Went to see the remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still." I'd like to say that it's nothing but two hours of pan-galactic pantheist preaching, but it's not. I just have a weakness for alliteration.
What it is, is the entire "Matrix" trilogy rolled into one film. The first third is interesting, action packed and possibly even thought provoking, if you're the sort of person who doesn't think much. The second third is boring and features unbearable amounts of dialogue that attempts to outline the philosophical underpinnings of the film for the terminally dense. The final third is incoherent and barely watchable except for a pretty cool swarm of killer machines.
The main difference is that the underlying philosophy of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is warmed over new age pantheism that demands a firm foundation of ignorance in order to be taken seriously. The sort of babble that talks endlessly about "evolution" without any understanding of what the word actually means. I'd rather listen to two hours of Richard Dawkins being smug any day of the week. He may be going to hell, but at least he's bringing a coherent and intellectually defensible view of the natural world with him.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
The film ends with the destruction of every electronic and electrical device on the planet. The plucky heroes escape total destruction at the hands of the aliens in favor of a massive famine that will kill 99% of them as fertilizer, refrigeration, and the rapid transport of food becomes a distant memory. The film presents this as a good thing as it will open the door for further evolution, presumably via that most Darwinian of selection pressure: contingency cannibalism. Maybe they understand evolution after all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)