E.T the extra terrestrial

 

DIRECTED BY-: 
Steven Spielberg

STARRING-: 

Henry Thomas 

Drew Barrymore 

Peter Coyote

YEAR OF RELEASE-:

1982

PREMISE-: 

A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home world.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE POSITIVES-:

• Although he lacked an entertaining personality, ET’s design was still adorable.

• Some genuine heartfelt moments were fun to watch.

• Micheal and Gertie were enjoyable side characters.

• Some really good shots were present occasionally.

• John Williams’ score was amazing.

THE PROBLEMS-:

• The performances were unconvincing in a lot of scenes.

• The CGI doesn’t hold up.

• The pacing could've been significantly improved upon. 

• The interaction between Elliott and his forced romantic interest was very awkward and obnoxious to watch.

• Elliot who is JUST 10 YEARS OLD, is shown being taught frog dissection in school.

• Even though we're shown that the authorities are on a constant search of ET, a large chunk of the movie felt extremely uneventful and boring due to the lack of tension in scenes, lack of a sense of progression in the plot, and the majority of the runtime being spent on uninteresting characters.

• I didn't really FEEL a budding friendship between ET and Elliott. They shared cute moments, sure, but there was nothing special or interesting about their relationship that would make you cry at the end. This could easily have been solved if we were shown ET helping Elliott with bullies or giving him company when he is all alone and sad, but both of them spent so much time apart that it became really hard to care about or believe in their so-called ‘’friendship’’ or ‘’Connection’’. The vague and undefined manner in which this ‘’Connection’’ was established between the two further worsened the problem.

• The ease with which the kids were able to steal ET from the authorities was incredibly dumb, lazy and nonsensical. 

CONCLUSION

''E.T the extra terrestrial' is not Spielberg's worst, but it is miles away from his best work. It's a satisfactory family-friendly film that doesn't quite achieve all of its ambitions but still manages to bring a smile on your face. I personally would've enjoyed the film a lot more if I had been a little younger or hadn't already watched a ton of alien movies.

RATING -: 5/10