BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Day The Earth Stood Still by Michelle Alexandria

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Hmm… What do you say about one of the greatest Sci-Fi films ever made? Other than that it’s one of the greatest Sci-Films Ever Made? Just in time for the release of the Keanu remake, The Day the Earth Stood Still (the Original) is now out in Blu-ray. This 50’s Black and White classic looks absolutely gorgeous. The only drawback is the picture isn’t in Widescreen format it’s a pretty harsh full frame 1:33:1 ratio (or standard 4.3). So the picture looks a bit cropped on the sides on my 46 incher, it’s like watching standard def broadcasts on any normal HDTV. The only way to get it to fill up the screen is to select the widescreen mode on my television – which I don’t like to do because it makes the picture look stretched and the 5.1 HD Digital audio is clear and clean.

Originally, I didn’t think this disk had that many features, but once I delved into it, there’s a lot to discover here. Fox’s habit of making some of the worst navigation in the history of DVD and now Blu-ray continues here. It wouldn’t be a Fox release if the menus weren’t confusing or had really small fonts.

The disk starts with an 8 minute preview of the new Keanu remake. I watched about 3 minutes of it before I got incredibly bored. I have no interest in seeing this, but I’ll probably make time over the long X-mas weekend.  The stupid thing is once you skip this intro you can’t navigate to it again (unless you stop the movie), because the preview isn’t one of the special features you can easily navigate to, incredibly dumb.  Some of the standout features include an interactive game that let’s you be Gort and lazer blast some troops. It’s a incredibly lame and cheesy flash game, but I actually spent about 15 minutes playing with it. Then there’s this unique make your own soundtrack thing that let’s create music with the Thermin and then apply it to the scene where Gort first comes out of the ship. Very neat, there’s a scale and you just scroll up and down it to select your notes. Once you are done you click the Apply to scene button and it’ll automatically play the scene with your new score.  There’s no BD-Live where you can share your creations, but I love the concept and the ease of use.

Other features include:

  • DVD Commentary track with the Director Robert Wise and Nicholas Meyer (who did Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn)
  • The World of the Thermin – This is the instrument used to create the unique sounds of TDTESS.  There are two little featurettes, one where Peter Pringle explain what a Thermin is and a live performance. Both are about 2:15 and in HD
  • Making of Feature – 23:53 (HD)
  • Decoding Klaatu, Barada, Nikto – A documentary about the history of the cold war – 16:14 (HD)
  • A Brief History of Flying Saucers – 34:02 (HD)
  • The Astounding Harry Bates – 11:03 (HD)
  • Edmund North: The Man Who Made The Day The Earth Stood Still – 14:43 (HD)
  • Race to Oblivion, an anti-war short from Edmund North, narrated by Burt Landcaster – 26:41 (HD)
  • There’s even an 2 hr Audiobook!  Farewell to the Master – About 2 Hrs.
  • Fox Movietone News – 6:21

I’m not sure how to grade the picture quality, like I said at the beginning the picture is gorgeous, but I hate the fact that it’s 1:35 ratio so it’s not even widescreen.  But the sheer number of features and the fact it is a great movie are more important than my concerns about the aspect ratio.  The Day The Earth Stood Still is available now on DVD ($19.99) and Blu-ray (34.90).

Move Grade – A+
Picture Quality – B
Audio – A
Features – A

Final Overall Grade – A-

EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 12.21.08

1 Comment

  1. Saw the new version in Imax last week. That movie was not as good as the original. It was good with the specaial effects, but I did not come out of the theatre feeling like “YES..Great Movie”.

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