The Day The Earth Stood Still Movie Blurb by Shale Dec 12, 2008 I was really anticipating this movie, got to see it on opening day and now I can say I really enjoyed this movie. I will be getting it on DVD when it comes out (at full price instead of waiting for a cheaper used one) and I might even go see it again in theater. However, I checked some reviewers and discovered mine is a minority opinion about this movie. Seems about three out of four didn't care for it and many of them were miffed by comparing it to the 1951 classic of the same name. If you are young, not a movie fanatic and never saw the original black and white movie, don't worry because seeing it is not necessary for you to enjoy the remake. Just take my word for it, this movie is good in its own right and very entertaining. The story opens with a fast moving object in space coming to earth. Right away we are confronted with the answer to that question of "are we alone?" with a huge spaceship sitting in NY City's Central Park. Landing in Central Park The alien Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) comes out and while making first contact with biologist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) is shot by an undisciplined and overzealous soldier. GORT, the giant robot protector disarms all the military around the ship and Klaatu is taken to a hospital where his life is saved but he is detained by the Secretary of Defense (Kathy Bates) and interrogated as to his intentions on our planet. Klaatu being questioned on a lie detector Being a smart alien with more powers than a puny earthling, he manages to escape but needs to be helped by his scientist friend Dr. Benson. Just like the first movie, Klaatu is here to determine if humans have to go in order to save the planet. See, our species has been trashing the place for so long that it was noticed by others in the galaxy and planets like ours, that support such abundance of life are very rare. The action comes as GORTreleases the automatic destruction devices giving us some pretty neat CGI effects while Klaatu hangs out with Dr. Benson who is trying to convince him that humanity can be saved and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) who thinks the alien should be killed. Giants Stadium being destroyed OK, the rest of this blurb will deal with the movie purists and fanatics who were prejudiced against this flick, sight unseen just because it dared to remake an outdated classic. Yes, no matter how good the 1951 movie was, it was a product of that era (an era in which I lived BTW). I recently re-watched my DVD of that movie and enjoyed the simple way the story was presented of a benevolent tho potentially deadly alien that comes to this planet to keep humans from taking their nuclear weapons into the solar system. I was there when the big threat was the US and Soviet Union obliterating the world with thermonuclear weapons - did the "duck and cover" under my desk in the classroom. But that was 57 years ago, get over it. We don't drive around in black 1950 cars or talk on telephones wired to the wall and Bobby Benson (Billy Gray) is now an old man, not Bud Anderson on Father Knows Best. Put the 1951 movie into a video museum and look at it for nostalgia and film study but for entertainment this current remake is the one to enjoy. What I found interesting is exactly how many scenes paralleled the original movie. The extremely fast flying object to indicate it was not made by any humans, the landing in a very public place, City Park in NYC instead of the National Mall in DC. Klaatu goes to visit a prominent scientist, professor Bernhardt (John Cleese in this movie) and completes a complicated astrophysics math theory on his chalkboard as proof of his advanced science. There is even a scene of the shutting off of all the world's electricity. GORT, which in this movie isn't a name but an acronym for the Genetically Organized Robotic Technology has a similar appearance but is much larger than the man-in-a-rubber-suit Gort in the original movie and does look more metallic. I should hope the movie purists come around and see that this is a good movie in and of itself and not judge it solely for daring to be a remake of a classic.
well I'm glad that somebody liked it I guess. Personally I thought it was really awful and so did everyone I saw it with. Even those of us who were really high thought it was a bad movie! I just couldn't get past the terrible acting myself. I mean Keanu Reeves lived up to every comedy sketch parodying him that I've ever seen!
Why do they bother re-making excellent old movies.Heck I should ask why do they even still make movies,they've lost the ability to make good movies years ago.The ORIGINAL 1951 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still was so good.I would rather watch the original 100 times than even give one second of viewing to the new one.Anyone who is interested only view the 'original' 1951 B+W classic.Don't waste your time with the pure junk Hollywood puts out nowadays.
No I did not see it.I dont view any of the newer films or television shows because they are for the most part junk at best .By the way you write reviews very well.And I did not mean to turn your thread into something negative about how low the quality of tv/movie entertainment has sunk.
It had some cool parts and a lot of potential, but between those cool parts was a lot of bad acting and high levels of lameness / stupidity (super advanced alien guy having to RUN THROUGH THE WOODS / be escorted around everywhere).
