E.T. the Extra-Dull Film

I decided to review E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial first since it was named the #1 science fiction film on the popular review site, Rotten Tomatoes. It is also #24 on AFI's top 100 films of all time. Why? I think I may be that 0.1% of the population that finds this film boring, uneventful, and over hyped. If I wanted to watch Steven Spielberg tackle the idea of aliens & humans being capable of friendship or love, I'd watch his first and much superior attempt: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. From story to direction, I found myself walking away from the film disappointed.

Story: The film follows Elliot who soon makes friends with a extra-terrestrial who accidentally gets left behind by his alien companions. Soon Elliot and his siblings house E.T. until they no longer can and the evil adults come into play. E.T. eventually phones home and hitches a ride back to his planet. Leaving behind the friendship of a little boy and a drawn out plot structure. I found the story to be very thin and mundane. Although I do like the idea of humans & aliens not battling one another in a space war, I found myself not invested in the friendship of Elliot & E.T.
My biggest problem with the film was it's story. It feels like they have a great skeleton of an idea but don't push it forward enough.

Direction: Spielberg will remain in history as one of the great film directors of all time. I truly do believe he is a shaman of filmmaking, but I do not feel the full force of his presence in this film. But that may also be due to him producing his own film for the first time. After watching it I can see hints of his magic touch but at other times, to quote an unknown source, I felt I was watching the Disney movie Disney never made. And that isn't a compliment. You can see that the film is geared more towards a child audience. Spielberg never shows any adults face besides the mother until we are nearly two thirds of the way into the film. Overall I felt that Spielbergs direction is water downed and not at full capacity on screen, possibly due to him also producing.

Acting: The acting is one of the few parts I have no problem with in the film. My favorite part is the family, they feel so natural so real. Also I was pleasantly surprised by all the children in the film. Through research I discovered the film was roughly filmed chronologically in order to get a more emotional performances from the child actors. I think this tool from Spielberg most certainly paid off in the end.

E.T. will forever remain a classic in science fiction, I just don't agree with how high it is placed on the classic ladder. I think my main issue with the film is that I don't enjoy it nearly as much as I used to as a child, and that was saddening after the end of the film. I'm not sure if that was the main bullet for E.T. or if it was not that great of a film experience, and I'm afraid I'll have to go with the ladder. But it seems I am the very rare minority in the E.T. hater boat, so it shall remain one of the great American classics.

Greetings!

Welcome to the Sci-Fi Review! Over the summer (and onwards) I plan on reviewing "classic" science fiction films to see if they have stood the test of time or fell to the waste-side. My mission is to either strengthen former views on the film or tear down preconceptions of the film.

You may ask, why science fiction? For one, science fiction is my personal favorite genre in cinema, and two, I think it has the most to share as an art form. Science fiction can take us to other worlds, meet new creatures, new societies, and at the same time find a way to hold a mirror up to our own world. I find this tool utterly fascinating.

A sci-fi writer/director can take us to an alien world, a future city, and make us look at our own time on this world to see what we like or do not like. An example being in the 1973 film Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston. In the film there is a moment where his Mr. Heston's old friend, his name escapes me, is talking about how he used to be able to eat real food and taste delicious fruits, and now they eat tasteless tabs of color for their nutrients. Later on Charlton Heston brings the old man some fresh food he stole, and the old man begins to cry with joy. He hasn't seen real food since he was a boy and this overjoys him with excitement. After the film I went to the fridge and looked at the one apple we had, and I had never been so happy to see a fruit in my fridge. Although it had been sitting in there for weeks, untouched, unwanted, it was as if I had a brick of gold sitting in front of me.

This is the power of science fiction and sci-fi film, to make you look around your environment, your world, and appreciate the good things in life, and perhaps the bad.