This morning, minutes before we checked out of the hotel from Jakarta and to catch a plane back to Singapore, two of our Movie Review Squad members were busy booking our movie tickets via the free wi-fi network provided at the hotel lobby while the third one was on the 10th floor busy catching up with a last minute dosage of Indonesian info-tainment on TV. Cynthia is in love with Keanu Reeves; I am not sure what TK is in love with; and I am simply a fan of sci-fi stories.
TK and Cynthia appear to have enjoyed “The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Given the fact that we have not watched a single movie for more than a month, anything that moves on the big screen excites me. Maybe I entered the theatre with the benchmarks of “The Matrix” and “The Fifth Element” in my head – both have the theme of saving the earth. Even in my state of movie deprivation, I think “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is far off from my benchmarks. Nevertheless, an entertaining movie that has to be watched on a digital 4K projection. The image is so crisp clear. If I am to pick one or two things I like about this film, that would be the cinematography and the special effects.
The main challenge in liking this film does not lie entirely in the storyline. It is rather the inconvenience truth that we are facing. Yes, we humans are the destructive bunch. A few years ago when Cynthia and I attended the Christmas Mass at a Cathedral in Hong Kong, one message from the sermon left a deep impression onto me: In this year (can’t remember the exact year), two third of our nations are in conflict. And yes, we humans not only destroy each other, but also the planet too. I can bet with you that 100 years later when our future generations look back to today, they would laugh at our perpetual denial to link our selfish actions to global warming. They would laugh at our perpetual denial to link smoking to cancer and to our perpetual resistance in stop making cigarettes too (why do we make and consume things that kill us?!), amongst many others.
And perhaps, yes, Mother Earth needs a reset. If we look at a larger scheme of work and to acknowledge that Earth is a very rare and unique environment that sustains life form (I once read a report from the used-to-be famous magazine Scientific America on how probable, or rather improbable, there is another planet like ours out there in the Milky Way), maybe human beings are not the best thing that happen to Mother Earth.
The stage set in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is ambitious. And personally I don’t think the filmmaker has a satisfying conclusion to why we humans deserve a second chance. Yes, we may change when we are at the brink of extinction. But wouldn’t that be a bit … too late?
PS. Brands that I observed being advertised in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” are: Honda, McDonald’s, Windows Vista, LG, and Citizen.
