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.
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