The Day the Earth Stood Still

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. (08/12/2008)

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. (14/07/2010)

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. (27/03/2014)

A worthy remake that does not put its predecessor to shame. The original was released in the 1950s, during the raging Cold War, and spoke with much more urgency, so the pleas that "We can change!" in the current version sound rather empty, but technically, it's clear that this spirited little sci-fi film has benefited from a modern coat of paint, especially in the character of the alien guardian Gort, who surpasses his predecessor in terms of impressiveness. The charismatic Keanu Reeves certainly didn't disappoint, but I'd love to shoot the whiny Smith to the Milky Way. (11/04/2009)

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. (27/08/2012)