The Day the Earth Stood Still: I watched them

Richard and I watched the original on Netflix via our 360 (which I've only mentioned once how great that is, and it's worth mentioning at least an additional 2 times how great it is) and then we watched the remake in IMAX--where you don't watch movies, they happen to you. I'm probably more inclined to notice pore size than most people but...gibblies.

In 1951, Klaatu comes to Earth to "encourage" us to submit to an interstellar police force of robots programmed to locate aggression and punish it. The civilizations on other planets were unconcerned while we were aggressing each other to pieces with spears and bows and arrows and guns and cannons and grenades and tanks and bombs and bombs and bombs, but when we started making rockets that can breach our atmosphere, and bombs that can destroy an entire planet, the aliens got a little hot under the collar.

In 2008, Klaatu, still named Klaatu even though it sounds kind of 1950's scifi silly--many of the names of the original main characters were the same, I suppose as homage, but the characterizations were so different that it felt a little bit like the filmmakers were trying to get bonus points for their awareness of an original version in a really winky, elbow-nudgy way--comes to Earth to deliver an ecological warning. Although, I'll admit I'm a little fuzzy about this.

In the original, Klaatu eventually delivers his message to the greatest scientists in the world, so we know what it is. In the remake, Keantu speaks with a fellow alien in a person's body who tells him that humans are a destructive race and resistant to changing, and Keantu decides (quite comically in some kind of Chinese, I think) that he'll have to kill us all. So what was that original message he wanted to deliver to the UN? "I'm going to speak with another alien and then decide whether or not to kill you. So make sure you wear clean underwear tomorrow."

Eh. This is one of the problems with the remake. The plot is updated in ways to make it more "realistic", but still tries to follow the old plot, and is then jimmied to make the special effects fit in. Don't get me started on the special effects by the way. Gort was a 10 foot tall robot in the original that was obviously a person in a shiny suit filmed in clever perspective, but at least looked like a tangible thing that could fit in a reasonably sized spaceship. In the remake, G.O.R.T. (a military acronym used in such a way that I felt as though I had been shown a tongue, watched as it was placed in a cheek and then marveled as it was illuminated with Christmas lights) is a 4 million foot tall (approximately, I think) robot that is clearly computer animated and not part of the world the actors live in. I'm not sure if the spaceship was enlarged to a giant shiny globe to fit G.O.R.T. or G.O.R.T enlarged because they had space in the globe, but I would guess that the decisions were made in conjunction with each other. As in, "How can we make the movie look more awesome? Bigger robot! Bigger spaceship! Tiny silver bugs! Explosions! Dissolving trucks! Magic electric powers for some reason! Ohhhh, ohhhhhhh yeah. Don't, don't stop!"

Our threat to the safety of the Earth is a bit more tragic and relevant than our threat to aliens deduced by virtue of Washington's threat to Moscow, but it still felt trite. Like the message of Pocahontas was extrapolated to a scifi action movie. How high does the sycamore grow? The answer is not as cool as scorpions migrating to giant glowing globs, but if you cut it down, then you'll never know.

I wasn't enraged by the remake's shortcomings, though. More bemused. And I think it will be an excellent Saturday afternoon movie on TNT. One more thing worth noting. Helen Benson, the woman who shows enough common sense, sympathy, and understanding to help Earth by helping Klaatu, was a regular secretary in the original. Proof that a regular person was capable of these qualities. In the remake, she is an extraordinarily well-educated scientist--completely skirting the issue of whether or not someone like a secretary or insurance salesman would be able to act like a humane human in extraordinary circumstances.

Oh well.

Pilobolus: I watched it

It seems to me, that when I've heard of or read about Pilobolus, it was often described as a dance border or bookend. As in, "From the height of classical dancing, like the Kirov ballet, to groups that straddle the boundary between acrobatics and dance like Pilobolus..." or, "whether your thing is funky hip hop dancing or way out there modern stuff like Pilobolus..." By the way, it's not that way out there, Mom and Dad both liked it.

