I loved Robert Wise's original film, so this remake was a big disappointment. This is the type of movie that gives Hollywood blockbusters a bad name. The filmmakers have taken a well loved film and produced a travesty. For some reason the idiots behind the film decided that the story could be improved upon, unfortunately their changes make little sense. <br /><br />When a spaceship lands in Central Park, an alien messenger called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves)disembarks. The rest of the universe is worried about the Earth's environmental record and Klaatu has been sent to tell us to clean up our act. He is shot and captured. Kathy Bates plays a Defense Secretary in the Cheney/Rumsfeld mold. She decides that the aliens need a demonstration of America's military prowess and decides to play hardball. The U.S. government wants to keep the alien locked up and his identity a secret. This does not go down well with Klaatu, who concludes that further discussion with the U.S. government is a waste of time and decides to exterminate mankind.<br /><br />Jennifer Connelly plays a Princeton professor and government science expert who befriends Klaatu. In the original film Michael Rennie moved around DC and is gradually won over by Patricia Neal and the other ordinary people he meets. In this film he is shackled to Connelly and her young son. Reeves exhibits none of Rennie's easy charm and looks dazed and confused most of the time. The child playing Connelly's son overacts and is an annoying distraction. At the end of the film, Klaatu leaves the Earth telling only Connelly and Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese) about his mission, there is no speech to mankind and the film fizzles out. <br /><br />The movie does have impressive special effects and perhaps if they had given the film the benefit of modern film technology and an updated look this remake may have been justified. Unfortunately an American classic has been vandalized, and you have to wonder what they were thinking.