Movie Review - The Day The Earth Stood Still

Language: English
Run Time: 103 mins
Distribution: 20th Century Fox

(Warning: Spoilers included)

The title sounded familiar when I first heard it. And rightly so as it's a remake of a 1951 film of the same name, one which I did not have the opportunity to catch.

The movie begins with an explorer (Keanu Reeves) on a mountain range somewhere in the 1950s who encounters a shimmering orb. Attempting to initiate contact with the object, the explorer is knocked off his feet and becomes unconscious. When he comes to, the explorer notices a mark on his hand.

Cut scene to the present day in a laboratory where Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) was discussing with a group of students on the conditions required for life to exist. Class ends and the scene shifts to Dr. Benson's home. Her son, Jacob Benson (Jaden Smith) plays with his game console before an exchange ensues that highlights the friction in the relationship between mother and son. A theme that would run throughout the whole movie. She then receives an ominous phonecall signalling the start of cascading events in the whole movie.

Whisked away to a military facility along with a few other sceintists and professionals, they were briefed on the impending collision of an asteroid body with Earth and had selected them as men and women who would assist in the rebuilding of civilisation post impact. Though there was no impact as expected, rather the asteroid body, in the form of the orb seen at the start of the movie descends slowly upon Central Park. An alien being about the size of a human appears to exit the orb accompanied by a large automaton but was shot by one of the nervous soldiers that had gathered in the area, prompting the automaton to activate in an aggressive manner. The alien, suffering from a gunshot wound however prevented the automaton from doing any real damage.

I especially liked the special effects done during this scene. Especially the animation of both of the automaton and the shimmering sphere. One particular act of note that was especially emphasized was the shooting of the yet unnamed alien at this point. Perhaps stressing humans' natural fear of the unknown and our all too often aggressive reactions towards things we do not understand.

The alien was taken back to a military installing where scientists were attempting to heal it. As surgeons removed the bullet, more and more of the alien's outer exterior drops off until in the end it revealed a seemingly human infant. The infant then began to grow at a rapid rate to the point where it reached adulthood in the form of the mountain explorer we saw in the opening scene. Identifying itself as Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) to its captors, it explained itself as having come with a message to the leaders of the world. There was one particular exchange of words between Klaatu and Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), the US Sec. Defense acting in the President's stead that brought about a subtle sense of realization.

Regina: Why have you come to our world?
Klaatu: What makes you think this is your world?

Klaatu then, with the help of Dr. Benson, escapes through the use of his alien abilities which seems to be tied into modern day technologies. A chase scene ensues with now fugitives Dr. Benson driving Klaatu and her son around as Klaatu searches for agents already implanted on Earth a long time ago. And as the movie progresses, Klaatu's intention became clearer. In that he was here to save the Earth though not necessarily humanity. A rendezvous with Klaatu's kin, another agent on Earth explains to him of the nature of humans. Of our destructive and aggressive nature and yet there is a side to us that he cannot explains. Klaatu's meeting with Prof. Barnhardt (John Cleese) a Nobel-Prize winning physicist was one of the highlights of the alien's trek across American. The argument of how a particular formula was supposed to equate done through writing reminded me a lot of the kids that I handled in my workplace. And the philosophical discussion on the nature of humans was something that for some reason ignited my perspectives of things at that point in time.

As all this was happening the military had already gotten control of the automaton, now dubbed GORT (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) by it's captors. As experiments were being conducted on GORT, the automaton was transforming itself into tiny insect-like nanites and pretty soon into a swarm that began to disintegrate everything it touches. This was another excellent piece of CGI work, especially with the nanites.

Attempting to outrun GORT, Dr. Benson and company head towards Central Park in order to reach Klaatu's spaceship. When Jacob gets infected with the nanites, Dr. Benson pleads for Klaatu's help to cure her son before she herself got infected as well. Complying he cures them both before making his way through the GORT swarm, losing parts of himself as he does so before managing to release an pulse similar to that of an EMP blast sending the GORT swarm hurtling down to the ground. The blast also halted all forms of technology on Earth leaving everything in a standstill. A fitting end.

There is in my opinion nobody else who would play the role of Klaatu any better than Keanu Reeves. I mean, come on, slow speaking man with powerful abilities in a black suit? Who else? John Cleese's cameo performance was also a delight. Apart from those most of the acting was relatively normal with the special effects, cinematography and storyline playing a much larger role and effective role.

Special effects even though good were not anything that was extremely breathtaking.

The message was clear. Change the way we live or perish, which is pretty much what's going to happen to us regardless of whether an alien's coming to tell us so or otherwise. And it's a timely message what with all that is going on in the world at this time.

All in all a movie worth the full price whether you're a sci-fi fan like me or not.