--- title: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" year: 2008 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-2008" fi1m_score: 40 critics_score: 38 critics_reviews: 16 published: "2026-09-21T03:29:06.285774+00:00" updated: "2026-09-21T03:29:06.851165+00:00" region: "PE" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) Directed by Scott Derrickson · 1h 44m · Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller **Fi1m score: 40** · Critics 38 from 16 reviews *In a sentence:* Keanu Reeves looks as though he is waiting for a better explanation, and we sympathise > Keanu Reeves is suitably unsettling, but Scott Derrickson’s environmental thriller is dull and emotionally thin. Its concern for the planet deserves more thought than David Scarpa’s screenplay gives it. ## Synopsis Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), an extraterrestrial visitor, confronts humanity with the possibility that saving Earth means saving it from people. Environmental destruction gives his arrival a purpose that puts human survival in question. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) and Jacob Benson (Jaden Smith) become caught up in the encounter as a military response gathers around the visitor. Their family troubles continue amid a crisis that threatens far more than their own household. Klaatu needs a reason to believe that people can change, while humanity must contend with being judged by someone who does not share its priorities. ## Review Scott Derrickson’s *The Day the Earth Stood Still* has a workable reason to revisit its story: environmental catastrophe makes an alien’s doubts about humanity easy enough to understand. It is a poor thriller, though, because so much of it is slow and over-serious. David Scarpa’s screenplay asks whether we deserve to survive, then devotes much of its attention to the military response to a visitor. The people whose survival ought to concern us are less carefully considered. Keanu Reeves is the principal reason to stay with it. His Klaatu seems to be considering us rather than performing for us, and the stillness suits someone with little reason to share our panic. We felt briefly uneasy watching that impassive face, because there is so little reassurance in it. Klaatu’s lack of visible anger makes the threat harder to read, though the film leans on it until stillness begins to look like having nothing further to do. Jennifer Connelly works hard to make Helen Benson’s concern feel immediate, and that effort is worth acknowledging. But the family drama involving Jacob Benson, played by Jaden Smith, is too broadly written to give the threat much human weight. The script needs these relationships to make us care about humanity at close range; instead, it keeps treating feeling as something the audience will supply because the situation calls for it. There is little room for either performance to become particular. David Tattersall’s cinematography takes the military response as seriously as the alien, which makes the material look more convincing than it reads. David Brisbin’s production design likewise gives the emergency a sense of organisation and scale. Neither contribution is careless, and the military hardware provides something solid to look at when the dialogue grows vague. The difficulty is that all this attention to equipment leaves the people looking underwritten. Wayne Wahrman’s editing struggles to make the chases and family material feel like parts of the same story. Moving between them repeatedly stalls the film, since neither has developed enough interest to survive being put aside. Tyler Bates’ music supplies urgency without making those changes of emphasis feel any more convincing. At 104 minutes, the film should not feel this slow. The effects offer occasional spectacle, and the concern about environmental destruction is plainly sincere. Those are virtues, but neither excuses the lack of thought about what people might actually do differently. Alien-visitor stories can expose familiar behaviour simply by making it look strange; here, humanity is reduced to broad examples of folly and feeling. The film expects the size of the danger to make up for the vagueness of the case against us. A story that puts human survival up for discussion needs to let that discussion become uncomfortable. Here, we are too often asked to wait through another stretch of action before anyone can get back to the question. If the prospect of Keanu Reeves regarding humanity with deep reservations appeals, there is some pleasure here; do not expect the film to pursue those reservations far. *Fi1m score 40, published 21 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics find The Day the Earth Stood Still a sluggish remake that does too little to justify revisiting the original. The main complaints concern thin characters, a heavy-handed environmental message and spectacle that displaces ideas without supplying much excitement. Praise is scattered rather than shared: several reviews find Keanu Reeves well suited to the detached alien Klaatu, while some credit the effects with providing serviceable action. Even sympathetic accounts acknowledge that the film simplifies its message. The spread is wide, although negative reviews clearly dominate. Empire finds a relevant, tense thriller, and Paste sees a sincere, reasonably coherent update for blockbuster audiences. Reeves is a particular dividing point: The Guardian regards his performance as torpid, while several warmer reviews make him the chief attraction. The effects divide critics too, drawing appreciation for their spectacle from some and complaints about their quality or emotional emptiness from others. ## Straight answers **Is The Day the Earth Stood Still worth watching?** *The Day the Earth Stood Still* is difficult to recommend beyond admirers of Keanu Reeves’s unsettling restraint; we score it 40 out of 100. His alien visitor gives us brief unease, but the slow action, thin family drama and underdeveloped environmental questions make this a poor choice for a thoughtful science-fiction evening. **How long is The Day the Earth Stood Still, and what is it rated?** *The Day the Earth Stood Still* runs 1h 44m. It is a drama and science fiction film. **Where can I watch The Day the Earth Stood Still in Peru?** *The Day the Earth Stood Still* is streaming on Disney+ in Peru. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Day the Earth Stood Still, and is it suitable for children?** *The Day the Earth Stood Still* has a UK 12A certificate and combines a threat to human survival with military action, chases and an unsettling alien visitor. The certificate allows children under 12 with an accompanying adult, but the sustained threat calls for parental judgement; we find Klaatu’s unreadable calm briefly disturbing rather than reassuring. **How does The Day the Earth Stood Still compare to Arrival?** *The Day the Earth Stood Still* is the weaker choice beside *Arrival*, which we recommend for its patient, tense and moving treatment of first contact. Both involve a wider crisis, but *Arrival* gives conversations with visitors time to develop and its strange ideas a recognisable human response; Reeves’s unsettling presence cannot compensate for the thinner writing in *The Day the Earth Stood Still*. ### Reviews we read (16) - **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (70/100, inferred): The remake closely follows the spirit of the 1951 original while updating the threat to environmental catastrophe. It succeeds as a relevant, tense thriller with a strong central performance from Keanu Reeves. