A representative of an alien race that went through drastic evolution to survive its own climate change, Klaatu comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the environmental damage they h...
The Day The Earth Stood Still moves less frequently than Keanu Reeves' expressionless face. Wise's original 1951 black-and-white sci-fi was a landmark of the genre, exploring an allegory of human violence that expressed the impression of post-WWII society. Naturally, with Hollywood's idea pool drying up quicker than Bates' career, a remake was commissioned. And here we are. A special effects extravaganza absent of a coherent story and so heavy-handed in its execution, that it's the equivalent of being backhanded by Reeves (ouch!). A space ball descends onto Manhattan, where an alien humanoid turns into Keanu Reeves and warns humanity that if they do not change their ways, they will be forcibly decimated for the betterment of the planet.
Whilst still loosely based on the original short story 'Farewell to the Master', it mostly replaces the primary theme of societal violence with environmental damage. I say mostly, only because it still tries to explore the former at a pedestrian level. This is a fine replacement, after all a remake should be distinguishable from the original, however the direction it takes is near incomprehensible. For about half the film, we see Connelly (doing the best she can with the shoddy screenplay) running around woodland areas with her son, a young Jaden Smith, whilst expressively fighting with him with their opposing ideologies. He believes we should fight, she strongly disagrees. A microcosm of societal warfare, if you will. But it's so heavy-handed, so forced and so unnatural, that I found myself shouting at the TV on multiple occasions.
Connelly letting Klaatu escape, despite knowing him/it for a total of five minutes. The ridiculously urgent character change in Klaatu during the third act. The sheer stupidity of the US military. So many dumb character choices, that it forces this sci-fi into "low-fi" territory. The inclusion of Cleese's character is just to ram the philosophy of collaborative evolution down our throats. Remove him, and the film may have been better off without the inefficient storytelling! Then we get to the relentless swarm of nano-machines that devour man-made objects (and human flesh for that matter!), simply included to showcase special effects that were instantly forgettable.
When any film, let alone a remake, aspires to push visual effects ahead of narrative execution, well the results are not going to be kind. Sadly for this "re-imagining", the minor points on altruism, creationism and the performances of Reeves and Connelly is not nearly enough to prevent this from being one of the worst remakes in recent memory. They even mishandled the infamous "Klaatu Barada nikto" quote, and forced him to kill humans!
