The movie opens in the 1920s when a crazy sphere lands in the Arctic during a snowstorm. Bearded Keanu Reeves is there to examine it. He is “shocked” by the sphere and wakes up with a scar on his hand and the object is gone. Now its present day and Jennifer Connelly is a scientist who is rushed to a top secret meeting with a bunch of other scientists. They believe a meteor is going to crash into Manhattan. It ends up being a huge glowing sphere. An alien emerges and someone from the military shoots him. As soon as this happens a giant robot appears and disables all tanks, guns, lights, and everything but doesn’t cause any harm to anyone. It seems to shut off after it assesses the situation. So they rush the injured alien into surgery. They find out it’s got an outer skin covering what seems to be a human Keanu Reeves. Once the alien is saved and gains consciousness they begin to question him about his reasons for coming to Earth. I’ve never seen the original but I hear it’s a classic. This movie is anything but classic.
One thing they got right is casting Keanu Reeves. I heard a lot of people were mad when the casting announcement was made but I don’t understand why. The alien is a stiff, emotionless being. So I think they picked the perfect actor. It may be his best role because he didn’t need to act at all. The original film had aliens coming to Earth when they got worried about nuclear weapon use. Of course the new film has to GO GREEN and be about humans not taking care of the planet and causing it to die. Keanu is there to find out whether the humans are worth saving or not. He decides they are not. He should team with Al Gore and try saving us from Global Warming because that would have been a more entertaining movie.
So the entire movie has Connelly and her stepson Jaden Smith (little Fresh Prince) trying to convince Klaatu (yeah that’s Keanu’s name) that the humans are worth saving. All the while, the military is trying to attack GORT (the big robot) but he activates during acts of aggression. Of course there’s not going to be any acting props in this movie, its not one of the Oscar contenders that come out during this time. Its basically a summer blockbuster that wasn’t good enough to be released in the summer. And I still have no idea what the opening scene in the Arctic meant, were they taking Keanu’s DNA to create Klaatu? The special effects are cool but they really only start kicking into high gear in the final 10 minutes so if you’re seeing the movie for badass effects then you can take an hour nap during the beginning. I don’t want to spoil the movie but if you’ve seen the commercials with stadiums crumbling and are expecting some alien nuclear attack then you’re wrong. What they do with GORT is just silly and would probably really BUG the audience. I’m just sayin…
IMDB – 5.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 20%
Movie Wiseguys – 4/10
