The Day the Earth Stood Still
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring:
Keanu Reeves - Klaatu
Jennifer Connelly - Helen Benson
Jaden Smith - Jacob Benson
Kathy Bates - Regina Jackson
Jon Hamm - Michael Granier
Kyle Chandler - John Driscoll
John Cleese - Professor Barnhardt
Before I went to see the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I watched the 1951 original through my Xbox Live-Netflix account* to see how it would compare and how the original held up. Not only does the original's message of peace continue to resonate today, it does what science fiction is supposed to do: push the bounds of the known universe as a way to reflect on our current condition.
To its credit, the remake attempts to do that by twisting our history of over-powering weaker civilizations and now being in the position of the weaker race. As in the original, a mysterious object lands in a major U.S. city (New York City this time around), a visitor named Klaatu exits the ship, and before he can get out "I come in peace," we shoot him because we're so scared shitless. But here's where the stories begin to diverge. Klaatu in the original was more compassionate. He too had a mission and a message to the people of Earth, but he seemed more like an emissary. Here, Klaatu seems like an intergalactic bureaucrat, sent to tell us that we're abusing valuable property and must now be killed. This sort of Guns, Germs, and Steel applied between planetary races is the storyline that grabbed me but TDTESS quickly shrugs off such thoughtful sci-fi in favor of more spectacle. Instead of feeling like the victims of conquistadors, it seems like Klaatu represents the Intergalactic Home Owners Association and because we've let our grass grow too long, we all have to die.
Sadly, I kept coming down on Klaatu's side because I couldn't see what humanity could do to change his mind. How can he hope for the future when the young boy in this film, Jacob, is a sharp contrast to his 1951 counterpart, Bobby. Whereas Bobby was curious about the world and generally optimistic, Jacob sullenly plays violent videogames and his first instinct is to kill Klaatu. In his defense, Jacob is still mourning the loss of his father and the character is believable; he's just wrong for this film. A sharper contrast is that in the 1951 version, Klaatu goes to the Lincoln Memorial and sees the lasting words of one of our greatest leaders. In the 2008 version, Klaatu visits a McDonalds and comes to the conclusion that he must wipe out the human race. He was not loving it.
Klaatu doesn't really seem interested in saving humanity and that aloofness is perfect for Keanu Reeves. No one does "disconnected" quite like Keanu. But the film has a deep bench and yet wastes actors like Jennifer Connelly, Kyle Chandler, Jon Hamm, and Kathy Bates. Only Connelly gets to do anything and everyone else just sort of exists to be useless and attack the sphere and giant robot G.O.R.T (more on that dumb name-alteration in just a second) repeatedly and with no result or even thoughtful approach. Apparently the U.S. strategy in the event of interstellar invasion is the same as banging your television set to make it work. After our misadventures in the Middle East, I have to say that's pretty believable.
And you read that last paragraph right: the robot Gort is now an acronym. I don't remember what it stands for and I don't care. It's like they wanted to pay homage to the original without looking lame and they failed horribly. Thankfully, the updated version of Gort looks fantastic and is conceptually inventive. It's a shame he's not in the movie more.
The new version of The Day the Earth Stood Still doesn't understand that sci-fi, good sci-fi, has a purpose. It's to help expose the human condition through dramatic extrapolation of scientific possibility. This movie thinks that it means whiz-bang spectacle and a slight nod to a current crisis (in this case, our environment). While the original stays viable after almost sixty years by a commitment to character and theme, the remake will be gathering dust with its dated effects and undeveloped ideas.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
12.10.08