I have finally and with much trepidation, watched the 2008 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Being a fan of the 1951 original, I was not looking forward to the remake. Nonetheless, I watched it. I can whole heartily say that it was not very good. Just as fair warning, if you have not watched either film, this review may spoil things.

The original was created at the beginning of the cold war. Nuclear annihilation was on everyone's mind. The Day the Earth Stood Still was an allegorical tale that if we became irresponsible with nuclear proliferation, we could all be wiped out. This was the message of Klaatu. Now that we were on the edge of going into space, we would not be allowed to continue to exist as a species unless we dropped the nukes. Powerful stuff!

The remake altered the message from nuclear weapons to global warming. This is fine. Global warming has an equal chance of destroying the human race as nuclear weapons did. It does not seem as urgent or as threatening, but if it were done right then the movie should not have to suffer. Needless to say, that is the key there. They needed to do it right, but they did not.

One of the big problems with Hollywood movies today is they rush through everything. They do not take the time to build any suspense. In the original, Gort stood upon the White House lawn for days. Something would happen, and they would go back to Gort just standing there. This built tension. The remake, there was none of that. They did not take the time to build any suspense.  There was no wondering: What does Klaatu want? What is going to happen? We find out fairly casually that G.O.R.T. was here to kill us.

Wait! What? What is this G.O.R.T. business? In the remake, the robot is given the acronym GORT to stand for "Genetically Organized Robotic Technology." Bleh! So, why is Klaatu needed at all? Oh, just to further the plot. That is right; the main character in the movie is completely superfluous. There was no reason for him to actually appear in the movie. Well, except that he is there to stop G.O.R.T. from completely destroying the earth once the obvious plot point reached their logical conclusion.  Ahem -- love interest -- cough cough.

Oddly, Keanu's ultra-wooden performance was not terribly harmful to the movie. The detached alien is a fine part for Theodore "Ted" Logan. However, if you are going to give him a love interest, perhaps a little chemistry between the performers would have helped.

For the most part, all the performers involved did pretty well. Jaden Smith was a bit all over the place, but that was more a problem of the script than his performance. Jennifer Connelly and John Cleese were pretty good. Kathy Bates was spectacular.

The major problem with the movie was that it was a jumbled mess. It was just a number of scenes stuck together pretending to be a movie. This happens then that happens then this happens then that happens then...  They just did not take the time to build anything. It was as if they were giving you an updated version, without any of that unnecessary time wasting. Remember that tension you felt during the original?  Well feel that here!

Hence, it does not stand on its own, nor is it an improvement over the original. While the special effects in the remake are very good compared to the 1950's original, it does not make up for the poor writing. There were some good ideas expressed in the remake, they were lost in the jumbled mess. With a decent script and competent direction, they could have pulled it off with the cast they assembled. Sadly, they did not have those two important things. It is a shame really.