Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) by Christina — 31 Jan 2011

I must confess that I haven't seen the original, but seeing as this is a remake it must have been some form of a classic. I can sense after watching this that there is some decent material here to make a good story and I would be curious to see it told from a different cultural and generational perspective. I am assuming that this version gives it a very modern twist and perhaps could have lost something of what made the original a great film. And I am also assuming that those modern twists are exactly what drag this one down.The film feels just to pretentious and preachy to be a straight up, honest to goodness sci fi flick.

Reeves puts his stone face personality to appropriate use here. He isn't necessarily the biggest problem. It is that everyone around him seems to follow suit with the exception of Jennifer Connelly, the only one who feels like she brings a bit of an emotional anchor. And so the movie has a hard time really allowing us to care. Partner that with what I felt were some serious pacing and plot issues and the film is hampered on more than a few levels. We are thrown into the mix from the get go with the earth facing pending doom with an oncoming asteroid. There is no time to even brace for the impact and so we watch as everyone turns to face their fate. And this is where the movie really begins to falter. The moment of impact becomes incredibly anti climatic as it lets us in with little hooplah on the fact that this is no asteroid at all. And so as we move into what is supposed to be a life changing event in the planets history we don't really feel the impact of anything that is happening. And this general trend works in to pretty much the whole movement of the film. It has some neat elements, but even as the film jumps from the mysterious metal giant to Reeve's prominent character it feels incomplete. By the time we are back to the metal giant we have forgotten about it and/or are left wondering why it hasn't done anything in the story yet.

The film is one big message about the environment. Which is fine, except that it doesn't really give us the heart and flesh it out with enough conviction to back it up. It wants us to consider the moral question of whether it is better to allow the chance for the earth to die and then humans along with it, or to sacrifice the human race to save the earth. And in that is the question of where humanity and the good that it represents fits in to that. Unfortunately Connelly alone can't carry that question with enough weight to save this film and much of the potential goes to waste.