No city in the world is destroyed quite so frequently as New York (e.g. "Independence Day", "Cloverfield", "The Day after Tomorrow", "Escape from New York"), and there's nothing quite like sitting in front of a big arsed cinema screen watching the combined efforts of a few million CPUs render New York to a smoldering ruin. Bonus points if you're actually watching the movie in New York. Extra bonus points if you see the location you're actually sitting in obliterated on screen.
Today's feature, "the Day the Earth Stood Still", was as anticipated, truly a stinker of a movie. Sure, if you need someone to depict a lifeless alien Keanu Reeves is clearly your go-to guy, but why weave moralistic environmental themes into what could have been a perfectly serviceable invasion flick? The concept (spoiler alert) of having a swarm of nanobot locusts eat New York has potential (who hasn't been looking forward to the nanobot "grey ooze" doomsday scenario?) but the fact that they pretty much quit snacking before they reach midtown was a big dissappointment. Bye bye Upper West Side but by movie's end all significant New York landmarks are still standing and my thirst for metropolitan destruction is unslaked.
I rate this movie 1 out of 5 decimated Chrysler buildings.
Yes, sounds like a much better summary than mine =)
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking a series of reviews of films that include the destruction of NYC. I'll start prepping the netflix queue. Next up - Cloverfield.
ReplyDeleteThat could work, I do want to watch the end of Kenny at some point, not to mention Chopper
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