goes through this pre-teen 'I want my daddy/my daddy would kick your rear end' routine throughout the movie. The special effects are alright, but I really wish they would have done something different with G.O.R.T. It looks exactly like it did in the original, which was where that one belongs. Should have given it a new look. Possibly the only real bright spot in this movie is, surprisingly enough, Keanu Reeves, although even that is double-sided. His role of Klaatu, requires almost no acting skills, only asking that he be cold, aloof, and emotionless. A perfect Keanu Reeves role, because thats pretty much all he can do. But still even at the end of the movie, which might require a little emotion, he still doesn't even manage to pull out even a hint of it. Oh and I really wish they had given John Cleese a bigger role. I'm gonna go watch some Monty Python now just for that. Pro's: An emotionless alien is actually a perfect role for Keanu Reeves. Special effects are adequate. John Cleese. Con's: Will Smith's kid is incredibly annoying, plot is clique. John Cleese needs a bigger role. Satone fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Dec 24, 2008 |
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Dec 24, 2008 02:41
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I saw this movie two days ago, and I was rather unimpressed. I didn't knowing anything about it going in, except that it had Keanu Reeves, it involved some alien invasion and perhaps a robot, and that it was a remake. What annoyed me the most was that a lot of it didn't make sense. First the technology was unbelievable, but that's almost a given in movies like this, so I could give this a pass. But then we have: Military/government: they were way too focused on trying to use force to contain the threat. I suppose you can't make a movie like this without having at least a part of the military being overly aggressive, but it's all of them, all the time, without anybody even trying to do something that resembles diplomacy. The entire diplomatic effort of Planet Earth hinges on this one rogue doctor that they hang out to dry when it's obvious that everything they do is completely ineffective. Aliens: Let's ignore the stupidity of destroying a planet to save it for a moment. In the end, they are convinced that humanity is willing to change, on the word of one scientist guy somewhere, and a women and her kid. I mean, she repeats it like 10 times, so it must be true. Never mind that the entire rest of the human race doesn't actually have a clue what's going on and is just trying to bomb the poo poo out of them. So he decides to give them another chance, dumps some more pollution in the form of several millions of dead tiny metal insects, and gets the hell out of there. Of course, from the viewpoint of the military, that happens pretty much right after they had bombed the main sphere pretty heavily, so chances are they are going to just think that the bombardment was effective. Because again, they don't actually have a clue to what was going on because they never tried to talk to them. And then for some reason all our technology breaks down, which is sure to improve the human condition a lot. I watch a lot of SF, so I can ignore silly science like the best of them, but some things (like Battlefield Earth) are just too stupid to ignore. It could have been redeemed by a good story or characters, but the plot didn't make sense and the characters were all amazingly stupid. Which makes this a bad movie. (Nice image quality and special effects though. I was also surprised by what appeared to me like a reference to Army of Darkness, but given that this was a remake I pretty quickly realised it was probably the other way around. (The line was obvious to me because there were subtitles.)) 1/5
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Dec 29, 2008 18:42
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This movie was complete garbage, marketed in every sense as a bait and switch. What it promises is an exciting invasion type movie, what you get is: A)Copious product placement(HELLO MCDONALDS, CITIZEN, MICROSOFT SURFACE VISTA WORLD OF WARCRAFT FORD etcetc! ) B)Annoying, forgettable unlikeable characters(To hell with you will smiths son.) C)Zero character exposition or build up to the main event D)Average special effects E)Plot holes the size of craters F)Absolutely nonsensical army behavior Screw this movie and everything it stands for. Surprisingly the best part of this movie is Keanu. 1/5
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Dec 30, 2008 01:05
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I saw this movie with high hopes, vague nostalgic remembrances of the original. The SciFi part was pretty cool, but the acting (Reeves was mostly ok) was anything but stellar. The movie seemed to lack a good sense of tension or flow, and moved in jerks and starts. 2/5
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Jan 11, 2009 04:37
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970416/ I haven't watched the original movie yet, but it seems that this version cut out most of the important scenes that would lead to the end of the movie being believable. There is a feature on the bluray about the G.O.R.T., and of all the amazing designs they had, I have no idea why they picked the one they did, but it isn't that bad. The kid wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. I did like this alot more than the War of the Worlds movie that came out a few years ago. 3/5 good rental
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Apr 8, 2009 02:15
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uXs posted:Aliens: Let's ignore the stupidity of destroying a planet to save it for a moment. In the end, they are convinced that humanity is willing to change, on the word of one scientist guy somewhere, and a women and her kid. I mean, she repeats it like 10 times, so it must be true. Never mind that the entire rest of the human race doesn't actually have a clue what's going on and is just trying to bomb the poo poo out of them. This. There were only about three people who actually knew why Earth was saved in the end. I mean, when Keanu leaves and all the power is mysteriously cut, you actually have a small scene with factory workers leaving their workplace. This means that during the entire apocalypse, the end of the world, these people haven't even taken notice and just kept making cars. Also, bad acting, plot with the holes of a swizz cheese, not that great CG. Not worth watching in my opinion. 1/5
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Apr 16, 2009 11:44
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