Day the Earth Stood Still, The (Blu-Ray) (2008)

Day the Earth Stood Still, The ( Blu-Ray) (2008)

7/10

This was an enjoyable, but not great, remake of the original film. The actors were all good, but their characters were written as broad stereotypes. The reason for Klaatu's visit is updated from the 1950's to a more current concern.

Scott Derrickson ("Hellraiser: Inferno", "The Exorcism of Emily Rose") directed this film. Our stars include Keanu Reeves ("Matrix" trilogy, "The Gift") is our friendly alien Klaatu. Jennifer Connelly ("Dark Water", "Dark City") plays Dr. Helen Benson with an adopted son Jacob (Jaden Smith (Will Smith's son, "The Pursuit of Happyness"). Kathy Bates ("Misery", "Dragonfly") plays the idiotic Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson. John Cleese ("Time Bandits", "A Fish Called Wanda", some little group called 'Monty Python') turns in a wonderful, and too short, performance as Professor Barnhardt. James Hong ("Big Trouble in Little China", "Epoch" has s small role as Mr. Wu, another visiting alien.

In the early 1900s an explorer (Reeves) is hiking around some snowy mountains when he finds a glowing sphere. For fun he smacks it with his pickaxe, causing it to brightly glow and making the explorer to pass out. When he comes to, he has a round scar on his hand.

Fast forward to the present day. The government assembles (rather rudely) a group of scientist to try and figure out what to do about an object that is on a collision course with the Earth. I really do not expect what the scientists as supposed to do, as the object is speeding in at 1/10 the speed of light, or roughly 30,000 times the speed of the average meteor. But it turns out well as it decides to slow down and land in Central Park, New York City.

A humanoid shape comes out of the big sphere, and is promptly shot by the armed forces. Doc Benson tries to treat Klaatu while Gort, a massive robot-type creation, decides to disable the humans, and perhaps kill them all. Klaatu stops Gort with the famous phrase.

Klaatu is carted off to a military installation while it gestate into, can you guess, Reeves. The SecDef orders interrogation and drugging, so the Doc helps him escape.

We find out why Klaatu is visiting, and it is not a very happy visit. Prof Barnhart saves the entire world, even though no one knows it. Gort gets really angry. Lions, tigers, and monkeys (OK, they never show monkeys) are trapped in glowing spheres which lift off from Earth. In the end we are saved to watch this documentary, err, film.

The acting was very good, even Reeves' performance. This is helped since Klaatu is essentially emotionless, fitting Reeve's acting range. There are some nice sound FX, especially the famous line "Klaatu barada nikto", which is a overlay of the phrase being said forwards and backwards at the same time. The graphical FX were great. Gort was of course a CGI creation, but it looked flawless. The movie does bog down for a while in the middle.

This film is a good rental, and would not be a bad buy. Would be fun a science fiction movie party.