Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) by Ola G — 25 Dec 2015

In 1928, a solitary mountaineer encounters a glowing sphere. He loses consciousness and when he wakes, the sphere has gone and there is a scar on his hand where a sample of his DNA has been taken. In the present day, a rapidly moving object is detected beyond Jupiter's orbit and forecast to impact Manhattan. The United States government hastily assembles a group of scientists, including Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), to formulate a survival plan. The object is measured to be moving at 30,000 kilometers per second - enough to destroy nearly all life on Earth - but as it nears the planet, the object slows down just before impact and is revealed to be a large spherical spaceship, which lands gently in Central Park. The sphere is quickly surrounded by police and a heavily armed, hostile, and rather chaotic US military force. An alien emerges and Helen moves forward to greet it, but amidst the confusion, a soldier shoots the alien. A gigantic robot then appears that temporarily disables everything in the vicinity. The alien voices the command "Klaatu barada nikto" to shut down the robot's defensive response. A military surgeon discovers that the alien body is actually a bioengineered space suit, composed of placenta-like material covering a human-like being. The being quickly ages into Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who looks like the mountaineer. Klaatu informs Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates) that he is a representative of a group of alien civilizations, sent to talk to the leaders of Earth at a United Nations conference in the city. Jackson instead orders that Klaatu be sent to a secure location for interrogation. Klaatu manages to escape and Helen and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) give him a ride out of the area. The presence of the sphere, and others like it around the world, causes a widespread panic. The military launch a drone attack on the sphere, but are thwarted by the robot. They cautiously enclose the robot and transport it to Virginia. Klaatu meets with another alien, Mr. Wu (James Hong), who has lived on Earth for 70 years. Wu tells Klaatu that he has found the human race to be destructive and unwilling to change, which matches Klaatu's experience. Klaatu decides that the planet, with its rare ability to sustain complex life, must be cleansed of humans to ensure that it can survive. Klaatu orders smaller spheres to collect specimens of animal species, to preserve them off the planet. Helen quizzes Klaatu about his statement that he has come to save the Earth and discovers that he means to save the Earth from destruction by humankind. Meanwhile, the robot, named "GORT" by the military, is being examined in an underground facility. The robot transforms into a swarm of winged, insect-like, nano-machines that self-replicate as they consume everything in their path. The swarm starts to erase all trace of the human race...

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" from 2008 is a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. The majority of critics found the film "heavy on special effects, but without a coherent story at its base. Bruce Paterson of the Australian Film Critics Association gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing that the generally poor reception for the film was "a sad fate for a surprisingly sincere tribute to Robert Wise's 1951 classic." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars and noted that the film had "taken its title so seriously that the plot stands still along with it", but also stated that it was "an expensive, good-looking film that is well-made by Scott Derrickson". This remake suffers from underdeveloped themes, an incoherent plot, rough characterisation, wobbly acting and effects that takes over the storyline. The film starts off ok, but never really manages to convince due to lack of substance despite the fact that the story is intriguing with Klaatu wanting to save earth from mankind and not the opposite. In the end it just becomes a blockbuster action movie and not a full blown sci-fi movie with solid layers of a socio-political nature. Reeves is alien-like and wooden, no news here. While the talented and lovely co-star Jennifer Connelly isn't given much to work with, she still comes out of this with her dignity. And Jaden Smith is just a spoiled celebrity kid that adds nothing to the film. The idea was there, but the execution lacks a plenty.