365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 141 - The Day The Earth Stood Still

This 2008 special effects extravaganza is a remake of the classic 1951 film. The producers, writers and director all tried to pay homage to the original, while updating the story for the new millennium. What they did instead, was create a deadly dull fill that relies on CGI in place of a suspenseful narrative. They replaced Micheal Rennie's urbane, sophisticated, earnest Klaatu with a bored, stiff, lifeless performance by Keanu Reeves.

Instead of nuclear war being the threat that brings the aliens; this time it is global warming. Humans are destroying the planet and must be eradicated before the harm being done is irreversible. It falls Jennifer Connolly, John Hamm and John Cleese to convince Klaatu that humans can change. Jaden Smith as Jennifer Connolly's step son gives a strong performance, but the script forces him to be an annoying brat for most of the movie. Kathy Bates has the thankless role of being the government official who wants the alien destroyed at all cost.

The movie offered some original ides, the way the alien evolved to human form and the type of ship it arrived in. Some of the original films major set pieces are present too. The ship lands in a park, this time Central Park rather than the Washington Mall. Klaatu wanders amongst humans learning about them, but it lacks the fun and imagination of a being inter-acting with humans up close and personal for the first time. And the robot is present. GORT is terrifying in the beginning, but the film reduces him to a cloud of nano-byte bugs that are nothing more than a cheesy visual effect.

The film lacked narrative suspense to make me want to care how it turned out. Too bad because it had potential.

At The Movie House rating **  stars