I'm happy to see it at all, and especially happy to see it while the creators are still the artistic directors. So Jonathan Wolken who was one of the choreographers, and probably original dancers of Ocellus, which I saw tonight, was able to tell the dancers who performed it tonight what it is.

Day Two was the closing piece--the music was partially by David Byrne and the Talking Heads, which made me think that he must have liked working with dancers, since he also wrote music for Tharp's Catherine Wheel. I made other comparisons in my head. This music was much more listen-toable, and the dance was more accessible for me. Catherine Wheel was very dark, and while parts of it approached plot, I have a very foggy recollection of it. One of the things Tharp experimented with was a wire-form animated dancer--a computer generated thing with a lot of precision and no grace.

One part of Day Two began with just the four men kneeling in a row. They did a sequence of bows, brought praying to mind. One man does this move first, on his own: he falls forward onto his finger tips and stops absolutely still--more stable than the most perfect tripod ever was--and this links back to the Catherine Wheel because it made me think about one of the things I really love about watching dance--it chases the limits of human physical ability and shows that at our best, we're better than the best machines and devices. It's true in more mundane movements too: the best human welder at his best is better than the best robot welder ever could be. (I choose to believe)

Pilobolus shows our bodies as perfect levers and platforms and wheels and counterweights. And pretty excellent planes and fish and birds for that matter.
The things they did with girls hanging on sticks are so cool, I'm suprised I haven't seen it everywhere (Missy Elliot videos, ABDC, SYTYCD, so on).

...they were all like, "Here, stand on my feet while I lie on my back and stick my legs way up into the air." "Why, thank you. Don't mind if I do. And afterward, would you mind carrying me wrapped up like a scarf around your neck?" "No problem at all! So long as we can walk on chairs that other people are sliding around." "Of course! That's understood."

Quantum of Solace; I watched it

Handsomeness, Daniel Craig: 8 out of 10
Following the events of Casino Royale, Mr. Craig's James Bond's handsomeness acquires a brooding quality which as we all know, is like aging a fine wine, adding depth and sophistication. He falls short of a ten for two reasons. First, there has been enough talk about Craig performing his own stunts that I heard about it; the one most perilous to the actor's person takes place shortly after the opening car-based action sequence. Bond brings a captive to a dark basementy situation for interrogation where he meets M, who remarks that he looks tired or terrible. In a display of bravery worthy of 007, Mr. Craig actually looks kind of puffy-faced. It seems to me that they could have used a puff-face double, or some CG, but I suppose the effect was more realistic. So while he gains my admiration for his face's athleticism and dedication in its willingness to look all tired and junk, I nevertheless must dock a handsome point. The second point deduction is a result of the woeful under-usage of Mr. Craig's talent for having really blue eyes. An additional blue sweater could have made a world of difference.

Handsomeness, Remainder of the Cast: 5 out of 10
While additional sources of handsome are largely unnecessary in a Bond film, there is precedent for handsome tech-guys--an opportunity the director missed. The bodyguard who fell off the roof was adequate, but his face wasn't highlighted during his short appearance on the screen

Usefulness of the Attractive Women: 9 out of 10
A surprisingly high rating for a Bond movie! The lead female role of Camille was both very attractive and very useful. She never needed rescuing, she was never used as leverage, she didn't even slip when she was climbing out of a cave. She also managed to do something important all by herself (you'll see). The lesser female character, Fields, does get herself killed in a sexy way, which makes her considerably less useful than Camille, plus she wore a silly dress to a party, which doesn't effect her usefulness or attractiveness, really, but even during her short lifespan, she managed to trip a bad guy with a douchey toupee. Useful.
The hotel worker at the end could have screwed things up a little less, but given that she was alone and terrified and wearing a frumpy dress, she doesn't effect the rating.

Sass and Composure, Dame Judy Dench: 10 out of 10

-Liked it
-Could Watch It With My Mom