The Day the Earth Stood Still is the latest Hollywood production to hitch a ride on the "reinvention" bandwagon. With "remake" quickly becoming a four-letter word, studios are now trying (mostly in vain) to dodge criticisms by branding such pictures as reimaginings, rather than having done the same story all over again. To its credit, The Day the Earth Stood Still does a decent job of distancing itself from Robert Wise's original picture, but it's when the filmmakers reference that sci-fi classic that this 2008 reboot calls its own existence into question.
Director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) takes the acclaimed 1951 film's premise and gives it a 21st century twist. Professional brainiac Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) is going about her business, clashing with feisty stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith), when the government arrives to whisk her away into the night. As it turns out, an unknown object is making a beeline straight for Earth, and Helen's help is needed to figure out just what in the world is going on. When the mass comes in for a landing, it reveals itself to be a spherical spaceship carrying two passengers: humanoid alien Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) and his sidekick, a hulking robot later named Gort. Klaatu has come with a grave warning for our world, to change our destructive ways or face dire consequences. Unfortunately, the military is more concerned with blasting Klaatu to kingdom come than with listening to his message, leaving Helen to try and convince the intergalactic visitor to spare the planet from a horrible fate.
The trouble with comparing a remake to its predecessor is that one risks coming across like a cranky old man complaining about how things just ain't what they used to be. I admit that I'm a big fan of The Day the Earth Stood Still's previous incarnation, one of the most wise and compelling sci-fi tales ever made. Times have changed since then, and I appreciate Derrickson and company for trying something different in adapting the story for modern moviegoing audiences. But for as much of a self-professed fan of the original as Derrickson claims to be, he's less concerned about paying tribute than he is with aping random parts of that film. It won't be a terrible bother for viewers going in cold, but even still, there's a much too simplistic mentality at work here than the story needs. For the most part, the film comes across as an Independence Day clone with leftovers from An Inconvenient Truth mixed in. It's not as smart or relevant of a movie as it thinks it is, as the idea of mankind's abuse of the environment leading to our potential destruction is used as a clothesline on which to hang a handful of underwhelming action sequences.
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Article comments
1 - jeanne the maskmaker
I was so excited to see this movie, both as a big fan of the original (it is one of my top 3 favs of all time) and as a fan of Keanu Reeves (yes, we do exist and can speak in complete sentences). And as I left the theatre my main feeling was one of disappointment. I find that the farther I get from my viewing of the movie, the more my disappointment grows. I agree with your review, and I actually blogged something similar on my myspace page:
One of the components of my personal discontent at the end of the movie was that I could see the great movie within the just ok one. There were so many missed opportunities, many of which I listed in my full review on my page, that could have been used to create the impact needed to truely turn it into a work of art as opposed to just pleasant entertainment. One sticking point is that seemingly unimportant scene in the train station where Klaatu gets a sandwich from a vending machine. What does he do with the wrapper? The nonbiodigradable plastic wrapper that will contribute to the waste polluting the earth and bringing the planet to such an extreme of environmental distress that only the total annihilation of the entire human species can save it....yeah, that wrapper. Doesn't seem so unimportant now does it? Yet, we are given no clue whatsoever as to what this being who is supposedly dedicated to saving the planet from us, does with it. Details, details.....greatness is always in the details. I would have liked to see Klaatu search and fail to find a place to recycle that wrapper in the train station. It would have done 3 things; show his dedication to his mission of saving the earth, illustrate his difficulty adjusting to the human way of doing things, and show his anger and frustration at our lack of concern for this planet that gives us life. Then he could pocket it and carry it the rest of the movie, perhaps losing it as he and Jaden Smith's character cross that stream, and then go to extreme lengths to retrieve. All with the impressionable young boy watching him risk everything to keep a small peice of plastic from further hurting the earth. That would set up that scene in the graveyard to truely be a pivotal moment, when, as the young boy mourns his lost father with Klaatu watching the outpouring of emotion between the greiving boy and his grieving stepmother who reach an emotional bond over their mutual loss, the boy spots a peice of trash being blown across the grass towards the river. He breaks away and almost falls to the rocks below trying to retreive it as his mother screams in terror at his danger. He grabs the bit of plastic trash, pulls back to safety and with no words but a very earnest expression walks slowly to the all powerful alien being who is going to destroy the world.....and hands him the small piece of trash. Klaatu experiences a mutitude of emotions at the risk and fortitude displayed by the smallest and youngest of this species he is set to destroy. He takes the offering with a quiet "Thank you." This extension of that scene would explain his later (SPOILER ALERT!) willingness to save Jaden Smith's life and his mother's by taking the pasarites killing them into his own body and then sacrificing himself to stop the destruction of the rest of the world. And about that wrapper. Before he walked out into the parasite storm, he could have placed it gently into the young boy's small but strong hand and said "It's up to you now." And then sacrificed his own life (clearly, not so that we are confused as to whether he did or not) to give us a chance to redeem ourselves. What a stonger impact that would have been, what a message. And what a symbolic ethical question, the small bit of trash blown acoss the grass; do we pick it up, even at great cost and effort? Or not?
That is what I wanted from the movie, what I didn't get, and why I am disappointed.
2 - John Maynard
This particular movie will indeed be renamed: "The Day the Turnstiles Stood Still".
I found the closing credits in my empty-from-start auditorium very absorbing, though I left feeling annoyed. So many people involved: so much enterprise, for so little to crow over. This movie will eventually recover its cash by the drip-drip of mass-circulation - and so much the pity.
