Review: 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' remake in 2008 is all wrong although lead actor is good casting as a robot

The Day the Earth Stood Still   PG 13          

            Solid special effects pull a story that otherwise stands still in this Keanu Reeves action flick which copycats 'Independence Day' and rolls into Roland Emmerich territory. It made me want to go rent that movie instead of watching, but I stuck with it on the dim chance that it was going to get better. Well, it didn't. Scott Derrickson is no Robert Wise, or Stanley Kubrick, or any of the great epic directors of the past. Clearly he was trying, but the script and the idea was wrong. You don't remake 'Day'. You just don't. While the first dealt with a thinly masked mockery of Communism and imperialist ideas through an all powerful alien attack caused because militant humans kill their emissary to Earth, the new one leaves the alien alive, gets it wrong, and makes him an agent of doom who is about to punish all mankind for destroying Earth's ecosystem. Reeves plays a cold, calculating robot while the military tries to kill him or catch him. They're never sure on the reason or which they'd prefer. So it's like 'Captain Planet' meets "Independence Day". Why didn't Emmerich do this? At least then it would have been ironic and sometimes funny. The original didn't have dazzling special effects like floating cloudy death spheres and robot giants that turn into nanobots of death, but it didn't need them. This movie needs them. Without the FX there would be Keanu Reeves just pretending to be a robotic alien who has no more personality than his guardian giant. And He is not Klaatuu. That's part of the kill switch thing at the end. Was anyone paying attention? Klaatuu destroy any potential sequel. Zap! Too bad it's making 30 mil. Liked that Gort resembled a Oscar statue. Sorry Jack, they're not going to give you one for this. The director didn't get that the reason the guardian looked so fake is because it was 1951 and all they had was a silver painted football suit and a knight's helmet. Liked the nod to computer game death spheres, but that's it. Keanu has found his role though, playing emotionless alien androids. Also his having three types of DNA would kill him. A science fiction movie doesn't have to rely of special effects. it should have a good story. This one is just banal and uninteresting. So it has just a two star rating. and there is nothing magical about will Smith's son, Jayden, although in this flick he's not half bad playing an obnoxious Mini Me version of Smith. Too bad Smith wasn't in it. Ha. Then it would have been I, Klaatuu! 
Review by Adam Browne