Let me start by saying what this movie isn't . It's not the original. Obviously, it couldn't be. But it's an interesting re-telling of it. It's not yet another alien invasion movie. It's not Independence Day. At the end of the day, no-one gets to cheer that we kicked the big bad alien's taillights. Or that we blew up the big bad asteroid which was just minding its business… It's not a movie about aliens. It's a movie about US – and our paranoia. Our fears. Our hysteria.

And it's not a 'green' movie, either. I mean, Klaatu is actually eating a tuna sandwich…

But it's no blockbuster material, either. Or at least,doesn't seem like it to me.

It's got beautiful cinematography, though . AND little subversive lines. (And for those who complain this movie has images which remind us of The Sphere, Contact, or Close Encounters of the Third Kind… pop-quiz , what do all these movies have in common ? answer : they hold the mirror at US)

It doesn't preach, it just suggests. It gives us the test paper, but we're the ones who have to connect the dots and find the hidden figure in the drawing… It doesn't have any moralist speech at the end . we're past speeches. "They" have tried to talk with our elected authorities, but all we did in response was to wave our guns. So the message is given at an individual level. And there is where we'll have to look for salvation, in the end. Inside us. The change will start with each and every individual who'll make it.

It has an interesting parallel, too : in both versions, Klaatu learns what it means to be human mostly from the boy. But in the 2008 version, the kid mirrors the "us against them" mentality of the society. " we should kill them anyway, just to make sure" . Thing is, this kid is able to change. How about the rest of us?

As for Reeves' Klaatu… it's been said he's sinister, menacing… he might appear that way. But above all, he's simply… ALIEN. From the very first moment, you get a clear feeling that whatever's watching through those eyes, it's not human.

(posted on IMDb as 'taifunu' , on 17.12.2008)