The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film) writing that the generally poor reception for the film was "a sad fate for a surprisingly sincere tribute to Robert Wise's 1951 classic." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" 'congratulated' Keanu Reeves's performance and wrote in his review that "This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" was not impressed with Reeves' performance, commenting that "even Klaatu looks bored and distracted, much as he did back when we knew him as Neo." William Arnold
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film) image of lava flowing through a gray field. Derrickson opted to shoot on traditional film, and rendered the colors in post-production to make them more subtle, for realism. To film Barnhardt and Klaatu writing equations on a blackboard, general relativity sums were drawn by Marco Peloso from the University of Minnesota and William Hiscock of Montana State University in faint pencil marks. Keanu Reeves and John Cleese drew over these in chalk. As Fox had a mandate to become a carbon neutral company by 2011, "The Day the Earth Stood Still"s production had an environmentally friendly regimen. "Whether it was