Science fiction has been a staple of my life for as far back as I can remember. Star Wars was my childhood and since my parents thought the prequels were silly cash grabs, really only the original trilogy was part of my life until the premiere of the final of the prequels, so I got lucky there. But yeah, space and things coming from space really interested me because I came from a crazy religious family who didn't believe in aliens or the big bang or any of that. One of the most terrifying episodes of The Twilight Zone to me was "To Serve Man". My dad thought if I liked that episode so much (for though it scared me, I was also drawn to the horror of it, kinda like with dinosaurs) and since I was ENAMORED HARD CORE with Invasion of the Body Snatchers, well I would certainly like the film "The Day the Earth Stood Still". And that I did. I remember being unsure if the electricity ceased because the earth stopped spinning or what really as a kind so that kinda freaked me out, but it was held in a high place in my heart for all of these years.
It starts when Klaatu lands his space saucer in a park in Washington DC. While attempting to present peaceful terms, he is shot and wounded by the US military, a sign of what is to come. Klaatu's guard robot, Gort, arrives and gets rid of all the weapons with his energy beam to make the ordeal safer for everyone. Klaatu is taken to the hospital where the President's secretary interrogates him and informs Klaatu that due to the cold war, a meeting of world leaders cannot occur and peace is not a foreseeable option, despite the fact that Klaatu believes otherwise and insists that the message he brings is one to benefit and to be taken into consideration by the entire world, not just one nation. Not understanding this attitude of mistrust, he wishes to walk among the people and understand human life, but the government refuses. So Klaatu adopts the guise of "Mr. Carpenter" as he escapes government custody and moves into a boarding house.
Young Bobby really intrigues the charismatic and curious Mr. Carpenter. Carpenter offers to babysit Bobby while his mother, Helen, goes on a date. Bobby shows Carpenter around and they eat ice cream and Bobby shows him his father's grave and explains about the World Wars, and they have a splendid time. Bobby shows a lot of interest in the mysterious spaceman that has now disappeared in the city and Carpenter assures Bobby that the spaceman is only here for good reasons and maybe he just wanted to have a nice time. They visit a scientist and after Carpenter helps the absent scientist to solve an equation, government agents come for Mr. Carpenter in the night. They bring him to the scientist who believes that Carpenter is Klaatu the spaceman and that his message that Earth needs to seek peace or else be eliminated by higher powers is of the highest importance.
The dichotomy between the nature of man in war time versus the call for peace becomes more and more tense as the manhunt for Klaatu increases. Eventually we get to the pivotal scene where Klaatu stops all electricity on Earth, save for anywhere that would compromise safety like hospitals and airports, to show both his seriousness and his care for human life. Once the electricity is brought back, Klaatu is gunned down and Helen delivers a special message for Gort; "Klaatu barada nikto". Gort temporarily brings Klaatu back to life and with everyone, including the top scientists since political leaders wouldn't get over themselves to listen, present, the Earth stands still as Klaatu tells them that their warring, violent ways and their discovery of atomic power for weaponization is dangerous and that they need to beware and if they let their wars get out into space towards the other planets, then the otherwise peaceful planets will eliminate them.
This is a powerful story of someone who sees and is repeatedly confronted with the cruelty of humans, but is determined to not only understand but to give them a chance and a warning to change, and even goes about seeking the right people to do this. The fact that this was written in the time of Cold War was monumental as well, as it was a call for peace and rational thinking in a world gone absolutely mad.
So of course they decided to fuck it up in 2008.
The Day the Earth Stood Still, in 2008, was remade into a disaster drama staring the man who should have been cast as the robot Gort instead, Keanu Reeves. This convoluted storm of CGI testing with a marketable name tacked onto it bombeb at the box office and was even Razzie nominated, though it lost to the 4th Indiana Jones film that TOTALLYNEVERHAPPENEDSHUTUP.
For some reason, we start with Keanu Reeves climbing a mountain and touching a glowing sphere that takes his DNA and fucks right off. Okay. Sure. Then it just decides to shift to present day where a strange object is heading towards New York City and is going to kill everyone and there's no time to evaculate, however there is time to abduct a small army of scientist people and take them somewhere safe so that they can...talk about how they can't do anything. However, instead of the object crashing into the city and ending this movie, it slows down and gently lands in Central Park. Out steps......something freaky! And so the army shoots it. And then Gort the robot comes out and disables all the weapons before the alien tells him to be calm with "Klaatu barada nikto" (the phrase used to inform Gort that Klaatu was dead and needed to be found and revived so...okay). The alien is taken to the hospital where they decided to try out their new special effects in terms of body horror, having the alien shed pounds of dripping flesh to reveal a slowly forming replica of Keanu Reeves from the mountain climbing scene.
It starts to follow the original. Klaatu informs the President's secretary that he needs to speak to the UN, she says no because they said no in the original despite the fact that the UN building isn't that far from where he even landed, and since there's no Cold War in 2008 like really the reps can just fly in asap and meet with him tomorrow. But nah. And then they try to sedate Klaatu and he enacts violence to escape....wait what? Klaatu is a pacifist... but in this version he Man of Steel's his way through harming people. He's rescued by the doctor from earlier who refused to sedate him, Helen, and her son Jacob (in one of Jaden Smith's 2 good roles). Jacob thinks they should kill the alien because his dad was in the army and he would kill the alien because you have to kill those who are different from you! Yeah! Keanu Reeves, I would say tries to not make the situation more awkward but he just automatically makes it so by being Keanu Reeves. In fact, since he harms so many people and cares so little about humanity, I've decided he is not Klaatu. I'm going to just call him Keanu. Keanu goes to a product placement I mean McDonalds to talk with a random chinese gentleman who apparently is also an alien who has spent 70 years on Earth and has decided that humans will never change and are only capable of destruction. So Keanu decides that's good enough and decided that humanity should be erased for Earth's on protection. Spheres just start appearing around the world to start a small arc of animals before the nanobots from Agent Cody Banks are unleashed and start to eliminate humanity. Helen and Jacob try to change Keanu's mind and when they eventually do, Keanu tells them that to live, they must pay the price, and he sacrifices himself to end the nanobots and his sphere flies away, leaving Earth apparently unable to use electricity....because that's actually something you can do...(no).
This is a complete departure from the ideals of the original. While the concept of "humanity should peruse peace" is still kinda there, the entire fact that Klaatu comes from a place of peace who only desires peace and strives to maintain peace is wiped away. This movie is just about punishment and devastation. And I consider Klaatu's two biggest sins to be a large part of the downfall to this. He never desires to know and understand humanity. He does not approach this with the charismatic optimism of someone who cares and loves. And he eliminates electricity, which while Klaatu did to gain attention, he ensured that he left it on in places that might lead to harming a human. Keanu has effectively killed everyone in flight and in a hospital. Thanks, asshole. Even if it is just a "reimagining", you'd think you'd imagine the parts that were effective and meaningful to remain. Updating the story for a modern audience could have been extremely effective, but that is not what happened. We got a story of peace bastardized into a a story of threats and tragedy.
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