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"The Day the Earth Stood Still" Review

by Jane Boursaw on December 15th, 2008

I’ve always thought that Keanu Reeves had sort of wooden acting abilities, which makes him perfect for this role, since he plays a humanoid-looking alien. Although I wouldn’t say this remake of the classic 1951 film is a great movie, it still has some nifty special effects.

It begins with a huge spherical object landing in New York’s Central Park. Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) is practically dragged out of her home by law enforcement officials and shepherded into a waiting aircraft carrier, along with several other scientists. They’re taken to Central Park, where the group approaches the object and Helen makes contact with a strange being exiting the orb. Of course, the military shoot the creature on the spot.

Taken to a medical facility, the creature eventually sheds a goopy layer of gray blubbery skin, and emerges as Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), the aforementioned humanoid-looking alien. The reason for his visit to Earth becomes clear: other civilized planets wish to destroy Earth’s population, since we’ve done such a horrible job taking care of the place.

The Secretary of Defense (Kathy Bates) decides to deal with the situation by force, but Helen takes pity on Klaatu and, along with her stepson, Jacob (Jaden Smith), helps him escape. On the run, she tries to convince Klaatu that the Earth is worth saving, that we can change, but he says things are already in motion and it’s too late.

This is where things get interesting. During all of this, military personnel have been dealing with and attempting to destroy a giant robot-type being. I won’t say what happens with this being, but let’s just say that the special effects are pretty cool. In fact, I wanted more of the special effects and less of the environmental/save the planet message. 

That said, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” has plenty of suspense and action scenes, and the story stays true to the original movie. It bugged me that U.S. military personnel were portrayed as these buffoons who didn’t have a clue what they were doing. Also that force would be the only way to deal with a situation like this. I guess that’s the point of the movie. That we’re buffoons, but buffoons with heart — and that’s enough to save ourselves from total destruction.

Jon Hamm, John Cleese, and Kyle Chandler also show up, and while they’re fine in their roles, they go the way of the rest of this movie, which is to give us one-dimensional characters. But I still love Keanu’s line from the trailer: “You should let me go.” He rocks that line.

Images: The Day the Earth Stood Still, 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., 2008

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