Here is the summary for the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still from imdbIn the original movie, a flying saucer orbits Earth, and lands in Washington, DC, on the Mall. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) steps out and is shot by a jumpy soldier. Gort (Lock Martin), an indestructible robot steps out of the spacecraft and proceeds to melt all the weapons, including tanks. Later, the Earth comes to realize that Gort has used very little of his power to make this happen.
While lying on the ground, Klaatu orders Gort to stop, and is then taken by the military to a hospital from which he later escapes in order to learn more about this planet called Earth and its human inhabitants. He meets Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Billy (Billy Gray); takes Klaatu on a tour of Washington, DC; and finally stops in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Klaatu reads the words uttered by Lincoln many years ago and realizes that there might be hope for Earth.
When they begin to suspect the alien man, he reveals himself, along with the news that Gort is a member of a race of super-robot enforcers invented to keep the peace of the galaxy and will destroy the Earth if provoked. Klaatu is pursued and shot and killed by the military. Before Klaatu dies, he tells Helen to go to Gort, and say the words "Klaatu barada nikto." If she does not, Klaatu tells her Gort will destroy the Earth. Helen makes her way to the ship and finds Gort. As the robot moves towards her, she repeats the phrase over and over. The robot picks her up and takes her into the ship. It then retrieves Klaatu's body and, through their alien science, resurrects Klaatu.
The 2008 remake about an alien and his indestructible robot will star Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, Jaden Smith as Jacob, and Kathy Bates. Gort has not been cast at this time and will most likely be created using SFX.
The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still will supposedly remain true to the original movie. However, there is a chance the remake will more likely remain true to the short story upon which the 1951 movie is based. In either case, the alien weaponry seems to have been upgraded. In addition to a city going dark, and a very brief look at the new Gort, the film trailer shows a cloud of black smoke, capable of rapid movement and disintegrating matter on contact.
In the 1951 movie, Gort is described as one of a race of robots created by the planets to maintain peace throughout the galaxy. If the 2008 remake follows "Farewell to the Master," the short story by Harry Bates upon which the 1951 movie is based will be used for the ending, which will not be revealed here.
Here is a review for the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still from dvdtalk
On the unnecessary remake scale of brow-furrowed disgust, I would rate this new pass at "The Day the Earth Stood Still" fairly high; not only because the film endeavors to "reimagine" the 1951 Robert Wise classic, but because it dares to drag perfection in the opposite direction. Refusing to take Wise's nuanced lead, the new "Stood" is a grotesque creation that prefers noise to thought, clumsily slapping together an eco-minded warning siren in the guise of a bloated Roland Emmerich creation. We already have one Emmerich, the world doesn't need a second version running around.
When a mysterious sphere of glowing biological purpose lands in Central Park, Earth's leading scientists, including Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), are summoned to study the visiting ship. Out of the light comes Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), an alien with a sobering message to deliver to the leaders of the planet. When Klaatu is shot during his greeting, government officials (led by Kathy Bates) seize the opportunity to lock up the alien and interrogate him. With the help of Helen and her son Jacob (Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith), Klaatu is rescued out of confinement and taken out of state, where the alien attempts to make sense of the human race, hoping to find a reason to save Earth from certain doom before it's too late.
The nerve of Fox to rework "Stood" leaves a bitter residue in my mouth, but that's the way Hollywood rolls these days. Pandering to kids who wouldn't know Gort if he came up and shot a laser beam down their throats, the new "Stood" turns a tidy atomic age parable into event movie mush. It trades nuclear weapons and cold wars for Al Gore-inspired planetary consideration, wrapped up tightly in blinding special effect displays to keep the audience interested in a preachy screenplay and patchy performances.
Certainly "Stood" means well enough, trying to fit its obese frame into the tight sweater of a message movie, speaking on the dangers of pollution and hostility in an increasingly careless world. Perhaps a filmmaker with some experience with large scale movement and political discussion could've molded "Stood" into a distant cousin of the original film. Instead, Fox hired Scott Derrickson, a man who previously gifted the world pure cinematic drivel such as "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "Hellraiser: Inferno."
Derrickson kicks off "Stood" with a respectable opening act, using a frightened Helen as the film's guide into alien mystery and end-of-the-world willies, building a convincing wall of vagueness with the appearance of the massive orb and Klaatu's blood-spattered introduction to humans. Once the alien is established as a resourceful, powerful weapon of energy with serious opinions about Earth, "Stood" takes a swan dive, developing a boil of stupidity it refuses to lance. From here on out, the screenplay by David Scarpa becomes crippled with clichés and miscalculated peaks of drama, with Derrickson heading off to supervise the considerable special effects work, leaving the actors to fight the good screen fight alone.
It's one thing to use eco-terror as a backdrop for concern, deftly reworking the original story to match new standards of social alarm; but "Stood" doesn't sniff out much gradational thought, instead it takes a lead-foot approach that features the characters spelling out the themes of the movie through clunky dialogue and poorly modulated performances (Smith is especially grating and resoundingly awful as the innocent soul of the picture). "Stood" is preachy with its point of change, constantly emphasizing the obvious, stopping just short of an Iron Eyes Cody cameo to drive home the message of humanity as the ultimate poison. I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment, I only object to the monotone monologues from Reeves or the teary pleading of Connelly to smuggle the elephant into the room.
Beyond the world-changing goal of the picture lies the visual effects, and while there's a wild bunch of alien and ecological ornamentation hung around the film, the worst offense lies with Gort, Klaatu's now building-sized robot defender. Once a creation of limited movement, the new Gort is reintroduced as a fluid being of destruction, not only from his laser beam-happy ocular cavity, but also though his ability to dissolve into a swarm of miniature metal insects that eat away anything in their path. The introduction of Gort leads "Stood" to unimaginably idiotic scenes with gung-ho U.S. military forces that bring to mind old "Simpsons" episodes, and showcases Derrickson's real impetus for the directorial job: to stage worldwide catastrophe. Oh, and to add as much product placement into the frame as possible.
It doesn't take very long before "Stood" turns into a crude pyrotechnics display, effectively wiping clean whatever responsibility it toyed with in the first act to dive into glowing ball/Gort smash! excess. It's too late now to cry foul over a needless remake. The film's here, waiting for audiences to escape the holiday blues with a little helping of devastation. Perhaps to the relaxed eye, Derrickson's coarse direction won't feel like a hot knife through the temple, but to any fan of 1951 film, it's best to ignore this exhaustive mangling of a classic movie.
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