The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

[KT_]

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. Directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, the film updates Cold War themes like nuclear warfare to the more contemporary issue of global warming.
...
A representative of an alien race that went through drastic evolution to survive its own climate change, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the environmental damage they have inflicted on their own planet.

I really enjoyed The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The film had stunning special visual effects, however some critics complained that the movie relied too much on special effects and lacked a solid story. The movie received mostly negative reviews.

There were certain scenes that seemed awkward.

Such as...

when the young boy suddenly warms up to Klaatu . Up to that point the boy has been doing anything in his power to stop Klaatu. All Klaatu has to do is grab the boy to keep him from falling off a bridge and then suddenly the boy starts helping the alien. This is poor writing in my opinion.

But I do think that as a whole the writing was good. On first watch there was only a few negative things that caught my attention.

I enjoyed the filming style. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

Spoiler

I thought it was interesting how the movie started with a snow blizzard and ended with a blizzard of alien bugs.

Overall this was a very entertaining film, but after only one viewing it is difficult to decide if The Day the Earth Stood Still is actually a great film or not (based on acting, writing, production, etc) I want to see the original and compare the two.


I give this film 7 out of 10.

UPDATE:

I just finished watching the original film, and the remake does not hold a candle to it. The 1950's The Day the Earth Stood Still made more sense and felt more believable than the 2008 version. I feel like the remake had a lot of potential but was ruined by poor writing. However, don't get me wrong, the remake was still very entertaining but only if you see it before watching the masterpiece.

Movie Goer's Guide

• For those who have seen neither film, I recommend seeing the remake before watching the original.
• For those who have seen the remake, go rent the original as soon as possible, even if you did not like the new version.
• For those who have seen the original, don't bother with the remake. It will only piss you off.

New rating: 5 out of 10

[no_brains_no_worries]

How did Reeves do as the lead? Other then Bill and Ted, I haven't really enjoyed his films.

[blue]

Haven't seen it yet, but I read a couple of good reviews.
And the story doesn't seem all too poor as well.
So I might watch it next week.

[TheOriginalGrumpySpy]

I'm prone to reading movie news and internet buzz says this movie is absolute shit, but then again, everyone's a critic. From what I understand it's a remake that shouldn't have been.

I'll probably still want to see it.

[KT_]

It was entertaining. In my opinion a movie can be entertaining without being a good film.

[SneeBeezums]

More importantly, how was the Wolverine preview. I have yet to find it online

[pandar]

The day the earth did a barrel roll was better

[KT_]

More importantly, how was the Wolverine preview. I have yet to find it online

Uh, it was a good preview I guess. Gambit is in the preview.

[simonj]

Keanu Reeves looks like he's playing his typical 'neo' stock character in this. I loved the original so I'm wary about this one. I'll probably see it eventually but I'll wait till the DVD.

[Atmosfear]

The original is one of the best movies of its time; I don't understand how they could have modernized the story and (based on the scenes shown in the previews) I feel like it's been changed too much to do anything other than piss me off.

[Mach 5]

It looks like people are just making remakes for the sake of making movies quickly, why spend time writing a quality script when you can take an already great script and butcher it beyond recognition.

[KT_]

Updated original post

[MrShrike]

The original is one of the best movies of its time; I don't understand how they could have modernized the story and (based on the scenes shown in the previews) I feel like it's been changed too much to do anything other than piss me off.

Yeah it's totally not the same movie from what I've seen and read.

I don't understand why they would give it the same name, except so they could rip the character names and say "Klaatu barada nikto".

This is just like what they did to the I am legend movie vs the book and it's just totally spoil what might have otherwise been a half-decent movie (in both cases).

[Shinysides]

The original is one of the best movies of its time; I don't understand how they could have modernized the story and (based on the scenes shown in the previews) I feel like it's been changed too much to do anything other than piss me off.

This. Besides, the new one sucked. Why the fuck is the US Army naming Gort like a bunch of douchebags?

Edit: Also, I hated how this movie became more about the kid and mom than anything else.