Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) by Nathan C — 04 May 2011

Remake of the 1951 classic film of the same name is for me a guilty pleasure. I enjoyed. The film follows the typical popcorn thrill ride formula, but has barely any substance to it. I mean the ending is a disappointing.

But I didn't at all hate the film. Sure I didn't like a lot of the things about it. Especially the fact that the Aliens leave at the end without any explanation. But who cares? This film's biggest strengths are of course in it's special effects and it's the reason I liked it.

But the areas of which the film suffers are in the character and plot development. Some characters aren't likeable, especially Jaden Smith's character who is simply a brat. Also the plot seems to go nowhere.

But like I said, this remake focuses on the visuals and not the plot. Even though I liked this film, like everyone else I thought it fell flat and the ending needed to be better. The ending was what made this film fairly average, the aliens leave without an explanation was a stupid idea.

In the original the aliens have a motive to create the chaos on earth. In this remake, theres no explanation as to why the aliens create the chaos. With this remake you get an average popcorn flick that disappoints at times.

But for most of the time it thrills. But be warned it's nothing compared to the original which of course is a Sci Fi classic. If only the filmmakers would have put better thoughts into the ending, the film would have been better.

The ending feels like the screenwriters were getting sloppy and took the easy way out instead of creating and ending that was terrific. It could have been done, but wasn't. This remake for me is an average popcorn flick, entertaining but flawed.