The Day The Earth Stopped 2008

The Asylum

Peacock Films

R4 DVD

This film is an unashamed remake of the earlier The Day The Earth Stood Still with an updated plot. So, for that matter, is the other current remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Although the original 1951 TDTESS is regarded as a classic its plot was so full of holes and dodgy special effects that it really needed remaking and updating. Both the remakes seem to be an attempt to do this. So how effective is this one?

First it must be said that the film, like so many from The Asylum, has “budget production” written all over it. Minimal CGI, a script that could do with a bit more refining and actors whose hearts didn’t seem to be in the job are just some of the problems. The CGI effects that are included are pretty ordinary. The script actually shows promise but doesn’t quite make it.

On the positive side, producer / director / whatever C Thomas Howell, Judd Nelson and Darren Dalton manage to turn in performances that are at least adequate to carry the story well. Dalton particularly as the tough military commander manages a good change of character when he is gently reminded by an alien that if the Earth is going to end, shouldn’t he be home with his wife and son? Nelson plays a good role as the scientist who simply cannot understand that he is playing with all the lives on Earth.

The story will be familiar to all who saw the original The Day The Earth Stood Still. Aliens have detected the rise in military power of the earth nations and the irresponsibility they show in the use of their weapons. This is highlighted later in the film when the Pacific island of Nauru is destroyed by an atomic bomb in an attempt to kill the huge robot that has landed there. Thousands of people are killed on the independent island country, but the scientist in charge of the project shrugs it off as a place where the smallest number of people would die. The hundreds of robots that have landed around the Earth will feed a combined magnetic pulse into the Earth’s core that will slow its rotation and throw the earth out of orbit.

Two humanoids in charge of the robots have delivered an ultimatum to Earth – the destruction will occur at sunset unless the humans can “show me that there is value in human life … prove this to me and there will be a tomorrow…”

Josh Myron (C Thomas Howell), one of the men detailed to guard the female alien, Skye, believes her and helps her to escape. He is at a loss to show her what she is looking for, though, and it seems the earth is doomed. While evading the Task Force they help a man whose wife is having a baby. The wife dies in childbirth. Skye, with the dead woman’s baby in her arms, shows compassion and brings the woman back to life. This forces her to feel human compassion and to believe that there may be something in humanity that is worth saving. She decides to call off the destruction. Now Skye and Myron must get back to her robot to communicate her decision while the Task Force will do anything to keep her on Earth.

Superficially the film is a lightweight bit of drama, but the underlying performances give it strength. Unlike so many American films these days the U.S. military cannot save the day for Earth – this in itself is a pleasant change. Howell’s strong performance as the ordinary guy who has to fight the system for his beliefs is also notable in that he is not shown as some sort of superhero. The film’s basic idea follows the original film fairly closely so the power of the concept of “stop fighting or you will all die” is kept.

Perhaps grudgingly, and even allowing for its defects, I liked the film.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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