war is n't the problem . Mankind is the problem . The filmmakers have come up with an effective Spielbergian prologue , cutting from the Himalayas in 1928 to contemporary biology professor Helen Benson -LRB- Jennifer Connelly -RRB- , whisked from her home by uniformed men in response to an undisclosed national emergency . It 's strange to think that in the final hour the government will turn to molecular biologists for guidance , though true to form -LRB- as in the 1951 original -RRB- the scientists are quickly overruled by the politicians . But once Keanu-Klaatu emerges from his blubbery placenta spacesuit , the movie shifts into familiar fugitive thriller terrain and the tension slowly drains out of it . Dr. Benson helps him escape to New Jersey where he can meet with an alien undercover agent in McDonald 's , and she can introduce him to a true world leader , a Nobel laureate played by John Cleese . If you 're going to cast a top star as an alien being , Reeves seems a solid choice . He 's always been able to process human emotion with a Spock-like detachment . `` This body is going
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Call it the second coming . Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves star in `` The Day the Earth Stood Still . '' Klaatu the spaceman first visited these parts in Robert Wise 's 1951 Cold War classic `` The Day the Earth Stood Still , '' when he threatened to blow us all up unless we stopped threatening to do the job for him . Klaatu was n't exactly greeted with open arms back then -- he was shot and hounded for his troubles -- and if the earth has moved on over the past half century , you would n't know it from the trigger-happy welcoming committee that surrounds his luminous snowball of a space craft in New York 's Central Park . Where sci-fi films in the 1950s used to see red -LRB- s -RRB- , today they go green . Directed by Scott Derrickson -LRB- `` The Exorcism of Emily Rose '' -RRB- and scripted by David Scarpa -LRB- `` The Last Castle '' -RRB- , `` The Day the Earth Stood Still '' 2.0 ditches the Cold War theme . Klaatu -LRB- Keanu Reeves -RRB- means to save the planet , but