Preview The Day the Earth Stood Still

Yesterday, Fox previewed some footage for the upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still before an encore presentation of Fringe’s pilot episode. I missed it, due to getting home late from church and forgetting to set our DVR. Fortunately, the always reliable Peter Chattaway found the footage on YouTube — click here (better watch now, there’s no telling when it’ll get taken down).

I’m a big fan of the 1951 original. There are certainly aspects of it that haven’t aged very well, but it’s still a really great classic sci-fi film. As such, I was becoming increasingly troubled by the rumors and reports surrounding the remake (e.g., the environmental focus of the storyline, the absence of the iconic robot Gort, this less-than-enthusiastic script review). Now, some of these concerns have been ameliorated somewhat, as we get closer to the release date and more news and material about the film is released (it looks like Gort is in the film, albeit in a slightly different role).

But as cool as the material and promos release so far have been — the film’s first trailer was pretty spectacular, and the recent preview looks pretty good as well — I still have no idea how I feel about the actual film itself. It’s a curious sensation, to be sure. I want to like the film, partly because I love the original so much, partly because what I’ve seen so far looks good, and partly because I like the folks making the film (Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, John Cleese).

If done right, the film could be tremendous on several levels, but at the same time, I wonder if it’ll get lost in the shuffle of similarly themed films about humans and their treatment of the environment (e.g., The Happening, Wall-E).