I'm not suggesting this is a fantastic movie because it isn't. I was unaware of the fact that it was a homage to a film made in 1951 but knowing that now makes the rather silly alien robot model make sense that appears in the film.
The movie is very watchable though even though the overall plot doesn't make a great deal of sense nor does the movie end in a sort of understandable way. Perhaps this was intentional so that we the audience have to fill in the pieces of the puzzle ourselves. As someone who has not seen (or even knew about ) the original film, I can't say if it properly represents the original ideas that warranted a remake over 50 years later.
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When this film was released near apocalyptic movies had already been all the rage about a decade before and I guess they waited long enough before getting back on that train. Making a movie of this magnitude takes a lot of money and the fact that most of the special effects look really good even now shows that they didn't pinch pennies when burning through nearly $100 million while making this movie.
The movie has a ton of heavy hitters and there are some pretty great aspects of it as well such as governmental arrogance even when faced with impossible odds. I particularly enjoyed that even though it was evident that "Klattu" (played by Reeves) was a sort of omnipotent otherworldly being, that US government officials still felt as though they could boss him around and tell him what he was and wasn't allowed to do.
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Kathy Bates does a perfect job of presenting this level of arrogance on screen as the Secretary of Defense who tells Klattu that he is not permitted to leave and of course, it is only because of his own patience that he didn't french fry her brain when she was acting that way towards him.
The movie shows a great deal about human nature and the power of authority. Police, military, and high-level government officials keep insisting that we throw more and more bullets and missiles at certain targets even though it has become abundantly clear that they have no effect on these majestic spheres that have landed on Earth.
The story outside of that is pretty decent too and this is where I start to get into about how Keanu was the perfect person for the role of a Klattu, who is an alien emissary of sorts and is completely devoid of emotion.
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I know that everyone loves Keanu Reeves even though he was partially responsible for the Cyberpunk game that pissed a lot of gamers off but my opinion of the man is that he is not a good actor, he just gets really good roles in films. He is not versatile and seems most realistic in roles where being extremely wooden are exactly what the character calls for. I challenge anyone to find a film out there where Keanu isn't acting wooden and present it to me. I have seen quite a few where Keanu is attempting to do something out of his wheelhouse and they are worth seeing not because they are good, but because they are extremely cringe to see Reeves attempt to be anything other than the robot man that he is.
I strongly encourage you to watch 10 minutes in a row - if you can bear it - of Destination Wedding starring Keanu and Winona Ryder as a prime example of this. It's hilariously bad.
Back to The Day the Earth Stood Still. Something that I quite enjoy about this film is that unless you are familiar with the original or a book about the original, I don't think that most people are going to be able to predict how this one turns out. It isn't typical Hollywood in that regard and this was a big part of the reason why I enjoyed it more than the average person on IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes did. It has VERY low ratings on both of those sites and while I don't put a great deal of emphasis on actually believing what is on either one of those sites, I can't really understand why. I think tis movie is thought-provoking and unpredictable. It also features Jaden Smith before he became an insufferable asshole and even though I normally don't like child actors, I feel like he did a pretty fantastic job.
Should I watch it?
If you are a science fiction fan I would say that yes, you definitely should see this. For most people that aren't interested in sci-fi I still think this one is worth seeing based on its overall entertainment value alone. There is a nice mix of emotion and action and while there are a few scenes that are kind of hokey for the most part the pace keeps moving and the 90 minutes fly by without much of a lull. I can only thank heavens that this movie was released in 2008 and not these days because there is an environmental message in there that they would have turned into a political lecture if it was released today.
While this movie will not be for everyone, I think it will appeal to a wide enough audience that I can recommend it to anyone regardless of what sort of films they like. I completely disagree with the masses on review sites as far as this one is concerned and believe that you should check it out.
