Okay before I get started with the review the first thing I have to get out of the way is a mini-review of the Wolverine: Origins trailer that premiere exclusively with the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (TDESS). Being a a comic fan of X-Men series I must say Fox did an awesome job with the Wolverine trailer. I won’t say what mutants were in it and what it entails but if you get a chance to see it please take a look. Unfortunately with the track record of the X-men movies the Wolverine movie will probably be a flop (not in sales) amongst the rabid comic book fans. I would like to change my views that were once voiced on this site earlier.
***************The Following Review Contains Spoilers******************
*************For Summary Go to the Last Paragraph********************
As a child I used to love watching movies from “before my time” like Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad the Sailor, and Invasion of the Body Snatcher (1956 version). My favorite TV shows were Alfred Hitchcock, and The Twilight Zone. But the one movie that I watched every year was Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. Before I can tell you my feelings of the remake let me first tell you about the classic.
The Day the Earth Stood Still follows an alien by the name of Klaatu who comes to Earth to deliver an important message. Upon his arrival, Klaatu is shot by accident, when the military mistakes his token of peace for a weapon. A robot exits the space craft and destroys the military’s weapons and almost the military before Klaatu utters a command in his language which stops the living machine. The alien is taken to a facility to dress the wounds. Once Klaatu escapes the base he decides to live among the humans in order to find out more about them. After meeting Helen Benson and her son Bobby, Klaatu sees that the humans are not as destructive as once thought. Klaatu leaves Earth but not before delivering his message. which is the Earth is yours and you can do what you want. But aggressive behavior and wars will not be tolerated. If you keep it up and expand it past Earth, the police , robots like Gort, will respond and destroy the planet if needed. The one memorable scene from the movie is when Klaatu knows that he may not survive the night and gives Helen a special command that will stop the robot Gort. “Klaatu Barada Nikto.” The phrase I would always remember to this day.
Now 57 years after the original Scott Derrickson takes a shot at recreating and updating the masterpiece for a new and younger audience. I will never forget when I first saw the trailer for TDESS. It was during a screening of the new Dark Knight movie. At first glance I thought it was Constantine 2 until Keanu Reeves in his dull emotionless manner utter “Your planet?”. At that moment I wanted to walk out of the movie theater and begin my remonstration for the movie. For weeks I did nothing but bad mouth the movie and went to watch it in hopes to have a new victim for the site. Unfortunately the movie is a faithful remake to the original.
The movie starts with Keanu Reeves in arctic sometime around 1958 (might have been 1928). He alerted from a bright light and finds a glowing planet-like sphere. He decides to hit it with his pick and awakes moments later with a scar on his hand. The movie flashes forward to present day to establish Jennifer Connelly’s character Helen Benson. In the 1951 version Helen was a secretary but the decided to make her a scientist in the remake. That being said she goes home and we are introduced to the most annoying characters ever in a movie. Someone so annoying that they almost single handedly ruined the movie. More annoying the Jar-Jar Binks and no I am not talking about Keanu Reeves. Mr. “I know Kung fu” actually performed very well. The issue was Jaden Smith (The Pursuit of Happiness). His character Jacob Benson was so bad, I was willing to boycott anything Smith to prove a point.
The arrival of Klaatu is pretty faithful to the original. The only difference was he was shot by the military due to no answer for the “rules of engagement” rather than the mistake of weapon. At that moment we get to see the Robot. Instead of sticking with the man in the suit like the ’50′s movie the remake decide to use CG. The robot stood at least 25ft tall and make work of the weapons without breaking a sweat. The CG was not to convincing as the robot did stand out, but that was due to the rendering of the image. The scientist and military take the alien to an enclosed area. As the surgeon tries to remove the bullet they explain the aliens abnormal look. The weird pale white skin is actually a placenta that host the alien as it reconfigures it’s DNA. After a short time the final result is Keanu Reeves (nice link to the intro of the movie).
From here on like the original Klaatu establishes a relationship with Helen and through her he sees the other side of humanity. An interesting scene in the remake is when Klaatu meets up with another alien, played by James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China, Lo-Pan) named Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu tells Klaatu that the humans are a destructive species and unfortunately can’t be saved. When Klaatu makes the decision to “cleanse” the Earth he tells Mr. Wu that they need to make preparations for their departure. Mr. Wu states that he will stay and die with the humans. He explains that there is another side to being human that he can’t explain. Perplexed by the response Klaatu proceeds with genocide.
Outside of Jaden who I don’t want to even talk about, my only other issue is with the ending. Just as you reach the apex of the movie it ends on a flat note. As I stated earlier my favorite scene from the original “Klaatu Barada Nikto” never existed in the remake. The new ending consisted of the robot braking down to a swarm of nanite locust that basically eat everything except Earth plant life. During their Terra-forming cleansing Klaatu sacrifices his body to stop it cause he sees the other side Mr. Wu spoke of. So Klaatu goes into the swarm and that is it the Earth is saved. Yay 
I really enjoyed how the writer modernized the story. In 1951 the US was on the brink of going into the Vietnam war so the underlining moral was a message of peace. It was stated by Klaatu that he didn’t care what the Earthling did with the Earth. However the message for the remake was to save the planet. The new Klaatu had the decision to save one species (humans) and lose the Earth or save the Earth at the price of the human race. According to him The Earth is far more precious because it can house and support multi-level lifeforms. So clean the virus and save the host. Also the special effects were amazing in the movie. The original relied on the underlying message of effects, while the remake evened out both effects and story.
************SPOILERS OVER SUMMARY PARAGRAPH BELOW**************
In conclusion The Day the Earth Stood Still is a good movie. Even though it is not story driven and has the most annoying character of all time I enjoyed it immensely. Keanu Reeves performance was no disappointment. The message was clear and even with it’s faults (Smith and the ending) I am glad to call it a faithful remake. This movie definitely has to be enjoyed in a IMAX theater and if your a fan of the original you won’t be a disgusted as I thought I would be.
The Day the Earth Stood Still gets a
B+
Maj
