Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, John Cleese, Kyle Chandler, Robert Knepper
Director: Scott Derrickson
Writer: David Scarpa
Producers: Erwin Stoff, Gregory Goodman, Paul Harris Boardman
Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
Rating: MPAA – PG-13 for some sci-fi disaster images and violence.
Distributor: 20th Century Fox

The Day the Earth Stood Still was, for the most part, exactly what I expected it to be, a high budget action film with stunning visuals, sub par acting and little to no character development. In fact, the only aspect of this film that I was somewhat wrong about was the amount of flaws this film contained. I was expecting a plethora of logical flaws and plot holes, but I was left with just a couple. This came as a minor shock to me, for usually films of this genre are riddled with glaring defects. What I am trying to say is that this film is an entertaining, generic film that brings pretty much nothing thought provoking or interesting to the table.

The story, somewhat linked to the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark, is about the impending doom of the human population on earth. The movie begins with a crystal like sphere falling from the heavens and landing in Central Park. What emerges is an alien named Klaatu (Reeves) who has come to warn the humans that they will be wiped out due to their selfish, earth destroying ways. From there, the story takes two paths. The first concerns Helen Benson (Connelly), an astrobiologist whose interest in alien life forms piques with the arrival of Klaatu. After learning of his purpose, she spends the film trying to convince him that humans can be decent and are not deserving of destruction. At the same time, the military, under the command of Regina Jackson (Bates), is trying to study whatever they can about this alien invasion, also in an attempt to prevent the destruction of the human race.

The acting, as stated, was mostly poor, due to the generic and cliché lines of the film. Most of the supporting cast were just copied and pasted from other action films of this nature, including Kathy Bates, the commanding spokesperson for the president of the United States. Jennifer Connelly, who played the curious astrobiologist, followed suit for the most part, with the predictable lines and basic acting, though she was not too terrible. The neutral, emotionless alien Keanu Reeves played his role well because it required him to do nothing but walk and talk without a glimpse of human emotion. He was not bad, but since he basically did nothing, I would not deem him to be a fine actor. The only decent actor was John Cleese, whose role lasted roughly ten minutes. What a shame!

The visuals were excellent as predicted. The robots and other computer-generated scenes were stunning. Watching the tiny metallic bugs devouring human civilization was just spectacular. As well, there were times where the art direction took an interesting turn, switching to a gritty scheme reminiscent of World War 2 films. This gave the film an artificial dramatic feel for it felt as though they were trying to add drama to the film rather than the film actually being dramatic.

Before I get into the flaws, I would like to point out a rather hilarious goof up. When the government agents came to Benson’s house to take her to the NASA facility, she did not ask them for any form of identification to prove that they were who they claimed to be. This is odd because my first thought would be to suppose that this were some kind of joke or genius scheme to get me to leave the house so a group of highly trained crooks can rob me blind. As well, she willingly gets in their car, and only as they are driving, tries to ask them why she is in the car with them. Why would anyone get in a car with someone they do not know, and only after the car is on its journey, question the intentions of the driver? Seems rather careless if you ask me.

There were a few flaws that I would like to point out. First, how is it possible that the government had the right equipment and facilities to contain the robotic creature named Gort? From the time that we first meet this colossal robot to the point where they trap it in a giant metal box is, maybe, a day or two. It is impossible to have made such a giant object so fast, unless it was made for another purpose and just conveniently fit this gigantic robot perfectly. As well, there was a scene where Klaatu, Benson, her stepson Jacob (Smith) and another character are in an SUV and are bombarded by explosions. The SUV is thrown wildly, tumbles a few times and finally comes to a stop. The main characters emerge from the incident unscathed, while the secondary character is dead and covered in blood. This is extremely silly, for after such an event they should at least be wounded to some extent. Finally, there is a point in the film where Klaatu decides that the humans are not deserving of death. How did that revelation come about? There was no outstanding feat of selflessness from what I remember. This leads me to the fact that there was no character development in this film whatsoever. No one grew and nothing really changed throughout the movie. Although, it was what I expected, so I am not too upset about it.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is an extremely average and generic film. I would not consider this film to be good because, as stated, there was nothing interesting or thought provoking about it. It was entertaining, but that is basically it.