The Day the Earth Stood Still (20th Century Fox)
Watch the Original
Hollywood keeps remaking old movies and botching the process each and every time. Cant they leave well enough alone Obviously not. The latest remake fiasco is of The Day the Earth Stood Still, a 1951 movie that starred Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie. In this remake everything that was right with that movie is wrong with this one.
The film starts with some character played by Keanu Reeves being in the mountains of India back in 1928. A bright object lands near his campsite and when he touches it some of his skin is peeled off. Later we find out that is why the human looking alien who comes to earth in the present time looks like Keanu. That object stole his DNA and rebirthed something that looked like him.
Back in the present time a huge object lands in Central Park in New York. Dr Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) is one of the doctors summoned to take a look at it. A human looking creature named Klaatu (Reeves) emerges from the object and is promptly shot. At the hospital he and Benson bond.
With her young stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) along for the ride, Benson and Klaatu escape from the police guards assigned to him. She takes him to meet her mentor (John Cleese) in hopes he can persuade Klaatu and his alien friends not to wipe out humanity. It seems we have been polluting the planet and must be erased. See what you started, Al Gore. Now you have the aliens mad at us!
The movie puts forth a lot of guilt about us destroying the planet and does it in a most boring way. The movie is tedious to the extreme and it doesnt seem like the earth has stood still, it seems like the movie has. Keanu Reeves playing bland and blah, which is what he has based his career on, is not an exciting actor to watch.
Connelly is totally wasted in her role. This award winning actress needs to find a role that challenges her. This one is only a slight step above the part she played in Hulk. And as for Jaden Smith, well he overacts his little heart out and no one reins him in.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
There are no sparks between Keanu and Jennifer; there is not even a hint of some kind of attraction. The only part of the movie that is exciting to watch is when Gort, the big robot with the Cyclops eye, starts wiping out things. At least he is exciting in his deadly actions.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a remake that never should have happened. If you want to watch a movie which has this basic plot, go back and watch the original. It is much, much better than this mess.
I scored The Day the Earth Stood Still a paralyzed 4 out of 10.
