The Day the Earth Stood Still

A surprisingly respectful remake of the original that goes a little off the path promised by the trailers. With its surprisingly intimate atmosphere, it plays the family card, which in some moments unnecessarily pulls the otherwise very good spectacle into pathos. The film is carried by excellent actors, great special effects, and by the skilled craftsman Derrickson, who can evoke both moments of absolute tension and thrilling popcorn rides where a giant black cloud takes out trucks and football stadiums. I might have expected something a little different in terms of a Christmas blockbuster, but the result is certainly not a bad one. I give it a weaker four stars. (12/11/2008)

A big film, but with very little content. The story tries to look as spectacular as possible, but in reality it’s surprisingly mediocre and bland throughout, best evidenced by the emotionally utterly cold finale. So the only thing really worth mentioning is Keanu Reeves as the alien and a couple of visually impressive scenes that at least kept me awake for 100 minutes. Otherwise, just slightly above average sci-fi nonsense that has absolutely no chance in today's competition. (08/27/2012)

This is how it turns out when the current author takes on a remake of a film from 1951, which was also directed by Robert Wise, which is a slightly different league after all. Scott Derrickson has two excellent horror films to his credit, but this is a classic Hollywood wannabe B-movie, where there is too much emphasis on pathos and emotions that have been seen so many times that you simply ignore them rather than let them influence you. In the 50s, this was a popular theme, but not anymore in the new millennium. Moreover, Spielberg had "War of the Worlds" here, which at least had some sense of action. (03/27/2014)

After the almost hateful reviews that absolutely trashed the second half of the film, I expected almost anything except a pretty normal ending, which is actually considerably better than Independence Day, for instance. Last year’s genre relative I Am Legend also was much weaker. In short, The Day The Earth Stood Still is unlikely to become a new classic, but if I had to pick between it and any destruction orgy from Emmerich, I would choose Klaatua hands down. The director did his work with panache, delivering many scenes with a perfect atmosphere, and if I had to complain about something, it would be the script, or rather, the family storyline, but even that was bearable. (12/13/2008)

A great old-school sci-fi (in very nice visual packaging) unfortunately with a typical ending about the hope than human kind can change. I haven’t seen the original, but in my eyes Derrickson did an excellent job maintaining the idea and the feeling of the original (I’ll certainly have a look at that to confirm my thoughts), which has a timeless theme. Moreover, Keanu Reeves exceeded my expectations massively because in truth I couldn’t imagine him in a role like this. For me the best scene of the movie was the ingenious beginning which was very reminiscent of The Thing in terms of atmosphere. (01/21/2009)