It's Not That Good

Rating: 4/10 (15 January 2005)

In terms of box office bucks this was the most successful film ever . It might have made even more if it wasn't for the fact that a lot of people including myself hadn't watched it on pirate video in 1983 . In truth I don't think it deserved to set the universe alight because of its premise ET starts with a spaceship landing in a desolate woodland one dark night . Now spaceships landing in desolate woodlands on a dark night mean only one thing , if you've seen an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS or DOCTOR WHO or UFO it means trouble for humanity with the human race losing some brave warriors at the very least . You see the problem ? The narrative has just started and already we know nothing horrible is going to happen . This is not what alien landings are about , there not about monsters with extendable necks being vulnarable - They're about carnage , gunfire , explosions and lines like " We can't hold them sir "
If anyone thinks I'm missing the point let me say this: Spielberg's first movie was a pseudo horror movie called DUEL a fairly effective thriller ( Casting aside ) about a man driving through desert wilderness . Spielberg then made SOMETHING EVIL a chilling horror film and then made JAWS another legendary quasi horror movie with a monster that exits in reality a great white shark . JURASSIC PARK is to all intents a horror movie , and I bet the upcoming WAR OF THE WORLDS will get a few pulses racing . In other words Spielberg despite his flaws can make an audiences heart leap out of their mouth but his main flaw is that he all too easily drowns an audience in gooey sentimentality . THE TERMINAL suffered from this and so did parts of SCHINDLER'S LIST and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN , and without doubt ET is the best example of Spielberg's sugary sentiment suffocating a story , not that there was much of a story to start with . And I haven't even mentioned the all American kids or the ridiculous flying bikes sequence or the terrible John Williams score . The only significance ET has in my life is that it introduced me to the words " Geek " " Wimp " and " Douce-bag " and that I had to watch nearly every sci-fi movie of the mid to late 1980s revolve around a plot of a cute alien being adopted by a child . Give me THE THING and LIFEFORCE anytime