PLANET earth is on the brink of catastrophe and mankind is to blame. The verminous human race has plundered and pillaged natural resources, pumped noxious gases into the atmosphere and buried toxins deep underground.

Millions of acres of forest have been scythed or incinerated to make way for industry, ecosystems irreparably disrupted, species hunted to extinction and warnings about global warming ignored in the pursuit of wealth.

With just seconds left on the countdown to doomsday, only one man can pull us back from the brink of self-destruction: Keanu.

Casting in the role of an intergalactic envoy, the Lebanese-born actor finesses his art of staring blankly into the camera and running the gamut of emotion without moving a single facial muscle.

No one can deliver gloomy, portentous dialogue in quite the same soporific monotone.

While Robert Wise’s 1951 classic of the same name was a product of cold war era paranoia, Scott Derrickson’s remake goes green, banging the drum for an environmentally responsible and sustainable future.

The hysteria begins when a sphere of light descends from the heavens and touches down in Central Park, New York, bringing with it Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), a representative of all the other civilisations in the galaxy, who are convening to decide our fate.

The visitor warns Secretary of Defence Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates) and the scientific community, led by Michael Granier (Jon Hamm) and astro-biologist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), of impending doom.

Thanks to Helen, Klaatu escapes interrogation and he goes on the run with the single mother and her truculent stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith).

They eventually seek out Nobel prize-winning scientist Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese), who tries to persuade Klaatu that mankind is not yet beyond redemption.

However, the trigger-happy, gung-ho actions of the US military against Klaatu’s robot protector, GORT, initiate the countdown to destruction.

The Day The Earth Stood Still follows the template of Wise’s original with all of the technological, computer-generated bells and whistles you expect.

There are certainly some striking scenes in Derrickson’s film.

Keanu walks with purpose in slow motion while Connelly is wasted as the female lead and Will Smith’s son Jaden is surprisingly effective.

The plot trundles towards the inevitable moment of reckoning when the special effects go into overdrive and a flicker of emotion threatens to twinge Keanu’s upper lip, then, like his spaceman, is gone forever.

See it at Empire, Odeon, ABC