Super-schmaltzy Spielberg sci-fi.

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2006)

Nearly 25 years ago, Steven Spielberg gave us this hugely successful blockbuster about a boy who befriends an alien stranded on Earth. As a fourteen year old, I lapped it up and thought the film was brilliant. A quarter of a century later, how does the film stand up to the test of time?
Not as well as I had hoped, actually, it being one of Spelberg's most schmaltzy and saccharine movies ever, with several scenes feeling more than a little contrived. To this now older and wiser viewer, the film feels less magical than I originally thought it was.
Spielberg gets great performances from his cast (particularly from some of the younger, less experienced ones on whom the film heavily relies) and delivers plenty of iconic moments, but parts of the film tend to drag whilst, if you analyse the movie enough, other moments make little sense. Only Spielberg's ability to expertly manipulate his audience allows him to get away with some otherwise unforgivable 'plot devices'.
I don't wish to dwell on these 'niggles', suffice to say that it's hard to believe that a superior intelligence would allow itself to be stranded in the first place, and that a creature able to communicate telepathically and make objects fly would need to rely on a 10 year old boy for help.
Those that are less pedantic than I will undoubtedly have a great time, but the more I think about the film, the less I like it. If you saw it as a child and loved it, my advice is not to watch it againyou may come away disappointed.