Where to point the accusing finger? The script was weak: the casting a human train-crash. Corniness seemed to mar even the best of intentions and slavishly reworked special effects. I disagree with other critics, who have assumed cinema audiences don't like to be preached at. This is untrue. I remember watching Planet of the Apes, and my inner wonderment to witness such mortifying dread â€" but not in 2008.
The New Earth Stood Still’s missive focuses on the environment: global warming; deforestation; species death; man's incompetence in managing the "Blue Planet". It seemed like a promising enough start. Then, of all things 1950's larger-than-life plastic robot emerging from a translucent, shimmering globe - as if it misdirected from an adjoining C-movie studio. Was the tenet of this novel adaptation too serious from the start? Perhaps with the advantage of hindsight a sort of altruistic, self deprecating movie, with mock-up robots and a tastefully ironic script would have made for better entertainment. Who, after all needs to see another “Independence Day”? That movie, despite my initial approval seems to display a new defect with every repeat.
In “The Earth Stood Still” remake, Keanu Reeves in the guise of Klaatu (an alien with a mission to “save” the Earth) reminded me simultaneously of David Bowie from “The man who fell to Earth” and the yellow-eyed “Commander Data” in Star Trek. He seemed both too human and too alien in one go, though nonetheless weirdly engrossing, not least for the vulnerabilities combined with his superman-like traits.
The lady “biologist”, whose empathy with her opposite-stage alien was "make or break" this particular movie was delivered to a role perhaps wisely rebuffed by many Hollywood actresses "with attitude". To be fair, the slim shoulders of Jennifer Connolly, invested as the heroine in this movie did a valiant propping-up job in selling her humanity, to elicit a change of heart from her unrepentant "alien destroyer". But her efforts were undermined by a contagion of sentimental caprice.
The "Sarah Connor effect" (Terminator II) did not work in this story, nor did the treacly orphan, played competently enough by Jaden Smith, however touching his wearisome script. No memorable one-liners, such as "Hasta la vista" or "No problemo" - just a corn silo of pap. The cemetery scene uttered in for me the true epitaph, in its gut-wrenching failure to manipulate my ever switching-off sensibilities. Do screenwriters and casting executives, ever discuss clichĂ©s over lunch â€" if not this was surely the biggest howler of them all.
If anything positive comes from this lackluster movie then it should be that "you simply can't carry on killing off audiences with this sort of low grade, propagandized slush". I really think that the public have evolved away from the sentiments of “The Dream Mile” and similar one-way trips. Let’s see real people â€" warts an’ all.
How then can you re-connect us jaded Sci-Fi buffs? By all means scare us, scold us and shock us, but find something also to inspire our imagination. Keep our hearts pounding with visibly important concerns: the future of our planet, our gross incompetence - no problemo!
But save us from the toxic effect of those altogether different sorts of human polemic. We suffer that, every day on the telly!
3 - hiu chee keong
I think the movie will end up better if the entire humankind were destroyed. Even myself as human, i don't think there's any chance that we, the human race will feel any sorry to the earth and repay the earth. Yes, there's more 'green' awarerance recently, but at the sametime, we still keep on destroying the earth everyday. Only the total annilation of human race than only we will be enlightened.
how come the bug could eat up a whole truck in a second but couldn't eat up keanu, the boy and the girl in more than 20 seconds ?
4 - John Hernik
wow this movie was terrible from Keanu Reeves with his imitation Neo character from Matrix performace to the extremely annoying acting of the child by Jaden Smith ( Will Smiths son) Yet again Hollywood ruins a movie with potential with its casting and almost laughable plot.
5 - Jim
Dear God, was this a bad remake or what. All the producers had to do was follow the story line of the original 1951 movie scene by scene and they would have had a way better movie. This remake was no coherency. Some of the best story lines were left hanging in the air or went nowhere. The meeting with Prof. Barnhardt, GORT, and the ending to name a few. It seems like someone just did a hatchet job to try to compress the run time with no regard for the story. This edit crew is better served working for some local news station and not on a major motion picture.
Keanu did an ok job as Klaatu but John Hamm would have been better as the straignt faced no nonsense alien. This was a real case of role reversal. I could go on....
My final recommendation: See the original with Michael Rennie. Made in 1951 (if you can believe it) it towers over this horrible remake. It has a flowing story line, is coherent and intelligent. And all that with next to no special effects. Imagine that! Now that's film making.
6 - Nicky Bernascnoi
I think they made a mistake on the title. It should have been called, "The Day Keanu Reeves Continued to Not Act." HORRIBLE HORRIBLE movie. TERRIBLE acting. TERRIBLE story line. Absolutely awful delivery. I mean really? Leave an alien that just landed on earth alone with someone during a lie detector test? No monitoring? How did the earth change? At the end of the movie they all think they just left. You mean to tell me one woman who knows they left so we can have another chance is going to talk to the earth and ask them to "live" better and they are going to listen? PLEASE I would have a better chance convincing the USA that I would make a good president. The point of the boy? Um, let me see. NO POINT. I actually threw up after the movie when I realized I spent $10.25 when I could have donated that money to a charity. Keanu Reeves is quite possibly the worst actor in the world. I cold act better asleep. Seriously, cut out his sceens and replace them with a tape of me sleeping and this movie may go from a dud to a stud.