Day The Earth Stood Still review

I wasn't planning on going to see The Day The Earth Stood Still, but I found myself at Bluewater today with no more shops I wanted to look in and another couple of hours before I could countenance eating dinner - so what's a girl to do?  The Day The Earth Stood Still was the least unappealing of the films on offer, so off I went.

And I really rather enjoyed it, all told.  I don't know the original at all, so I could watch this as an entirely original film, which I gather was probably a good thing.  As has been said elsewhere, Klaatu was the perfect role for Keanu Reeves - stiff, unemotional and occasionally confused - and he played it very well, managing to convince as a being with great power as well as showing a sympathetic side to the character when required.  Jennifer Connelly is always worth watching, even though her plucky scientist and struggling stepmother was a bit two-dimensional at times, and young Jaden Smith looks to have a good career ahead of him if he continues in this vein.  I loved John Cleese turning up part-way through as Nobel Prize winner, and there were a couple of supporting players with irritatingly familiar faces who added extra depth to the surrounding storyline.

Overall, it was a decent thriller, though the message of the earth being doomed due to our mistreatment of it was rather heavy-handed.