The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

I’m almost embarrassed for saying this, me liking Sci-Fi and all but it has been so very long since I watched the original THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. I intended to buy the movie and watch it long before I got to eventually see this remake however when I thought about it I decided it would be a better idea to watch this modern day re-telling and review it objectively. So very often people are willing to write a movie off just because the original was superior when most directors don’t intend to better the original. Instead I see these remakes of classic films as homage of some of our greatest movies.

The movie itself starts quite suddenly and gets right into the story instead of messing around. A giant sphere lands in central park in New York and a life form emerges which takes human form. It is accidentally shot by a trigger-happy soldier and so emerges GORT, A huge android-like-being which acts as a bodyguard to the life form and is only activated by any threat of violence. It deactivates the militaries weapons before they can take any further action. The wounded being is taken to a base and later introduced as Klattu (Keanu Reeves). It asks to speak to the world’s leaders however the president has already been hidden away safe and the secretary of defence Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), has other ideas. She wants to question Klattu and find out the alien race’s intentions on Earth. Scientist, Helen Benson (Jennifer Connolly) quickly takes to Klattu and helps him escape. It emerges that Klattu’s mission on Earth is to destroy the human race as they are harming the planet. As it’s one of the few words, which is capable of inhabiting life, it comes down to “If The Earth dies, humans die but if human’s die, the earth lives”.

All in all despite a few problems THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL was a decent attempt at a re-imagining of a classic Sci-Fi movie. The biggest negative for me was the story. It promises so much and falls just ever so slightly short. The climax was a little lacking and could have done with a little more ‘oomph’. The effects whilst not been terrible weren’t great either and the image of GORT with the sphere behind him looked a little dodgy. On the positive side I felt that Keanu Reeves actually played the role well contrary to what a lot of other reviewers have said so far. I have never been a fan of his acting abilities and up until now only THE MATRIX movies and CONSTANTINE leap to mind as movie were I didn’t mind him as much. In THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL he played the role in a mono-toned manner but I believe that’s exactly what this particular role needed. I was just waiting for him to scream out a ‘Cowabunga’ or something to that effect though.

When compared to what we would class as classic sci-fi THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL falls way short but as a separate movie, it’s pretty decent and much better than Steven Spielberg’s WAR OF THE WORLDS remake. I think this one will definitely appeal to the mainstream audience but will ultimately fall short to the Sci-Fi geeks out there. I like to call myself a geek but when I sit back and think about the one’s I still need to see then I’m a long way off. For me, it was well worth watching and a good way to spend my Sunday night.

Date: 15/12/2008

Rating: 3.5/5

Copyright ©2008 Rough Cut Reviews.

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