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/day-earth-stood-still-3-review/) - **The Times**, James Christopher (70/100, inferred): The critic finds it entertaining tongue-in-cheek tosh with strong effects and a hypnotic Reeves performance, though the message could have been delivered more simply. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-frsdkdfqxcg) - **The AV Club**, Tasha Robinson (C+): The remake thoughtfully explores sorrow over a suicidal race for part of its runtime but lacks the courage of its convictions and is irritatingly broad about why humanity might need to die. It prioritizes special effects and military details over meaningful contemporary relevance or emotional stakes. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-1798205384) - **Radio Times**, Jamie Russell (2/5): The critic calls it a fatuous and pointless remake that ditches the original's subtext and suffers in comparison, though passable on its own terms with good CGI action. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-di1di7/the-day-the-earth-stood-still/) - **Screen Daily** (40/100, inferred): A sluggish reboot that merges action and family drama unsuccessfully, with overdone seriousness and only Reeves somewhat effective as the alien. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/the-day-the-earth-stood-still/4042309.article) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (40/100, inferred): The remake invites viewers to feel fleetingly bad about humanity's fate while encouraging them to laugh it off as camp, turning the fear of apocalypse into something more palatable. Any hope that the film might rise above its pulpy silliness rests mainly on Keanu Reeves' performance as the weary extraterrestrial Klaatu. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/movies/12stil.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (30/100, inferred): The inert remake misses opportunities and feels limp and perfunctory in its environmental update to the original premise. Wooden archetypes and amateurish effects fail to make a compelling case, though the tossed-off moral minimizes preaching compared to the predecessor. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-3935/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (30/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a stupendously dull remake of the 1951 classic, with Keanu Reeves giving a torpid performance as the alien Klaatu. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/dec/12/day-the-earth-stood-still) - **The Hollywood Reporter** (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the remake tired and corny despite the efforts of its stars. It updates the story with a green theme but delivers the message in a gimmicky, dated way that falls far short of the original in ideas and issues. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/film-review-day-earth-stood-125148/) - **Time Out**, David Jenkins (20/100, inferred): This daft and pointless sci-fi remake has very little to recommend it, being tonally confused, poorly cast (especially Reeves), and missing the original's spectacle and message. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-3) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (20/100, inferred): This botched remake seriously dishonors the fine 1951 original by failing to justify the reworking with any deep thought, as the premise now feels overly familiar. The film lacks primal defining imagery and sticks to dull, uninteresting versions of the source material's characters and plot points. [Read](https://variety.com/2008/film/reviews/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-2-1117939195/) - **Financial Times**, Nigel Andrews (10/100, inferred): The remake is as dull as ditchwater with nothing new to add; Reeves has the charisma of a speak-your-weight machine and Derrickson directs without inspiration. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/b13c5c0c-c6cc-11dd-97a5-000077b07658) - **Paste**, Jeffrey Bloomer (70/100, inferred): The critic views the remake as a sincere, reasonably coherent attempt to update the classic for modern blockbuster audiences, praising Keanu Reeves' fitting performance as the alien Klaatu while noting it prioritizes effects over the original's ideas. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/scott-derrickson/the-day-the-earth-stood-still) - **Digital Spy**, Stella Papamichael (30/100, inferred): The critic criticizes Keanu Reeves' wooden performance and the film's lack of emotional depth or character development, calling out clichéd plotting, soulless CGI effects, and failure to match the original's sophistication or relevance. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a138210/the-day-the-earth-stood-still/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the remake a dull, humorless travesty with little action beyond CGI flashes and unengaging performances, especially from Keanu Reeves as an emotionless Klaatu. It praises the basic concept of saving Earth from humanity but criticizes the execution as a lifeless script weighed down by seriousness. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) - **Den of Geek**, Ron Hogan (1/5): The critic pans the remake for stripping out the original's strengths, replacing them with poor CGI, unexciting chases, and a heavy-handed environmental message; praises John Cleese's small role as the lone bright spot. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Scott Derrickson - **Director:** Scott Derrickson - **Screenplay:** David Scarpa - **Cinematography:** David Tattersall - **Editor:** Wayne Wahrman - **Music:** Tyler Bates - **Production design:** David Brisbin - **Costume design:** Tish Monaghan - **Producer:** Erwin Stoff, Paul Harris Boardman, Gregory Goodman - **Cast:** Keanu Reeves as Klaatu; Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson; Jaden Smith as Jacob Benson; Jon Hamm as Michael Granier; Kathy Bates as Regina Jackson; John Cleese as Professor Barnhardt; Kyle Chandler as John Driscoll; Robert Knepper as Colonel - **Runtime:** 1h 44m - **First release (Belgium):** 10 December 2008 - **Genres:** Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller - **Budget:** $80 million - **Box office:** $233 million ## Where to watch in Peru - Disney+: streaming, hd *Checked 2026-09-21.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Arrival* (2016), Fi1m 86: The conversations with visitors are given the patience they need. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/arrival.md) - *Starman* (1984): A warmer alien encounter, with human attachment allowed to matter. - *The Host* (2006): Environmental damage becomes a family emergency, with humour and consequences. - *The Andromeda Strain* (1971): Scientific procedure creates the tension that military hardware cannot guarantee. - *The Man Who Fell to Earth* (1976), Fi1m 82: An alien’s distance from humanity becomes stranger and more painful. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-man-who-fell-to-earth.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-2008