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)

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)

The Day the Earth Stood Still neither offends nor enraptures, and it definitely doesn’t satisfy, be it in terms of plot or the technical aspect. Derrickson alternates nice thought-provoking and emotional moments with purely visual ones, but the first type is scarce and the second one is clichéd and unoriginal. And the rest is just filler held afloat only by the performances of Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves. Even though these two have little to do here, you’ll root for Jennifer from the start and as for Keanu, you’d believe him even as an alien, in spite of the fact that his facial expressions are the same as in all his other movies. The young Jaden Smith is terrible, just like the young Dakota Fanning a few years earlier. As an intimate director, Scott Derrickson was not the best choice (the character of an army general, who acts more like a redneck carpenter posturing in a garage, is a failed attempt at irony). The film has a pleasant “sci-fi charm”, but it is overly cautious and bland. It comes up short in the inevitable comparison with Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, which was a far more exciting experience despite all its faults. (12/08/2008)

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)

An average sci-fi film with an idea and a message, but not everyone is necessarily going to be in the mood for it. Keanu Reeves impressed me the most in the film - he plays the alien in such a way that he really looks perfectly "out of it" most of the time - and I was also looking forward to John Cleese. Even though I knew his role wouldn't be the biggest... I wasn't expecting such a bark :-/ The good thing about this film is the quality visual effects, the bad thing is definitely the annoying stepson and after him the sometimes boring plot. Basically, three stars. (07/14/2010)