Firstly, I am going to let everyone know before they read this review, I may include a few spoilers. So if you are waiting to see the movie-don't read ahead.
I went in seeing this movie expecting a lot from it, mostly because of the hype and reviews it received. I was not very impressed with it entirely. I don't believe Keanu Reeves is that great of an actor, it is almost like he tries to hard, an over-actor if you will. But this movie still has a lot of good qualities.
This is a remake of a 1951 classic under the same title, the story is that of an alien race who come to earth to keep peace throughout the universe. The alien ship "sphere" lands in Central Park and as soon as the alien steps out of the "sphere" he is shot by the army. He is protected by a machine and then taken to a military hospital where he escapes from to learn more about the planet before the end.
This film is filled with a lot of great special effects and sound, but like I said earlier Keanu Reeves is not a perfect fit for this role. I like Jennifer Connelly, she shows a lot of compassion in her character and the more and more I see of Jaden Smith, I think he will very much be just like his father some day.
One thing I did not understand, in the beginning Keanu Reeves character was in the mountains, in 1928, in India and appears to die-I think-in the very first scene, but the movie doesn't explain what was the connection.
This movie did have a lot of similarities as others, and maybe since it was a remake of a movie from 1951 the others followed it. But it reminded me of movies such as "Armaggedon" and "Deep Impact" where there was something threatening earth. It was a lot more like "Deep Impact" in the sense that the "thing" could not be fully stopped, part of earth was destroyed before it all ended. Keanu Reeves character in the end of this film reminded me of Bruce Willis' in "Armaggedon" seeing how he gave his life for the two people who helped him the most, Bruce Willis sacrificed himself for the crew of the ship, he also gave himself to save mankind, Bruce Willis did the same.
I think this film has a deeper meaning, it says somewhere in the film that earth is being destroyed to save the universe. That the people of earth are killing itself, which I think is quite possibly true. We have let technology control ourselves for two long. We keep emitting gas into the atmosphere killing earth very slowly, we are trying to inhabit other planets to see if there is live out there, and I'm almost positive if we find life then we will just poke and prode and do all sorts of evil-like science experiments on the beings. I love in the end of this film, how when the aliens leave the world in peace all technology stops basically taking the world back to the stone age, because that is what we would be without all our technology and maybe that is what we need to realize how evil this world really is.
In all I give this film 3 out of 5, it is really worth a watch.
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