The Day the Earth Stood Still(2008)- User Reviews

Anyone who has seen the classic version of the same title can't help but be incensed by this trivial and boring alleged remake. If you haven't seen this new one, consider yourself lucky, and skip it entirely. I have to think those responsible for making this turkey had investments in Computer Generated Imagery stock, for that, and terrible acting, are the only things that are in abundance here. What that CGI reveals is that it alone cannot make a film (and, incidentally, it is rather POOR CGI most of the time--the drones aipping through Manhattan look like the 1970's technology of the original Star Wars).

Exactly what is missing from this re-telling of the story?--Well, quite frankly, "a story!" Can we begin with the fact that unlike the compelling half hour loss of all power all over the earth in the original (hence the appropot title), there IS no such display of the power of a much higher intelligence in the new one. Oh sure, a few sporadic power outages, more reminiscent of a fuse blow-out than an earth challenging event. The makers hung on to the title to lure suckers into the theatres.

What the early version had was the understanding that this was essentially a HUMAN drama, reflected in the believable, unfolding warm relationships between the spaceman and the boy (first to befriend him), the spaceman and his mother, and the spaceman and the learned scientist (brilliantly played by Sam Jaffe). The visitor from 250 million miles away even mentions the specific appealing human qualities that the boy possesses. There is also the compelling scene of Klatu at Arlington (to emphasize the scourge of war) and at the Lincoln Memorial (to emphasize the scourge of prejudice). Nothing in the new version comes remotely close to establishing the wisdom of an advanced civilization that has come to help the earth with its warning.

The human relationships in the new version? Basically nil. We have the spaceman-turned-Asian who professes his 'love for these people' (though he can't come up with a reason for it). And the soap opera relationship between the step-mother and child, with its totally predictable evolution from antogonism to a tearful realization by that brat of a boy that his new mother really does care about him after all. For some unknown and unexplained reaso (perhaps he has a crush on the scientist-mom, played unconvincingly by Jennifer Connely--her only scientific act is to give the spaceman a fake shot instead of the truth serum the military ordered; and this required bringing her in with a military escort)?

Keannu's Klatu claims to have come to address the UN about the imminent end of all life on earth due to humankind's destruction of the environment ("My name is Al Gore, and I approved this message"). When told that the UN doesn't contain all the world's leaders, he inexplicably gives up the opportunity to address MOST of them, in exchange for hanging out with mother and son. Seems his new purpose is simply to help them get together. A pretty humble goal for that long a journey! Meanwhile an absurdly huge GORT (yet nowhere near as menacing and frightening as the original)is wreaking havoc with the military. His destructionn of the complex in the desert where the military has him imprisoned, somehow (and again totally without explanation) sets off a swarm of insects that sweeps everything up in its path, like a combination tornado/swarm of locusts, destroying everything in its path (the most comic is the obliteration of Giants Stadium). Untold hundreds of thousands of humans die, some portion of the United States (from western desert east to NYC) is destroyed, and yet all that Keannu can offer (you never believe he is Klatu--he seems to be Neo on tranquilizers) is "I'll try" to stop the total destruction of the earth. Somehow (once again totally without explanation) he brings it off. The earth surives (an afterthought), but god dang it, mother and son are happy together for the first time! Lassie comes home, spaceman goes home, and no tears shed for the innocents who needlessly died. Where is the moral in all this confusion?

Back in the original, the moral was clear: Mankind had to learn to get along without war, now that war included atomic weapons, was about to place them on rockets, and likely to bring their warring ways into space with devices that threatened other portions of the universe. This was the message of the day. Just 6 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the possibility of the destruction of earth through a massive nuclear war was totally believable, a genuine potential apocalypse to fear (just 11 years later the world sat at the precipice of just such a nightmare event--the Cuban Missile Crisis for those who did not live through those times).

And, instead of concentrating on the soap opera of mother and son (they love each other just fine from the start of the film, thank you very much), in this version of the story Klatu, through his new ally Dr. Barnard, actually assembles--notably instead of world leaders--the top SCIENTISTS on earth. That is where the world placed its hopes in 1951. It is science which enabled Klatu (here played inspiringly and unforgetably by Michael Rennie)to travel here, to create GORT to enforce an essentially peaceful mission, to give his people a 140 year life span, to be able to regenerate life, if only for a reduced period of time. We likely wouldn't believe in that level of the supremacy of science to solve all our problems today, but it seemed possible 60 years ago.

I can't help but end with a final dig at two pathetic characters and actors in the 2008 version. Kathy Bates as the Secretary of Defense who is running the show (the President must be cowering in his underground cave, apparently disinterested in discussing the situation with the Secretary)is completely obnoxious, and a total joke. She comes across as the lady at the return counter that won't give you your money back. If that's the government, we should just surrender. And poor old Dr. Barnard. He's a significant player in the early version, the man who is so highly respected as a scientist that he can convene hundreds of the best of them from all over the world. Oh sure, in the new version the writers included the famous scene where Klatu corrects his chalkboard mathematical formulations. It was a moving moment in the original. But the new Dr. Barnard looks like a twin of John Cleese, and plays the role like an inept comic. This guy couldn't organize a poker game, much less the scientific intelligentsia. Worse, he reacts to Klatu's revelation of the formula that allows interspace travel. Instead of the awe clearly visible in Sam Jaffe's face, Mr. Cleese acts as if he had just won a $2 lottery ticket.

Without the wizadry of CGI, the original created a convincing, provactive interior of a spaceship, the eye-popping magic of its entry point and ramp emerging out of nowhere, and even a more believable UFO landing. Sure, some of the viuals are dated, but the 1951 version is hugely more compelling than its poor 2008 cousin.