Blu-ray Review: The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still (which shall from hereon be referred to simply as “Earth”) is a remake of the 1951 movie of the same name. I can’t talk with authority regarding the differences between the original and this ultra-slick, polished and extremely noisy remake given that I haven’t seen it.
I will tiptoe around the story a little bit, because although it’s hardly going to win a Pulitzer for originality, it would be very easy to spoil later plot developments. Earth is a simple alien invasion/destroy all humans/anti-Close Encounters type affair. Keanu Reeves plays a being known as Klaatu (whose human form is taken from a climber the aliens came in contact with in 1928, seen at the very beginning of the film), who is sent to Earth to assess whether the human race is capable of changing its ways and reversing the damage it has done to the planet (one of my favourite lines in the movie is when Klaatu looks slightly quizzically at the US Secretary of Defence and says “It is not YOUR planet”).
Klaatu arrives on Earth with a protector robot that looks decidedly like the Iron Giant. Their transportation method of choice is a massive sphere of light and energy that lands in Central Park. Naturally the first response tactic of the military is to shoot Klaatu which enrages the protector who swiftly disables all weaponry and creates a couple of explosions for popcorn munching effect.
Klaatu is then taken away for interrogation under the watchful eye of the aforementioned Secretary of Defence (played by Kathy Bates).
The primary characters in the movie besides Klaatu are Dr. Helen Benson (played by Jennifer Connelly) and her stepson Jacob (the excruciatingly irritating Jaden Smith). Helen is a professor at Princeton University, and due to her field of expertise is dragged away from her home by the military and placed with a group of scientists who are assembled to assist when the alien craft first appears on radar, and is on a collision course with New York.
Helen soon helps break Klaatu out of the government detention facility and aids him in his quest to meet up with a fellow alien and assess whether the human race is worthy of saving.
I’m torn about my opinions of this movie because at times it shows glimmers of being a great movie, but ultimately the message it is trying to convey is delivered in a far too heavy handed and somewhat clichéd way.
Take a movie like Wall-E, which has a very strong anti-consumerist “we ruined the planet” feel that is conveyed in a slightly light-hearted way, whereas Earth wants to bash you over the head with its preachiness.
There are also a lot of obvious knocks at the US government and the military and a “shoot first, ask questions later, if at all” agenda. It’s all very familiar, and at times downright boring.
The cliché contest continues with Helen and Jacob, the step-son who wants to say “you’re not my Mom” or “you’re not my Dad” followed by “I’m going to do my own thing, stuff you step-mom” sulkiness. Will Smith Jnr doesn’t really do himself any favours here but he’s only playing the part that’s written for him. Anyone who has seen The Pursuit of Happyness will know that Jaden Smith is capable of better things.
Keanu Reeves is the perfect go-to guy if you want someone to play an alien devoid of any emotions, and here he manages to portray Klaatu as cold and detached, but with moments of genuine warmth.
Aside from the overly simplistic story, the movie itself looks very nice indeed. The visual effects are decidedly stunning but again the movie suffers from Trailer-itus. Seen the trailer for the movie? Then you have pretty much seen all of the key special effects sequences.
Ultimately, Earth is too slow to be classed as a genuine popcorn muncher, can’t really be classed as an action movie, and sort of fails as a drama because the characters are just so one-dimensional and unlikeable.
If I may inject a cliché of my own into this review, it felt more like The Evening That Time Stood Still when I watched it. Sorry, I’ll get my coat…
Audio Visual
While I didn’t particularly enjoy the movie itself, this Blu-ray is a typical Fox powerhouse of a disc. The 1080p MPEG4 encode stands up very well. The movie has a very muted colour palette, lots of black and grey, interspersed with blotches of colour. On a lesser transfer that would mean some contrast issues, muddy backgrounds and probably colour bleed.
Fortunately this disc doesn’t suffer from any of those problems and while the image is intentionally desaturated, it looks way better than a standard DVD ever could.
As with Max Payne, the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack here is an absolute belter. During early scenes where the sphere first lands in Central Park the bass is absolutely stunning. Even a glass wind chime that hangs in our conservatory was vibrating as the deep bass hits kept on coming.
