The Day the Earth Stood Still (Scott Derrickson, 2008): USA

Reviewed by William Conlin. Viewed at the Universal Citywalk IMAX Theater in Universal City, CA.

I’m a big fan of film remakes. Except for a select few classics that should never be touched, if there is a valid reason to remake a film, I’m all for it. When I heard there was a remake of Robert Wise’s 1951 sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still, I thought: “Wow! That could be a great update!” Boy, was I wrong…

When the Earth is invaded by thousands of alien spheres Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) becomes the first human to make contact with a being from another world, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves). To her horror, Benson discovers that Klaatu has come to Earth to wipe out humanity, thus stopping the destruction that human industrialization is bringing to our planet. As the government attempts to stop the alien attack by force, Benson and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) try to convince Klaatu that humanity does not need to be eradicated.

This film, I’m sorry to say, has quite a few flaws. Although the “message” of the film is that unless we protect our environment, we will destroy ourselves, the filmmakers decided to focus on the images of destruction and sideline the message. Connelly and Smith fail to provide any serious depth to the characters and Keanu Reeves does as much as he can with a character that has no emotions. In fact, the only stand out performance comes from John Cleese, who has a one-scene cameo. Cleese plays a notable scientist who proves to Klaatu that there are some traits in humanity worth saving. Cleese plays the role with such dramatic gusto that you’d never think he was a comedian; it’s the one positive thing this film has to offer.

Although the visual effects are interesting for a while, the film seems to focus on random acts of destruction instead of substantive plot. More time is spent seeing New York City get decimated then is spent explaining the alien’s reasoning. Director Scott Derrickson and Cinematographer David Tattersall give us a few interesting images, but nothing too memorable. I also found Tyler Bates’ score to be far to calm for an action thriller.

As I said, I enjoy remakes of older films, but they need to have a good purpose. Two really good remakes that come to mind are Ocean’s 11 and King Kong. Both films had a good reason to be remade. The original Ocean’s 11 was a great crime caper that had sadly become too corny for modern viewers and King Kong was given the version that the filmmakers wanted over 70 years ago by using modern digital effects. In the case of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I have to say the original is better than the remake and it should have been left alone.