After seeing the original movie I decided to see how the classic was updated for a more recent audience.  In 2008 The Day The Earth Stood Still was remade with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly.  Did the remake stand up to the original?  In one sense it did and in another sense it didn’t.  Let me explain.

In this new telling of The Day The Earth Stood Still Klaatu comes to Earth to deliver a message to a gathering of world leaders.  He intends to tell them that humanity should change its ways and take better care of the Earth’s natural environment.  At the first sign of trouble Klaatu scratches his plans and, after briefly exchanging notes with another of his race that has been stationed on Earth for years, decides to wipe out all human life and signs of civilization.  After spending a day with a handful of people and seeing their “softer side” he changes his mind again and decides to call off mankind’s destruction and just go home.

First, a little about the updated look of things.  This remake allowed a second attempt at special effects and an opportunity to update the look of alien technology.  Gort, Klaatu’s guardian robot, looks much nicer this time around while staying true to the original design.  Hats off to the design team.  Unfortunately, instead of updating Klaatu’s flying saucer they decided to make his craft look like a big, green, glowing ball.  It ended up looking more magical than high-tech.

A number of changes were made this time.  Mrs. Benson is now a microbiologist that was asked by the government to help investigate.  Klaatu lands in New York City’s Central Park instead of Washington DC.  Interestingly, this time Klaatu is a truly alien creature that obtains a human body after landing.  The scene where he tries to adapt to his new body was a great one.

The alien Klaatu was more friendly and personable in 1951.  The 2008 Klaatu, played by Keanu Reeves, says little and has no interest in engaging in anything emotional.  The 1951 Klaatu wanted to let Earth know that it could be a part of a larger political unit if it behaved.  The 2008 Klaatu had no interest in allowing Earth into a League of Planets. Many viewers complained about Keanu Reeves’ acting in this movie but I think the script placed him in a difficult situation.  In order to carry out his role, he had to be stiff and wooden.  However, most movie goers don’t like seeing that kind of performance.  Perhaps a genuis actor like Dustin Hoffman could have added more depth to the role but it certainly isn’t fair to expect every actor to be a genius.

Another big difference is Klaatu’s robot Gort.  In the first movie he was a guardian that could get out of control if his charge was harmed.  Although still a guardian in the remake, Gort is also the doomsday weapon.  Gort can dissolve into a cloud of nanomachines that can kill people and destroy anything made of metal on the surface of the Earth.

The major difference between the two version’s is the intent of the aliens that sent Klaatu to Earth.  In the first movie he came to deliver a message: Don’t think about attacking other planets or Earth is finished.  The aliens didn’t care about Earth’s natural environment or whether or not humans wanted to kill each other.  In keeping with the times, in the remake the aliens are concerned about Earth’s natural environment.  Klaatu claims that there are very few life-bearing worlds and each one must be protected even at the cost of wiping out sentient races.  The problem with this argument is humans are taking better care the Earth’s environment now than in the past.  In recent decades we’ve shown much improvement in reducing polution and consumption of natural resources – plus demonstrate a desire to do even better in the future.  However, the writers of the movie, like far too many people, choose to ignore these facts and instead prejudge the Earth to be doomed by evil human society.

When his first attempt at delivering a message to Earth’s leaders is unsuccessful, Klaatu quickly switches to plan B: wipe out all human life.  This movie is the fantasy of every true environmentalist.  Someone has finally come to kill all humans so that the dolphins are free to frolic in the waves.  Alas, this plan is thwarted too.  After hearing some classical music and watching people be nice to each other, Klaatu changes his mind again and decides that humanity shouldn’t be wiped out.  It probably helped that people pleaded with Klaatu.  “We can change!” they said with much emotion.  I was reminded of badly written children’s shows of the 1990′s.  If the aliens had been monitoring humans for so many years, how can a few days among humans change Klaatu’s thinking so much?

So back to the question on many people’s minds: Was the remake a worth successor to the orginal?  Because it encapsulates the poorly conceived ideas of the twits of its time, the remake lives up to the original quite well.  In terms of communicating its message clearly and showing dealings with an advanced alien race, the remake doesn’t live up to the original.  I just can’t recommend the 2008 remake to science-fiction fans.  If you want a good way to spend an evening, you’ll have to keep looking.

For years I’ve been hearing about the 1951 movie The Day The Earth Stood Still and when I learned it was remade in 2008 I became even more curious.  I rented it this weekend and can now share my thoughts on what is one of the most influential science-fiction films for English speakers.

At first I thought it was an original story but it was actually lifted from a short story titled Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates. Since the movie is 59 years old I don’t have to worry about spoilers.  The special effects look very poor by today’s standards but in the words of the screenplay’s author (interviewed in the DVD’s extras) the point of the movie wasn’t to offer audiences a special effects extravaganza.  Rather, the point was to deliver a stirring and thought-provoking message about the state of the world at that time.  Very well, I won’t worry about the special effects and instead focus on an examination of this important message.

