One of Spielberg's best

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 2003)

It may not be as obvious today as when the movie was made, but ET remains one of the very few alien movies in which the alien is not a threat to humanity. What a novel idea! And what a wonderful way to explore human themes, including the paranoia that if aliens do exist, then they must surely mean us some harm or otherwise be harmful. But it goes far deeper than that, commenting on lost innocence of adults and the need at times to perhaps rely more on the approach of the innocent, approaching the new with wide eyes but without fear or preconceptions. But, hey, never mind all the heavy stuff, ET is just plain a good, fun, funny story, a romp with a tremendous imagination and great acting and directing. And if you're looking to buy it, get the updated version. . . It's actually better than the original, Spielberg having included a couple more scenes left out of the original which improve the continuity, and subtle but effective updating of ET's facial expressions, thanks to more modern computer graphic capabilities. It's a rare instance in which the revised version after the fact is a big improvement rather than a detriment.