Click to play videoThe Day The Earth Stood Still is an expensive, plodding science-fiction film about the panic that grips the world when a giant glowing orb lands in the middle of New York's Central Park, and its inhabitants emerge as bearers of an important environmental message. Klaatu (played by Keanu Reeves) is an alien who warns that if we don't change our ways, he and his fellow visitors will destroy the human race to save the planet. He's accompanied by a gigantic computer-generated robot named Gort who is here as his bodyguard.
Klaatu represents a coalition of extraterrestrial civilizations that has been monitoring the way man has been treating Earth, and in the wake of environmental threats like global warming and deforestation, he suggests that it might be time for new caretakers.
This remake of a 1951 film of the same name predictably updates the nuclear warning of the earlier film to a caution about our mistreatment of the planet itself. The film also stars Jennifer Connelly as an empathetic scientist who argues with Klaatu to spare the human race.
Despite its valuable message, The Day The Earth Stood Still feels like a silly B-movie because the writing's so clunky you don't know if you should laugh or cry. Bursting with tedious clichés and embarrassing dialogues, the film takes itself way too seriously, and ends up not so much as the social commentary it was intended to be, but as a sharp scolding on the part of its makers.
To be honest, the film's weakest link is its hero Keanu Reeves who delivers a robotic performance as the peace-seeking Klaatu. Reeves behaves like he's sleepwalking through most of the film and doesn't even show enough emotion on his face to suggest he might have been breathing while acting out those scenes.
There are some decent special effects on display here, but nothing that can compensate for the deathly boring plot that I can guarantee will leave you dozing in your seat before long. One out of five for The Day The Earth Stood Still; when you come out of the cinema after watching the film, you'll feel like you've escaped from prison. Watch it if you're a sucker for punishment.
Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)
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