For a movie that was such a classic in 1951, in a time when communication was so hard to come by especially for world leaders and the common public, in the time of radio glory and TV not having as many broadcasters as today, and produced by an empire of visual effects and owner of Fox News for example, let's see a few points that probably went through the screenwriter's head, or probably the producer's zero to none creativity restraining the screen writing in what could have been an epic movie.
1.- The president of the USA would have been one of the first characters that we would have been, it's not 1951, put simply with a fictional movie, ID4, Bill Pullman doing some even not presidential things, added so much to the movie like the speech, however in this case, Kathy Bates is placed in a character that is neither there nor there, a servant to the president where they are treating the "Greatest discovery of mankind".
2.- The message. The 1951 movie was all about the message Klaatu was bringing to the world, and at the start even Gort was a lot more violent than what we see at first, simply desintegrating, literally all arms and potential dangers when Klaatu is shot. Now not only he is biological which was a good point, which "seemed" more threatening but there's no payback, since this one simply stays still as they pull him underground and even lets itself be "drilled". But back to the message, some parts of the movie were effective as what an arrogant race we are to think that we pose any obstacle to anyone who might arrive to earth with such technology, and does it even more magnificently so (no offense to the USA) by portraying Kathy Bates telling him about the President of the USA as if Klaatu should have heard of him, let alone of the way our planet works.
However when they are to pass the message, in the meeting where Klaatu passes the epic "We have created a race of robots..." speech, simply goes by as if the whole production crew, director, screenwriter and anyone forgot that was the point of the movie! a Second chance but having showed they would make the earth stand still, instead they do it with these nanos which would have been better used if they did that to a couple of areas, then back to Gort, however Gort "disappears" when the nanos go flying out! The earth stands still, and he leaves... What message then? What did the world learn? which world leaders heeded to the message? ID4 even had more success at this than this fiasco of a remake so promising from the trailers.
And one last point, why giving such an annoying kid (which the actor is so badly chosen) such a preponderant role? Seems that was the quirk they wanted to poise since in 1951 the kid was Klaatu's friend from the beginning. Professor Barnhardt, who is a major figure in the original film only lasts a few minutes while they reach his place and the obnoxious kid calls the cop on him, I think Scott Derrickson had just seen X-Men 2 but has to realize that it takes a good director to pull an epic movie off, someone like Bryan Singer at least.
1.- The president of the USA would have been one of the first characters that we would have been, it's not 1951, put simply with a fictional movie, ID4, Bill Pullman doing some even not presidential things, added so much to the movie like the speech, however in this case, Kathy Bates is placed in a character that is neither there nor there, a servant to the president where they are treating the "Greatest discovery of mankind".
2.- The message. The 1951 movie was all about the message Klaatu was bringing to the world, and at the start even Gort was a lot more violent than what we see at first, simply desintegrating, literally all arms and potential dangers when Klaatu is shot. Now not only he is biological which was a good point, which "seemed" more threatening but there's no payback, since this one simply stays still as they pull him underground and even lets itself be "drilled". But back to the message, some parts of the movie were effective as what an arrogant race we are to think that we pose any obstacle to anyone who might arrive to earth with such technology, and does it even more magnificently so (no offense to the USA) by portraying Kathy Bates telling him about the President of the USA as if Klaatu should have heard of him, let alone of the way our planet works.
However when they are to pass the message, in the meeting where Klaatu passes the epic "We have created a race of robots..." speech, simply goes by as if the whole production crew, director, screenwriter and anyone forgot that was the point of the movie! a Second chance but having showed they would make the earth stand still, instead they do it with these nanos which would have been better used if they did that to a couple of areas, then back to Gort, however Gort "disappears" when the nanos go flying out! The earth stands still, and he leaves... What message then? What did the world learn? which world leaders heeded to the message? ID4 even had more success at this than this fiasco of a remake so promising from the trailers.
And one last point, why giving such an annoying kid (which the actor is so badly chosen) such a preponderant role? Seems that was the quirk they wanted to poise since in 1951 the kid was Klaatu's friend from the beginning. Professor Barnhardt, who is a major figure in the original film only lasts a few minutes while they reach his place and the obnoxious kid calls the cop on him, I think Scott Derrickson had just seen X-Men 2 but has to realize that it takes a good director to pull an epic movie off, someone like Bryan Singer at least.
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