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I hadn't seen the original in a few years so I thought it would be worth seeing within 48 hours after seeing the remake, and I was shocked at how good the first film was, better than I remembered, and how dismal and witless the remake turned out to be.
The main fault is changing the through line. Michael Rennie's Klaatu has come to warn earth against its violence and never stops trying to speak to leaders who can listen. Keanu Reeves gives up much too easily, and his mission is less sensible.
Then there's the character of the two Klaatus. Michael Rennie is bemused, compassionate, curious, and angry when need be. Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu as an emotionless cypher who apparently has done much less research on earthlings than his previous version has.
From there, it's a steady devolution. The new spaceship is lovely and shiny, but we don't get to go inside as we do in the 1951 version. The new little kid is whiny and one-dimensional and doesn't move the plot forward; the original is curious, spunky and plays a significant role in the story. Even Professor Barnhardt's equation has some meaning in the original movie since it's related to "celestial mechanics," but in the remake it's just there on the blackboard and proof of Klaatu's intelligence. And the music is forgettable, unlike the gripping Bernard Herrmann score.
I loved the almost noirish feel of the original, while the remake felt muddy and wasn't really beautiful to look at scene-by-scene.
I relished the wit and literacy of the screenplay, but there was barely a line in the new version that didn't seem clichéd ("We can change! We can change! We can change!")
Last but not remotely least, there's Gort, who actually serves a purpose in the original, and looks scary since he's not CGI. Watching the 1951 version left me curious to see it again some time; watching the remake just left me feeling suckered.
