New York Times
"Mr. Reeves's deadpan basso and permanently perplexed features make him an ideal Klaatu, as the space visitor is called." 12/12/2008Los Angeles Times
"This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves in, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton, as a perplexed alien....[An] enjoyable updating..." 12/12/2008 Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "[Reeve's] performance here is subtle to the point that you might miss it altogether, yet it's perfectly calibrated....There is real tension..." 02/01/2009 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[Keanu Reeves] looks weird, displaced, a true alien among us....A pleasing strangeness colours the first half..." 02/01/2009 ReelViews 6 of 10
By all accounts, both the director (Scott Derrickson) and star (Keanu Reeves) of this 2008 film are fans of its 1951 precursor. So what went wrong? At what point did this initially promising remake lose its way? After all, Robert Wise's science fiction classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, is far from a perfect motion picture. Parts of the movie are contrived and there are gaps in logic and common sense. That being said, it's a powerful and compelling motion picture with something specific to say about the human condition. The new version, while admittedly addressing aspects of the first that date it, opens new holes, some of which are more problematic. Worse, it lacks the simple elegance and intelligence of the earlier film, and employs special effects and pointless action scenes to replace passages of dialogue...A successful remake has a difficult path to traverse. It must honor the original while at the same time bringing something new, interesting, and intelligent to the project. The Day the Earth Stood Still fails a little in both categories. Too often, the need to be a spectacle trumps the desire to be smart and thought-provoking, and this works to the film's detriment...If one ignores the fact that The Day the Earth Stood Still is a remake, it still falls short of expectations. There's too little drama and tension and Gort's eventual transformation into a lethal cloud makes for a less-than-thrilling climax. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the production is that there would appear to be considerable room to update the story and, while some of that is done, it is largely a wasted opportunity. Remaking a movie is easy. Engineering a good remake is difficult. One key quality that separates the two is inspiration, and that's a characteristic not to be found in 2008's The Day the Earth Stood Still. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" need not have taken its title so seriously that the plot stands still along with it. There isn't much here you won't remember from the 1951 classic, even if you haven't seen it...That movie is at No. 202 in IMDb's top 250. Its message, timely for the nuclear age, is that mankind would be exterminated if we didn't stop killing one another. The message of the 2008 version is that we should have voted for Al Gore. This didn't require Klaatu and Gort. That's what I'm here for. Actually, Klaatu is non-partisan and doesn't name names, but his message is clear: Planets capable of sustaining life are so rare that the aliens cannot allow us to destroy life on this one. So they'll have to kill us...All this is presented in an expensive, good-looking film that is well-made by Scott Derrickson, but to no avail...Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates essentially keep the human interest afloat. Young Jaden Smith is an appealing actor, but his character Jacob could use a good spanking, what with endangering the human race with a snit fit. Nobody is better than Connelly at looking really soulful, and I am not being sarcastic, I am sincere. There are scenes here requiring both actors to be soulful, and she takes up the extra burden effortlessly...One more detail. I will not disclose how the aliens plan to exterminate human life, because it's a neat visual. Let me just observe that the destruction of human life involves the annihilation of Shea Stadium, which doesn't even have any humans in it at the time. And that since the destruction begins in the mountains of the Southwest, yet approaches Shea from the east, the task must be pretty well completed by the time Jennifer Connelly needs to look soulful. And that Klaatu is a cockeyed optimist if he thinks they can hide out in an underpass in the park. - Roger Ebert
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