Movie Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still
- Theatrical release date
- December 12, 2008
- DVD release date
- April 7, 2009
- Grade
- C
An unnecessary remake, but it has its own popcorny charms.
Certainly, the original 1951 Robert Wise movie remains a cinematic classic, although parts of it have aged badly (two doctors discussing the alien’s “impossible” lifespan of 130 years while they themselves are busy puffing away on cigarettes). Still, this new version of the story at least updates the one thing that always bothered me about the original.
As you may recall, the original ends with the alien, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), giving humankind an ultimatum — become peaceful, or our all-powerful race of robot policemen will slaughter you. Well! Talk about yer peace-lovin’ aliens and their anti-war message! Klaatu’s speech really doesn’t make much sense — if the aliens are so worried we’ll spread our violence outside our own planet, why not plant a drone in orbit around Earth to shoot down anything we ever launch? Problem solved. Two problems, actually, because not only do you protect all those alien civilizations from the war-loving humans, but you don’t have to worry about any moral niggles a peaceful society might have about genocide.
The new movie version has entirely different aliens who have entirely different motivations. They aren’t peaceful, and they definitely aren’t here to save us; they’re here to save the ability of Earth’s ecosystem to support complex lifeforms. As near as they can figure, the best way to do that is to wipe out humanity and let the plants and animals have the run of the planet again.
Not such a bad plan, really.
But this is where the movie falters. The aliens’ big plan for genocide also includes taking out all the plants and animals, so that they have to remove a portion of Earth’s lifeforms into space on “arks” until it’s safe to return. But return to what? A bare planet with no life on it? No old-growth forests? No kelp? No plankton? No grasslands? Where are these rescued animals going to live? What happens to all the denuded soil in the meantime? It seems the aliens’ plan to kill humanity does more damage in one day to the long-term survival of complex lifeforms than humans have managed in thousands of years. If you’re going to use your nanotechnology to take out humans, why not program it to take out humans and leave everything else alone?
Oops!
Similarly, Klaatu’s conversion from somewhat regretful but composed destroyer of worlds to savior of humankind happens because of, or, well, despite of, or, uh, well, I don’t know. He learns that an alien who came to Earth years ago thinks we should be wiped out, but loves us enough to want to die alongside us. He discusses philosophy for fifteen seconds with Dr. Barnhardt (John Cleese). He listens to Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) cry a lot and claim humans can change, without offering one example of what we might do with a second chance, should Klaatu deign to give us one. He sees Benson and her stepson share one hug. And so he decides we can live.
Ooo-kay. I’m convinced.
The movie squanders whatever cool and updated ideas it had with a poor script and an overdependence on CGI effects that aren’t terribly convincing. The one or two truly visually interesting sequences are in the trailer, so if you’ve seen that, you’ve seen the best the moviemakers have to offer. The acting is OK in most cases (Connelly), sometimes not (Jaden Smith), but it doesn’t really matter because, for the most part, the actors are as forgettable as the rest of the movie.
Ultimately, this is a somewhat fun, mostly thought-lite SF romp of the sort that normally gets released in mid-summer. It reaches for the big brass ring of social commentary and relevance, but doesn’t quite get there. You may not want to spend movie ticket prices to see this one, but rent it later, put up your feet, eat your popcorn, and enjoy.
As an aside, when Jennifer Connelly was the female lead in The Rocketeer, one reviewer referred to her as the actress with “the smallest nostrils and the wettest eyes in Hollywood.” Seventeen years later, this movie proves that’s still true.
Copyright Martha Kneib. Published 1 January 2009 in What’s New.
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