The Day the Earth Stood Still Would've Been Great, If it Hadn't Been So Underwhelming

That's my thought on the movie, anyway.
Went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still with Mr. G and his parents the other day, and I was fairly excited about it, from the commercials I'd seen. (It had Kathy Bates and Jennifer Connolly, and I will admit to loving those two as actresses. It also, however, had Keanu Reeves, and The Matrix opened my eyes to just how wooden of an actor that man truly is.
As far as gender goes, the movie's not that bad. Jennifer Connolly's astrobiologist character, (Mommy, I now know what I want to be when I grow up), has her own reasons for wanting to help alien Klaatu, and they don't have anything to do with romance. She is fascinated with him as a scientific subject, at first, seems a little like she's pulled along with the current for a while, but, finally, realizes the need to get through to him about not harming the human race. The relationship with her stepson, (played by the adorable Jaden Smith), is fraught with difficulties, but I never got the impression we were meant to see her as pathetic or helpless. She's a "strong" woman in the sense that she has flaws, but she never lets those flaws define her, or hinder her.
Kathy Bates' Secretary of Defense is another woman who is "strong" in terms of personality, drive and character, not in any physical sense. I don't know who wrote the script, but they need to do a "Suicide Squad" film; they'd write a spectacular Amanda Waller. Though Mr G wasn't too fond of the some of the decisions she'd made, I pointed out that she'd have been dangerously genre savvy...If The Day the Earth Stood Still had been an invasion film. Once she realized, however, exactly what form the alien's hostility was coming in, she also realized that there was remarkably little the government could do to stop it. Even as she watches everything fall apart around her, she never falls apart herself, however.
I can't exactly give the movie points for it, but I was rather pleased at the fact that the movie didn't present us with an all white male military. I know I counted at least two women of color in the film, and, while it's not much at all, it's more than I've seen in lots of other blockbuster movies. (See: Iron Man, Transformers.) The people of color in the film were not merely comic relief, as well, but intelligent, sometimes thoughtful folks living their lives and doing their jobs. There were a lot of females and people of color among the scientists brought by the government, as well, though we still ended up with a little bit of "the attractive white woman is the smartest person in the room," and we don't need to see any more of that, though, this time, we at least got see some of her being smart. (The beginning of the film has an impressive classroom scene.) Points are also taken away for the "mystical Asian as guide" stereotype, even if he was an alien. Still and all, the film did manage to present a lot more diversity than I usually see in such big-budget films.
For all that, the movie was, truly, rather underwhelming. I think it has to do with the reliance on special effects in the last half of the film. It felt as if the executives didn't believe anyone would see a movie with aliens unless we got to see some familiar landmarks get destroyed. ("But look at how much money Independence Day made, just by blowing up the White House!" Yes, and so many blockbuster films since Independence Day have brought us so much more of the same, that we'd all like something different. For Christmas, perhaps? Thank you.) I loved the first half; it was thoughtful, it was intriguing, it brought up interesting questions. Once the glowing orbs started taking in animals, and especially once GORT the robot turned into a plague of metal locusts, destroying human life and human creations, I really started losing interest. What was a good film, and a good message, was, to me, starting to get lost in the need for special effects.