Atop the Stoa this day, I am forced to remember the movie I watched pieces of last night. It was the 2008 remake of the Day the Earth Stood Still. I had told myself in 2008 that I had no interest in seeing it as it was revealed to me by others that it was basically another movie about environmentalism. Interest lost.
However, yesterday I stumbled across it and decided that the special effects were cool and that I'd see what they did with Gort. He was cool, I'll admit.
I have to say that the original was more believable than the remake. The premise of the remake is so full of holes I don't know where to start. Well, I guess the place to start is at the beginning.
The point of the movie is basically this: we have proven to be incompetent shepherds of the planet and aliens have decided that they have to call an exterminator on us so that they can save a "rare" planet that can support complex life. They have determined that they have more of a right to the planet then we do. Kind of like when Europeans determined that they had more right to gold bearing lands than the Indians. They could have the dusty scorpion infested land in Oklahoma and North Texas. Well, until we found oil there, then they lost those rights too, but I digress.
First off, the Earth has not been like it is today for the past 3 billion years. It was not like this 300 million years ago, nor was it this way 65 million years ago. Heck, it was not this way 15,000 years ago! Earth supported life during all of those time frames. Different life than today, but life nonetheless. The Earth has nearly been rendered uninhabitable on several occasions. In the Permian, volcanoes and gasses from the ocean bed nearly exterminated all life. There has been at least one, and perhaps two times, where the Earth became an Ice Ball due to orbital wobbling. Where was Klatuu and his people then? Where were they 65 million years ago when the asteroid in pact in Mexico nearly exterminated life on Earth? Asteroids have caused more than one mass extinction. Where were they all those times?
How about volcanoes? Do they have a trick about neutralizing the gasses that they emit? Gasses that on an annual basis exceed the levels that humans have produced since we learned how to burn wood?
Why does this guy need to use a car (a Prius no less!) to smush a cop and then bring him back to life, when he knows that the guy is going to be nanite kibble in a few days?
The Earth has been both vastly hotter and far colder than it is today. There have been times where life has been abundant and times where life has been scarce. Even if humanity is killing off everything it does not consume, eventually, mankind will either go extinct itself or it will wander into the stars and leave its crib behind. The Earth will be free to re-evolve all sorts of new life forms.
The Earth is vast and it is old. It has the scars to prove it. It will neither care or notice the little vermin scratching away at its upper most dermis.
If Klatuu were telling the truth, he would tell the leaders of Earth that he has claimed the Earth for the collective uses of the aliens around Sol. Is this not Imperialism? Is this not what every liberal abhors, even when they commit it? They have determined that we are an infestation. They have determined that we are violent and need to be irradiated (contradiction). They are the ones with the doomsday weapons, despite their obviously peaceful and benevolent nature. Why do they need Gort if they are all such peaceful little aliens?
Like I stated, the first movie was far more likely in my book to occur. I can see aliens coming here and telling us that they have noticed our probes, our nukes, and our penchant for killing each other in ever increasing numbers. I can see them coming here and telling us that if we so much as lift a pointed stick at one of their worlds that they will turn us into a glowing ember in 10 minutes. That I can understand. That I can believe.
Calling Exterm-a-Sapien is not likely...at least not due to environmentalist concerns. Land, resources, huge amounts of water? Yes. Polluting the water? No.
Live well.
--Zavost
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