I ended up going to a screening of this last night. You remember how bad "Battlefield Earth" was? Well I put this on about the same level. The plot is ridiculous and whats with bad scifi movies this year having environmental messages ("The Happening"). You've been warned. Watch a couple of commercials and you pretty much have the plot. Oh and Keanu playing a role that needs no emotion. What a stretch. That being said it will be number one at the box office.

I hope this kills the save-the-earth phase in Hollywood.

There's already a thread 3 topics below this one.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...-castings.html

The first time I saw the trailer, I had a horrible feeling that it would be pure crap.

The reviews at RT so far seem to back all of this up.

Since there were no early reviews available until just yesterday, I'm not surprised that it's bad.

I liked it.

What a surprise, another movie from Fox that everyone says is shit.

That's hilarious.

There's more of a chance of Bill Maher becoming a born-again Jesus freak than that happening.

On a technical level, the film was competent. But on a storytelling level, it was awful. You never connected to any of the characters, so you had no one to root for. You knew the earth was going to be destroyed, but you didn't really care. Everyone seemed to take the arrival of aliens for granted. There was a lot of "What is this?" and some scientist popping up to tell you what it is. John Cleese is completely wasted in a brief cameo. In fact, everything about the film was brief. The filmmakers never took their time with anything, so every sequence finished before you even knew what was happening. I knew this would never compare to the original, which is a classic, but I thought it would at least be fun. As it is, I'll just stick with Independence Day.

Compared to the Original, this one misses the point completely and the ending is one of the biggest letdowns in recent memory - just nonsensical... too bad they fucked it up, the source material was pure gold.

Bought the new DVD set for the original movie, so I used the free movie money to see it today at the first showing. Woo boy, what a let down! Glad I didn't pay to see this...

First off, the Wolverine trailer put in a great frame of mind before TDTESS started. Can't wait for that one to come out!!

The first act was pretty good as far as setting up the story, but Keanu sucked the life out of this as soon as he appeared on screen. Gort had hardly any screen time (the military makes up an acronym for it!!!!???? Guess I should spell it G.O.R.T.) and all of it is rushed.

Effects were good, but non-sensical (the bugs moved across country way too fast and what of the destruction they left behind?). And I absolutely HATE know-it-all little kids in movies! Was this the same kid that played Mikah in Heroes? The whole sub-plot with him was terrible.

...then the movie ends and I said "huh? That's it???"

One movie I will not be getting on DVD in four months.....

Looking forward to re-watching the original with my son this weekend!

--John

That kid is Jaden Smith, Will's son. Guess daddy didn't make enough this year.

Thanks, marty888. Both kids look similar and are about the same age, so my mistake.

....and the movie still sucked.

--John

i'm not too fond of the original, but the remake was awful. What a waste of money.

funny I thought that kid Jaden or what ever his name was plain out sucked, as for Keanu, that kind of acting isn't new to him, the less exertion the better.

yeah the acronym bit was stupid.

welll I don't know, since there is a teaser for 'When World's Collide' before 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' - but in the case for that movie, (according to the original) it's only around three dozen caucasian Americans that make it off the planet before it's destroyed.

so bad i actually walked out. it was free which made it easier to walk away.

I thought you were going to provide a punchline. Looks like the late Red Skelton will have to do the honors. I've been using the sig below for years.

Re-read my post, Giles. I never said I liked this kid... I hate all of these child actor roles where they act too grown up, or too smart for their age, or treat all adults as dopes.

Wait, that's like most kids these days!

--John

in all honesty, I normaly avoid sci-fi movies. For whatever reason, I can watch horror movies easier than sci-fi movies. The aliens in this remake gave me the creeps. The action sequences were too short, not enough explosions for what the trailer was advertising. I diden't care for the main three charecters personalities at first but as the movie went along I was hoping that the alien and the female would get married.
I coulden't stand the whole "environmental" message of the movie... and I just hate scenes where they always make it seem like the kid is going to die (too reminiscent of "Signs", "Panic Room", etc). Overall, I liked the movie somewhat but it's not something I would buy.

I thought someone would throw me a bone with a:

"How bad was it?"

To quote from another board "Jaden Smith is pretty unconvincing in his role, though he has to win the "person you most want to slap" in a show/movie after Kim in season one of 24!"

I wish they had gone down the "monkey paw" route in the cemetery. That might have livened things up

I thought it exceptionally dull and distanced for a disaster movie.