The movie opens with people around the world becoming aware of an unidentified flying object entering Earth’s atmosphere and finally coming to rest on a lawn in the heart of Washington DC.  A man in a space suit emerges and, when offering a strange gift from the stars, is minunderstood and wounded by a soldier’s gun.  After recovering in an army hospital Klaatu, the star man, tells the U.S. president’s secretary to call a meeting of all the leaders of the world – he has a message for the people of Earth.  After learning that the world’s leaders refuse to gather together Klaatu disappears from the hospital in order to spend time with Earth people and gain insight into how they came to be so difficult.  Taking the name of Mr. Carpenter, Klaatu gets a snappy suit and blends in with Earth people.  After initial frustration, Klaatu comes up with Plan B – convince an influential scientist to gather the leading scientists of the world by the spaceship to hear Klaatu’s message.  After a tussle with some soldiers and holding his robot Gort back from destroying the world, Klaatu delivers his message and ascends once again to the stars.

Although long heralded as an important and thought-provoking film, I was disappointed to find that the thoughts provoked were mostly reactions against the simple-mindedness of the writer’s viewpoint and message.  The Day The Earth Stood Still has the dubious honor of being years ahead of its time pushing a simplistic and immature agenda on science-fiction movie goers.

The core of the plot, that an interstellar government sent an envoy to Earth to inform it that if it uses its new atomic weapons to threaten other planets it would be quickly destroyed, is quite an interesting one.  However, the core idea is handled so poorly that the movie is mostly wasted.  No leaders or scientists of Earth sit up and pay attention to the fact that human technology has finally reached a point where distant and advanced alien races are getting worried.  Despite the actions of their envoy, the aliens are never recognized for being heavy-handed, short-sighted reactionaries.

If these advanced and noble aliens had really been monitoring Earth’s communications for years why do they insist on treating all nations as if they were at the same point of readyness to hear their message?  Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom in 1951 were at very different levels of technology and treatment of their fellow human beings, to use just one example.  Klaatu has a childish inflexibility and insistance on getting his way when talking to the U.S. president’s secretary.  Why wasn’t he more willing to work with the situation as he found it?  Wouldn’t such an advanced race take a more long-term view of their goal to open relations with Earth and help it see their point of view?  Why must Klaatu’s message be given to all world leaders at the same time?  Why can’t he be more pragmatic and address the ones that are willing to listen and then speak to the other leaders on their own terms?  By anyone’s standards, Klaatu is an uncommonly inept ambassador.  He was openly insulting to the president’s secretary when he said he wasn’t willing to tolerate stupidity.

I don’t want to dwell on minor details of the story.  Details sometimes have to be sacrificed to keep the story moving.  However, one problem was impossible to ignore.  At the end of the movie when Mrs. Benson approaches the spaceship she has no trouble reaching it.  Are we expected to believe that it was guarded by only 2 soldiers!?

The soundtrack for this movie was very well done.  The eerie, foreign sounds of the opening title music set the scene very well for a movie about strange aliens.

The writer’s narrow minded views were always being thrust upon the viewer.  It was especially disappointing for me to see his open contempt for common people – a view also present in Isaac Asimov’s fiction.  Only 4 people in the movie attain the writer’s notion of enlightenment -  and one of them only because he’s a young boy!

It’s at the end of the movie that Klaatu tells us about the advanced civilization that sent him and, not surprisingly, about the screenplay author’s world view.  We see a naive faith in the idea that the United Nations is the best agency on Earth and that it should be given more power.  When Klaatu says, “The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it” it’s easy to see that a plea is being made to heighten the United Nation’s power.  This blogger is thankful that the people of Earth had more wisdom than Klaatu.

Klaatu talks about a political system of the aliens that places all faith and all power in a robotic police force.  This blind faith in a system of rules or technology is all too familiar for many of us and it’s disappointing that it persists to this day.

The statement most remembered from the movie is Klaatu’s moving words, “There must be security for all or no one is secure.”  Although blatantly false, I can see how many people would want the statement to be true.  It would have been nicer to see the statement framed more intelligently.  “There must be security for all or there is no justice,” for example.  The idea that the groups of people who get the short end of the stick will rise up and attack their oppressors is popular in some circles but not always true.  The Christians were persecuted horribly for many years by the Roman emperors but they never formed any armies to attack Rome.  And besides, sometimes the people who get screwed were screwed as a result of their own decisions -  not the decisions of the people they decide to blame!

I couldn’t help but notice Klaatu’s acknowledgement of an “almight spirit” right after his machine restores him at the end of the movie.  I’m willing to bet the 2008 remake makes no mention of this almighty spirit.

All things considered, I don’t consider The Day The Earth Stood Still to be a very good movie but I still recommend it to all science-fiction fans.  It’s important to see the early sources of the wishy-washy, poorly-thought-out attempts at philosophy that get pushed on us so often in today’s sci-fi films.