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Day the Earth Stood Still, The

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 136 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Sci-fi
Written by:
Edmund H. North (1951 screenplay)
David Scarpa
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 12, 2008
DVD: April 7, 2009
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some sci-fi disaster images and violence
Starring Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, John Cleese, James Hong, Jaden Smith, Kathy Bates, and Kathy Bates
The Day the Earth Stood Still is 20th Century Fox’s contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic. Klaatu, an alien who arrives on our planet, triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance, a woman and her young stepson get caught up in his mission – and come to understand the ramifications of Klaatu calling himself a “friend to the Earth.” (20th Century Fox)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Surprise! The remake is not a heresy. It's a decent enough stab at being what the old movie was to its time, following the same basic plot, full of respectful references to its model, updated with a gallery of fairly imaginative special effects.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
The one unforgivable crime committed in this remake is the lack of the original's most famous line of dialogue: "Klaatu barada nikto." Would it have been so tough to squeeze that in somewhere?
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
I can't explain the film's main problem without giving plot points away; suffice to say that, after decades of watching Earth, Klaatu's team of observers has missed a crucial event you and I witness every day. I can tell you about the secondary problem, though: too much money.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Passed my popcorn-movie test. Using the vast, expensive technology of a big studio production, it roused enough cheap energy to drive me to eat a bag of popcorn fit for a circus animal and wash it down with a quart of Diet Coke.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Just because the new The Day the Earth Stood Still is green, though, doesn't mean it's dull. If anything, there's a lot more mayhem and destruction this time around.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
A remake that does not disgrace the original, this is sufficiently different to stand alone and just as relevant in its concerns – as well as succeeding (arguably better) as a thriller. And after this performance, are we sure that Keanu Reeves is really human?
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
For most of the way this ecofriendly fantasy is pleasantly clunky, and Reeves, whose expressive range here is slim to none, is perfectly cast as the alien.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
Like the big shiny sphere at its center, the film is fairly pretty, but there's no real sense that there's anything inside it.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Although the new version, which stars Keanu Reeves, is likely to make audiences pine for the meta-irony of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," it's not a complete failure.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
All this is presented in an expensive, good-looking film that is well-made by Scott Derrickson, but to no avail.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, confining his usual two-and-a-half-note vocal range to half that.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The story, an updated version of the 1951 classic about a portentous extraterrestrial visit, feels musty and derivative, and not only because it's a remake.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Cammila Albertson
Pretty good as science fiction thrillers go, but sadly, there isn't much more to say about it.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
One of the big problems here is that, despite much exposition, the nature of Klaatu's mission on Earth isn't at all clear.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
It lacks the simple elegance and intelligence of the earlier film, and employs special effects and pointless action scenes to replace passages of dialogue.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Scott Mendelson
A 'so-so' movie. It's not particularly good, but it's competent and more or less successful in its goals.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The opening stretch, when the visitor arrives on earth and blithely dresses down mankind, is great fun. But screenwriter David Scarpi has drained away much of the sentiment.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Despite the best efforts of stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly, this new "Day" is tired and corny.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Something has been lost in the translation, and it's not just the script.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
As a message movie, it's preachy without being serious; for an action movie, there's a lot of racket but not much fun.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The original Day the Earth Stood Still had a paranoid poetry that lifted the audience up even as it warned the world to come together. This one is so dour it just comes off as a scolding.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Any movie that awards a former Monty Python cast member a Nobel Prize in anything cannot be all bad. And The Day the Earth Stood Still could be worse.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
The film's major action sequences are never exciting, and even the now-requisite destruction of New York feels lazy.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
This botched remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" seriously dishonors the seriously fine 1951 sci-fi landmark on which it's based.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
Dunno about the Earth, but time certainly stands still for a goodly portion of Scott Derrickson's expensively produced but utterly boneheaded remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Klaatu is a dream role for the beautifully blank Reeves, since he doesn’t even have to pretend to emote.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
A jumble of spare parts and leftover dialogue, as if it had been assembled out of unused bits of every movie where an unknown whatzit threatens our way of life and the government goes into full institutional pants-crapping panic mode.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
What's never explained is why anyone would do such a dumb remake of Robert Wise's 1951 sci-fi classic.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
Suffice it to say that these morons have, quite simply, turned The Day the Earth Stood Still on its head and what's falling out of its pockets in that upended state is a stream of junk.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 136 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mike H gave it a0:
What happened? seriously... did the original make sense? cos this one didn't... from what i could understand it appeared that aliens came to earth to kill everyone then halfway through decided to take pity on humans and left the planet, leaving us without any form of technology as punishment or something. a 40/100 is definitely more than it deserves.
h-h-h-heino j. gave it a1:
One of the worst movies ever. Nevertheless, not the worst.
Jay M. gave it a2:
Exemplifies all that is wrong with Hollywood films: an unnecessary remake, an overwrought script, and a director too enamored with special effects for their own sake. Utterly lacking in every department. Charmless.
Enzo P. gave it a4:
The Day the Earth Stood Still based on the old classic, shows that whatever you do you can never make a remake that is better then the original. But the one thing in this movie that really surprised me is that they didn't say one swear in the entire film. It's a miracle in every PG-13 movie there has to be at least one swear in this there were none. Also another thing about this film that I didn't like was the over the top plot. That was the only thing that really bothered me. The acting was alright the special effects were fascinating, I thought it was pretty unpredictable so overall it was a nice rent it movie. Sure some parts were weird but it still had it's cool clever scenes. I feel like this movie would of been better of not being made because Scott Derrickson wasted his money making this remake it just wasn't worth it.
Fran R gave it a6:
Disappointing.
Robert B gave it a1:
Thank you Keanu Reeves and thank you 20th century fox for ruining a classic.
Peter J gave it a5:
Ok to watch once, but not something I'd ever watch a second time. Never saw the original, but still knew exactly where the movie was going.
