day the earth stood still remake: poster

Above is the poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still (the remake). I'm just as annoyed as anyone else that Hollywood only manages to recycle ideas (and are now bringing this laziness to Broadway), but nothing aggravates me more than doing a remake of an already solid movie. I can understand Gus van Sant doing a remake of Psycho (the ending is outdated and, yes, comical), but it wasn't a remake. He recreated Psycho shot-for-shot. Isn't that THEFT? American remakes of foreign classics also irritate me because Americans should just rent the original anyway. Two things happen with these Americanized remakes. One, people have no need to see foreign films because Hollywood will just make a craptastic version of it eventually. And two, they're craptastic. Most remakes are mediocre. Can you think of a remake that surpasses the original? (Even Haneke's Funny Games, which is a shot-by-shot duplication of his original German film, isn't as interesting.)

So above remakes and sequels and foreign rip-offs, I hate remakes of already stellar movies. (If anyone does a direct remake of It's a Wonderful Life, blood will be spilled. Jimmy Stewart is George Bailey.) So why remake The Day the Earth Stood Still, which, if you've seen it, is more impressive in plot, character development, and special effects than most movies today. (Did you see their guns just disappear?) My prediction for Hollywood's latest remake is... the smartest person in the world will no longer be a scientist but Joel Osteen, and Klaatu (played this time by Keanu Reeves... seriously?) will be more futuristic-looking than the original Klaatu (who took on the guise of a contemporary human). I also imagine that the final message will not be about love and tolerance... but about violence and breasts.