The Day the Earth Stood Still (**)

Directed By: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Jennifer Connolly, Keanu Reeves, Jaden Smith
Seen: December 12th 2008

** Out of ****

I never saw the original film, so I can’t do a comparative review. I do however strongly suspect that the original was by far this film’s superior, since most films will be this film’s superior without even trying too hard…

Keanu Reeves couldn’t be more perfect in the role of Klaatu, an emotionless alien sent to earth as a warning: Stop destroying the planet, or you’ll be destroyed to save it (seriously, the main plot is that of environmentalism). He’s perfect for the role of Klaatu, not because of his acting skills, but because of his overtly present lack thereof.

Klaatu arrives in Central Park out of a massive sphere slowing down just before impact with earth, stopping just as it makes contact with the ground. He walks out of the sphere in alien form, and a trigger happy marine shoots him down, where he is ‘rescued’ by Helen Benson (Connolly), a scientist called in to study the anomaly of the spheres showing up around the world. After being shot, his bodyguard, GORT (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology), destroys every weapon in Central Park with the ease of killing ants… This is a spectacular scene, and for the rest of the movie the special effects are also absolutely fantastic.

Klaatu, meanwhile, is taken to a separate location, where he loses his husk, and now appears in the human form of Keanu Reeves. From here the film becomes a continuous labour, having to cope with absolutely ridiculously written characters in the form of a child played by Will Smith’s son Jaden, right up to Secretary of State Kathy Bates, not one of them convincing. The level of writing employed cannot justify any belief in what the characters do. The supposedly stable and in control leaders are the first to panic and lose control, adding no credence to their assumed levels of power…

The film continues to quickly reduce itself to one you wish would blow over, much like the beautifully realised yet destructive cloud GORT transforms into as the ending looms. Or rather labours to, eventually.