The Day The Earth Stood Still--Very Disappointing--Klaatu barada nikto!

The Day The Earth Stood Still---very disappointing.

Spoiler Alerts---don't ready any further if you don't want to read some spoilers.

OK, I'm a big fan of the original

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043456/

which I think is one of the greatest Science Fiction movies ever made.

I've been looking forward to this movie since I heard about it last March, although I really wondered how it could approach the original.

I was hoping for an update--but this rework was shoddy.

It lacked the true warmth of the original---Keanu Reeves is frosty.

So many lost opportunities---for instance, when Jacob asks Klaatu to resurrect his dead father, he doesn't. Nor does he offer any reason as to why not. Had too much time passed?

Klaatu resurrected the policeman he killed.

I think the movie missed a great opportunity to do something the original never did.

And really, if you are going to stick to some of the original plot (landing on a ball field in Central Park, befriend a single mother, get shot upon landing) be concise.

For instance, when Klaatu corrects Professor Barnhardt's blackboard formula, why leave out a crucial sequence in which Klaatu tells the Professor that the formula is good enough to allow him to travel from one solar system to another.

And why stop the earth at the very end---it was used in the original to lend credibility to Klaatu's claims.

And why no "Klaatu barada nikto!"

All in all, I think purists will be very disappointed in the remake.

Moviegoers who never saw the original may like it---it has lots of gore and special effects which appeal to young people these days, but no warmth and very little character study.