During the scenes where the action ramps up the track is pure demo material, surrounds are alive with bullets and other environmental effects whipping back and forth. This is a truly great track that should be enjoyed the way all decent movies should; LOUD!
During the slower parts of the movie the soundtrack still makes good use of all sound channels, and there are no dialogue volume level issues.
Bonus Features
A nicely packed set of features from Fox on this one, with much of the content being presented in HD.
Audio Commentary with Screenwriter David Scarpa – Scarpa goes solo on this one and it’s a shame really that they couldn’t rope in the director or at least one of the stars (no real chance of Reeves, but Connelly would have been a nice addition). That said, Scarpa keeps his information relatively quick and to the point and doesn’t ramble on.
There are plenty of gaps in his chat, but this is more of a quality rather than quantity commentary. Probably maybe one for people who are interested in the screenwriting process, but a lack of a name star of director on here means its nice to have a commentary, but perhaps Scarpa would have been better chipping in his thoughts with a larger group of people.
Re-Imagining “The Day” – A Making Of documentary that is more than the usual EPK stuff. There are interviews with the key players that amount to more than the usual “I loved working with X” fare. The documentary looks at the original movie and how the story was evolved from its key elements, and singles out some of the differences between the old and the new Klaatu. Movie nerds will be pleased to see the appearance of Paul M. Salmon who is quoted as a Movie Historian. Sci-fi fans will know him as the writer of THE book about the making of Blade Runner.
There is plenty of on set footage, as well as chats with each of the various departments on creating the visual effects, set design, etc. What’s most impressive to me is that the marshland and woods sequences were all filmed in the studio. Most movies that try to do this usually scream of backlot footage, so it was a nice surprise for me. Well above the usual standards.
Klaatu’s Unseen Artifacts - This is a picture-in-picture track that contains various storyboards and other nuggetts of information in the bottom-right corner of the screen while the movie is playing.
The Day the Earth Was “Green” – Fox is obviously very keen on promoting it’s carbon neutral stance, as one of these features appeared on the X-Files : I Want to Believe Blu-ray last year. Several people talk about how green the production of the movie was. That’s about it, hat’s off to them for doing it but did we really need 15 minutes telling us?
Watching the Skies: In Search of Extraterrestrial Life – Scientists talk about the possible real world scenarios for first contact with aliens. That description is lifted direct from the press release – as that is exactly what this is! But I don’t mean to demean the feature at all, because it’s actually very interesting and informative, without being too highbrow.
Unleashing Gort – Another effects feature, this time detailing the creation process for Gort (the Iron Giant style robot that is watching over and protecting Klaatu).
Deleted Scenes – Three deleted scenes that run for less than two minutes. The first two are pretty pointless, just some extra dialogue that was no doubt cut to help move along a little faster. The final is an extended version of the scene where Klaatu is wheeled down a hallway to his first “interview”. These are pretty pointless but they add another tick in a box for “Yes, we have some deleted scenes”.
Build Your Own Gort – Select different body pieces from various concept art to make your own Gort.
There’s also a theatrical trailer and still galleries of concept art, storyboards and production photos.
Just with Max Payne that I reviewed previously, The Day The Earth Stood Still is another extremely well presented Blu-ray from Fox. Video is pristine, and the DTS audio track is formidable. Bonus features are presented in HD and are well put together. There’s a couple of rather pointless additions but at least you’re getting value for money!
The movie itself didn’t really engage me in the way I was hoping, it’s a little ham fisted but the message the movie is trying to put across is one that everyone should pay attention to.
You can buy The Day the Earth Stood Still from Amazon or Play.com
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I had the same feelings about the movie. It’s obvious that the ‘agenda’ of the movie took precedence over any kind of good writing. And I’m not sure if Reeves does a very good or a very bad job of portraying Klaatu. I haven’t seen the original movie all the way through, just the first half or so . . . but I think I liked the original better in terms of writing. But that was a different generation then too . . . so maybe it’s apples and oranges trying to compare the two.
When I left the theatre I look at my friend and said ‘Well I don’t feel like I need my money back, but I wouldn’t go see it again or rent it’ to which he replied ‘at least it had good graphics and special effects’.