I was excited to see the other day that I had received a copy of The Day The Earth Stood still on Blu-ray. The reason I was so excited was because it’s a well packaged set. It’s a three disc version containing the movie with all the features, a digital copy, and finally the best special feature there is: the original film.

I’d considered going to see this movie in the theatre, but I wasn’t hearing too many rave reviews so I decided I would wait to watch it on Blu-ray. Therefore this is the first time I watched this movie, it was also the first time I got around to watching the original film as well.

I decided to watch the original film first because it seemed like a prudent thing to do. I liked it. It’s a bit cheesy, but when you look at it as a film made in 1951, it’s not to hard to look past the bad costumes and poor special effects. It had a good message, it started out fast, and it was simply just a really cool sci-fi film. Watching the original actor playing Klaatu, I was forced to admit that Keanu Reeves might actually work in this part, and that it was definitely in his range.

I watched the new one after that, and I was still excited at that point, mostly because of the robot on the cover. Also Jennifer Connelly is extremely hot and a good actress. (In my opinion.)

The first bad sign was that it took the new film twenty minutes to get to the place the original started, which was a little disappointing. I guess it’s a little harder to shock an audience with a space ship coming to Earth than it used to be. So I said, “On with the show!”

I thought that the robot Gort looked great. I enjoyed watching him dissipate things with an eye laser before, and I wasn’t disappointed with the new CG peace keeping machine doing it either. And though I wasn’t disappointed when he turned into a swarm of indestructible goat-like bugs, I was a little disappointed when he never reverted back to good ol’ Gort. I also thought it was a weak how little they used an actor of John Cleese’s calibre. They did give him some lines that eventually saved Earth, but he wasn’t in it very much, and he was under used in the single scene he was in. And Keanu Reeves is the type of actor that I walk into the theatre and expect to boo.

The new movie was almost nothing like the original. I sort of understood some of their changes, including changing the entire purpose of the aliens visit and the message they were sending. It was admittedly a more contemporary message that fit the times we are living in. It is also about 90% higher octane than the original film, sometimes this is exactly the type of movie I like watching, doubly-so because of Jennifer Connelly.

So I will end this by saying, it wasn’t a great movie, or even that good, and it didn’t need to be remade. It wasn’t the worst Hollywood movie I have seen, and it wasn’t even the worst this year. It has a better message than most the movies coming out now a days.

I am also of the belief that the world is sorely in need of more sci-fi films with killer robots, and so for that I commend this movie and recommend that you purchase this Blu-ray triple disc version that came out last week.

Finally I think that everyone will agree that “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is an amazing title!

To buy the Blu-ray, click here.