The Day The Earth Stood Still

Rating: * *

Verdict

:

Overblown, underwhelming, and the jury's still out on whether Keanu can act.

Anyone mistaking this bloated, effects-heavy, clumsily eco-conscious sci-fi flick as a compelling update of the classic chilly Cold War sci-thriller of the same name is going to be disappointed. And those who don't know the original are bound to be equally irritated by the lack of intelligent life on the screen.

Clearly director Derrickson decided early the alien Klaatu coming to Earth with An Important Message would walk through our troubled world like an automaton. So who better than a numbingly dull Reeves?

As the world is going to Hell in a meltdown of technology with the invasion of bewildering orbs from afar in our solar system - and otherwise decent actors Connelly as The Well-Intentioned Scientist and Bates (a yay-saying US Secretary of Defence to her unseen but nuclear-inclined president) doing their best with inferior material - Klaatu/Reeves is obliged to do little other than look meaningful, then concerned.

It's a measure of how seriously the preview audience took this bloated but shallow blockbuster that when John Cleese appeared as a Very Serious Scientist, it burst out laughing. There are laughs to be had - not quite the director's intention - but aside from Sp-Fx there's not a lot going on here, although there is the obligatory Cute Kid With Absent Parent Issues and Really Cool Corkscrew Hair (Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett).

Yes, this is a film where everything is in Capital Letters. And being the 21st century where everything needs to be writ large in case people don't Get It, the menacing but man-sized robot Gort of the original is now an anthropomorphic monster which towers over tall buildings.

Gort unwittingly becomes a symbol for everything wrong with this overblown, unnecessary and unfortunate remake. Just Dreadful when it isn't Absolutely Unforgiveable.

Graham Reid

Cast

: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates Director: Scott Derrickson

Running time

: 103 minutes

Rating

: M (medium level violence)

Screening

: SkyCity Cinemas