Directed by:
Scott DerricksonCinematography:
David TattersallComposer:
Tyler BatesCast:
Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Jaden Smith, Robert Knepper, James Hong, Kyle Chandler, Brandon T. Jackson, John Rothman (more)VOD (4)
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A remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic of the same name, The Day the Earth Stood Still follows astrobiologist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) as she is unceremoniously plucked from her everyday life with her stepson (Jaden Smith), and whisked away to consult the government on a top-secret matter. That matter happens to be the arrival of a massive glowing sphere in Central Park, accompanied by a towering robot-like protector dubbed Gort and an alien ambassador named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who takes up human form to communicate with the people of Earth. When Klaatu finds himself faced with hawkish, uncompromising officials, he goes on the run with Benson and her son as the fate of the world gradually becomes clear. (20th Century Fox)
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Reviews (9)
A great old-school sci-fi (in very nice visual packaging) unfortunately with a typical ending about the hope than human kind can change. I haven’t seen the original, but in my eyes Derrickson did an excellent job maintaining the idea and the feeling of the original (I’ll certainly have a look at that to confirm my thoughts), which has a timeless theme. Moreover, Keanu Reeves exceeded my expectations massively because in truth I couldn’t imagine him in a role like this. For me the best scene of the movie was the ingenious beginning which was very reminiscent of The Thing in terms of atmosphere.
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After the almost hateful reviews that absolutely trashed the second half of the film, I expected almost anything except a pretty normal ending, which is actually considerably better than Independence Day, for instance. Last year’s genre relative I Am Legend also was much weaker. In short, The Day The Earth Stood Still is unlikely to become a new classic, but if I had to pick between it and any destruction orgy from Emmerich, I would choose Klaatua hands down. The director did his work with panache, delivering many scenes with a perfect atmosphere, and if I had to complain about something, it would be the script, or rather, the family storyline, but even that was bearable.
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A worthy remake that does not put its predecessor to shame. The original was released in the 1950s, during the raging Cold War, and spoke with much more urgency, so the pleas that "We can change!" in the current version sound rather empty, but technically, it's clear that this spirited little sci-fi film has benefited from a modern coat of paint, especially in the character of the alien guardian Gort, who surpasses his predecessor in terms of impressiveness. The charismatic Keanu Reeves certainly didn't disappoint, but I'd love to shoot the whiny Smith to the Milky Way.
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This is what happens when a contemporary filmmaker takes on a remake of a 1951 film, especially one directed by Robert Wise, which is indeed a different league. Scott Derrickson has two excellent horror films to his name, but this one is a classic Hollywood pseudo-B-movie where there's too much melodrama and emotions that we have seen so many times that you end up ignoring them rather than being affected by them. In the 1950s, this was a hot topic, but in the new millennium, not so much anymore. Moreover, Spielberg had War of the Worlds, which at least had some action-oriented sense to it.
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The Day the Earth Stood Still neither offends nor enraptures, and it definitely doesn’t satisfy, be it in terms of plot or the technical aspect. Derrickson alternates nice thought-provoking and emotional moments with purely visual ones, but the first type is scarce and the second one is clichéd and unoriginal. And the rest is just filler held afloat only by the performances of Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves. Even though these two have little to do here, you’ll root for Jennifer from the start and as for Keanu, you’d believe him even as an alien, in spite of the fact that his facial expressions are the same as in all his other movies. The young Jaden Smith is terrible, just like the young Dakota Fanning a few years earlier. As an intimate director, Scott Derrickson was not the best choice (the character of an army general, who acts more like a redneck carpenter posturing in a garage, is a failed attempt at irony). The film has a pleasant “sci-fi charm”, but it is overly cautious and bland. It comes up short in the inevitable comparison with Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, which was a far more exciting experience despite all its faults.
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