Day the Earth Stood Still, The (Blu-ray) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Audio Commentary Featurette Deleted Scenes Gallery Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	103:35
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Scott Derrickson
Studio Distributor	20th CENTURY FOX Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Keanu Reeves Jennifer Connelly Kathy Bates Jaden Smith
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Tyler Bates

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 French dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) Italian dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) Russian dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Day the Earth Stood Still is director Scott Derrickson and screenwriter David Scarpa's "re-imagining" of the classic 1951 film, which in turn was based on the 1940 story, “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates. The original film remains a sci-fi classic, that stood out from the stream of cheaply made, '50s alien-invasion films. This version is watchable but ultimately represents a lost opportunity. That aside, the Blu-ray video and audio is outstanding, and both of reference quality.
 
    As with the original, an alien ship lands in the US. An alien named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) transforms his body into human shape to bring a warning to the planet from a confederation of alien races. Klaatu is accompanied by a giant minder - a robot named GORT. In the post-WW2 Cold War, the 1951 Klaatu came to save humankind by advising humans to end their warring ways when the Earth is threatened by nuclear Armageddon, but the 2008 Klaatu has come to save the Earth by simply wiping out all the humans, thus giving all other species a chance to live. As Klaatu explains: "If the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives."
 
    As usual, the US military, here represented by the US Secretary of Defense (Kathy Bates), is immediately hostile - even before knowing Klaatu's intentions - thus proving his very dim view of our species is correct. Klaatu is even shot almost the moment he steps out of his space ship! But some scientists such as cute single-mother-astrobiologist (Jennifer Connelly) and her rebellious stepson (Jaden Smith), want to convince Klaatu that humans are actually worth saving.
 
    As always, the beautiful Jennifer Connelly makes this film watchable, and Keanu Reeves is perfectly cast as a impassive alien who speaks in an emotionless monotone. John Cleese makes a welcome cameo as a Nobel-prize winning scientist. But Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith, is incredibly annoying throughout - almost to Jar Jar Binks levels.

    With the Earth's many environmental problems, The Day the Earth Stood Still was a worthy idea for a remake with a green tint. Unfortunately structural problems with the story and the film's limited character development make this a hard movie to connect with. I can’t explain the film’s many, many problems without giving away important plot points. But I will note that the film's ending is completely weak, and made no sense to me when I think about it. And why does the film degenerate in a SFX spectacle lacking any genuine thought or emotion?

Video

    The high definition video transfer is of reference quality.

    The Day the Earth Stood Still has been mastered in 1920 x 1080p, using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The High Definition transfer is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1, in a native 16x9 frame. This is the film's original theatrical ratio.

    Although some of the CGI shots look a little soft, the sharpness of the image overall is excellent throughout, for example consider the detailed aerial shot of the urban landscape at 41:42. The black level is excellent, with deep and true blacks. The shadow detail is also excellent, for example look at the textures in the dimly-lit scene inside the car at 49:11.

    There seems to be extensive use of digital grading throughout for effect, and subsequently many of the scenes have their colour palette intentionally muted. That noted, the colour is excellent throughout, with accurate skin tones. There are no problems with MPEG artefacts, Film-To-Video Artefacts, or Film Artefacts such as aliasing, nor film artefacts such as small black or white marks.

    24 subtitle streams are present, and the English subtitles are accurate to the spoken word. Interestingly, the subtitles are positioned on the screen in front of the speaker of the dialogue, as opposed to the text all appearing across the bottom of the screen as usual.

    This is a BD-50 (50 GB Blu-ray disc), with the feature divided into 28 chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    As with the video, the audio is also of reference quality.

    The Day the Earth Stood Still has a great sound design and presence, and the film's surround audio is presented in English dts-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit). There are also four language dubs, including French, Italian, and Russian, with the French, Italian, and Russian presented in dts Surround (768 kbps), and the fourth language dub and another English option both presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps). The seventh audio option is an English audio commentary presented in Dolby Digital stereo (224 kbps).

    There is extensive use of ADR, but the dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent throughout on the default English audio track.

    The movie's orchestral musical score is credited to Tyler Bates. Although not particularly memorable, his score does a reasonable job of helping to inject tension and excitement into some of the scenes.

    As one would expect, this movie has a very aggressive surround presence at times, with plenty of surround activity. But this film has the lot, from loud, bombastic scenes of audio cacophony, to almost silent moments with subtle touches of intricate sounds. The dynamic range and clarity throughout is simply brilliant. The rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score and provide ambience. In other scenes there are plenty of split-rear directional effects, with panning between speakers.

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively throughout, and the audio features deep and full bass.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are a number of extras included on this 50 GB Blu-ray disc:

Menu

    As with other BDs, a floating menu is available.

In Movie Features

    These extras "allow a special insider's look into the alien invasion". Press the green, blue, or yellow button on your Blu-ray remote for extra features while the film is playing:

• Green: Audio Commentary by writer David Scarpa.
• Blue: "BonusView" - a PiP extra with content appearing in a screen in the bottom right corner.
• Yellow: Another PiP extra, this time including the film's storyboards.

Build Your Own Gort

    Using your remote control and pre-fabricated 'parts' such as a selection of heads, legs, and arms, you can design the look of your own GORT.

Deleted Scenes (1:56)

• Equipment is issued to the scientists
• Helen and Granier discuss the shot
• Extended version of Klaatu being wheeled down hallway

Re-Imagining 'The Day' (30:06)

    Presented in high definition, this featurette includes a number of clips from both the 1951 and 2008 films, and interviews with the 2008 director, writer, producer, and stars, discussing the film's "re-imagining".

Unleashing Gort (13:52)

    This humanoid robot has become a cult sci-fi icon over the last 50 years. Also presented in high definition, this featurette looks at some of the designs for the 2008 Gort, and includes some interviews with the filmmakers involved.

Watching the Skies: In Search of Extraterrestrial Life (23:08)

    A number of people put forward their ideas about the existence of extraterrestrials. Presented in high definition, this featurette is linked to the film by its subject matter, and by being peppered with clips taken from the 2008 film.

The Day the Earth Was Green (14:04)

     Also presented in high definition, this featurette includes a lot of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew about the green aspect to the movie. This film was advertised as Fox's "first green production, with an environmentally conscious set".

Still Galleries

    Some of this Concept Art, Storyboards, and Production Photos are included in the PiP extras (see In Movie Features above), and others are new.

Theatrical Trailer (1:48)

    Presented in high definition with surround audio.

    In terms of content, the three-disc Blu-ray released in the USA appears to be the best. The first disc is the same as ours, but the second includes a digital copy of the 2008 film in standard definition, and the third disc contains the full 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, presented in high definition!

    The original 1951 film remains a sci-fi classic that stood out from the stream of cheaply made, '50s alien-invasion films. The 2008 "re-imagining" is watchable, but represents a lost opportunity.

The video quality is excellent.

The audio quality is also excellent.

The extras are genuine and enjoyable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall