Keanu didn't ruin the The Day The Earth Stood Still. In fact, his usual disjointed, "not-quite-human", artificial, "I've-never-experienced-emotion-before" performance was actually well cast for like the second (maybe third) time in his career. Typecast, maybe, but he nailed the part.
The child actor didn't ruin it either, even though I think they cast someone about 4 years younger than the part was written to be. Some of his lines weren't believable for a kid that age... but it wasn't a failure of acting, and it didn't ruin the film.
John Cleese, Kathy Bates, and Jennifer Connolly all delivered believable and well-rounded performances. One of them, in particular, could have been easily demonized, or incredulously transformed, but was instead rendered with care and nuance. Bravo.
The movie had lots of little flaws, but no critical failures. In fact, despite the minor plot holes, it was still pretty enjoyable. Some suspension of disbelief is necessary, but they didn't make the mistake of over-explaining the tech details - they left enough magic in it to enable that suspension.
The message was spot-on, as well, even if a little heavy-handed. It worked for me.
Effects were exciting when they needed to be, but the director and crew clearly knew the story was primarily a drama, not an action flick.
I guess I'm saying that I liked it. IMAX screen, buy-one-get-one-free-ticket, out and about for our Anniversary after most of a week of snowed-in, all that probably didn't hurt, either. So, context may account for me liking it extra. Just the same, I think I really liked it.
2 comments:
Good. I was hoping it would be worth the bother of seeing. I tend to shy away from over-hyped films.
I know you don't often go to the theatres - no need for a special trip for this one. It was good, but it'll be just as good on your TV or computer monitor. It's not one of those action-extravaganzas that you need a big screen to get the full impact.
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