Stupid Alien Tricks

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2007)

Amazingly successful movie about a boy and his alien gets off to an OK start but becomes increasingly annoying, thanks to a stupid and overly sentimental script and Spielberg's manipulative yet amateurish direction. Even setting aside the alien story, the situations are so contrived that they insult the viewer's intelligence. ET seems to have been given random and contradictory features and powers. The federal authorities, who apparently don't say a word to each other, are basically like robots. The part where ET gets sick and the feds put on the astronaut suits is utterly ridiculous. Williams's score is memorable if overused to pull emotional strings.