Briefly summarising, it is technically impressive, with excellent special effects, and the acting ranges from adequate to good. Keanu Reeves, an actor I don't care for that much, acquits himself well as Klaatu, but Jennifer Connelly came across as rather lifeless and unconvincing. The real star is Jaden Smith as Jacob, he gave some much-needed emotion, which is more than could be said with his adult co-stars. There is some nice support from Kathy Bates, but John Cleese had literally nothing to work with, and came across as useless. On the other hand, a number of factors let the film down, namely the lack of a story, and when there was, it plodded quite badly in the latter half. It starts off well, with a fantastic idea, but in the end it seems a shamble of underdeveloped characters, and the special effects disallowed the story to develop properly. The script was also uneven, and was further disadvantaged by some overly sentimental scenes that strayed away too often from the film's focus. All in all, technically impressive, with variable acting, but at the end of the day, compared to the superior original, you are just left wanting more. 4.5/10 Bethany Cox.

Watching this remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still reminded me of how Q in the opening episode of Star Trek The Next Generation was ready to condemn humanity out of hand. But at least John DeLancie was saying this far you've gone and no farther. Here like an old testament prophet Keanu Reeves has come to render final judgment on humanity and how it is messed up the gift of planet earth.

Keanu Reeves was certainly different than Michael Rennie in his interpretation of alien Klaatu. He's more like Fredric March in Death Takes A Holiday, the handsome young stranger who brings a promise of destruction. Rennie was a sophisticated kind of actor and brought that quality to his performance. In his version he does mix and mingle with humanity and does save us from the big robot.

The robot here is about the size of the Statue Of Liberty much bigger than the 1951 film. His arsenal is mighty and in the climax, positively biblical.

I do prefer the 1951 film, but this one is not as bad as folks make it out to be.

I'm a big fan of the science fiction genre, and 1951's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is one of the granddaddies of that genre. It's a thought-provoking movie that still holds up today, so why anybody thought that remaking it as an overblown CGI extravaganza was a good idea is beyond me. Initially, this version is quite interesting, and my expectations were running high as to how filmmakers would adapt the story for modern audiences. Then, at around a third of the running time in, it falls apart, and we're left with a mix of bland dialogue scenes and soulless CGI set-pieces.

It's hard to know what's more embarrassing about this production: the cartoonish Gort, who's never a patch on 1951's man-in-a-suit, or the lumbering, save-the-planet trite talk. Keanu Reeves is difficult to fault here: after all, he isn't required to do much other than look moody, which he's good at. However, the rest of the cast are either saddled with dull characters or give poor performances (and in the case of Jaden Smith, whose mere presence shrieks nepotism, it's both). Jennifer Connelly, decent in recent fare like BLOOD DIAMOND, plays a crushing bore with zero characterisation, while Kathy Bates is an awful caricature. Difficult to believe this is the same actress who played Annie Wilkes.

The film becomes increasingly poor as it goes on, and if the fate of mankind really hinges on the presence of a bratty kid and his 'bonding' with an alien then I despair. There are scenes of destruction that look like something out of the latest Roland Emmerich monstrosity and an alien spaceship that looks like nothing more than an oversize version of the bouncy balls I used to play with as a kid. Remind me why I should care?