Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) by Justin R — 10 Oct 2010

The major problem with this 2008 redux of Robert Wise's classic science fiction film is its dramatic inertia. There's no immediacy, no tension, no pathos, not even basic visceral thrills, all due to a story told in too little screen time with too many pseudo-round characters that develop and/or change due to the lamest possible situations.

Consider a moment where a boy's near decade long resentment and distrust of his stepmother is done away with in one lame line of dialogue -- "Your Dad's not here. He's gone!" That's only the start of it.

Klaatu (Keanu Reeves doing another one of his 2x4 impressions) changes his mind about the fate of planet Earth after two key sequences which are all-together too short and too easy. Performances are all-around pretty bland.

The special effects are instantly dated, only ever rising to the quality of a middle-grade video game. Gort is still an awesome and imaginative creation, but damn does the robot ever look lame here! There are some good sequences here and there, but they're few and far between.

Cinematography is good, music is appropriately Christ-like (I'm really getting tired of what's becoming a series of Reeves-starring films wherein the actor does his wooden Jesus impression), and Scott Derrickson is definitely a talented filmmaker.

He just needs better material than this. So he'll hopefully hire a better screenwriter for Paradise Lost.