The Most Overrated Movie in the History of Overrated Movies

Rating: 4/10 (2 June 2015)

Simply Put...Popularity does Not always Equal Quality.
This Movie has Accomplished many things. It is one of the Highest Grossing Films ever. It is one of the most Popular Movies ever.
Director Spielberg took a Modest Budget, employed No Name Actors (mostly children), utilized some of the most Clunky SFX and Puppetry in a Film of this Stature, and turned it into a Fortune both Financially and Critically.
The Creature looks Like a Reject from the Jim Henson Studios. The Spaceship resembles a Christmas Tree Ornament. The Adult Characters have about Five Lines each. The Humor is Unfunny Slapstick. The only Quotable line is a Dud..."E.T. Phone Home". The Musical Score is highly Intrusive and Derivative and is just Awful.
Film Historians and Scholars are still Wrestling with the Film's Success and Vary Wildly nowadays on its Merits as a Work of Art. There's Not Much Artistry unless You call Manipulating Audiences and Critics into Thinking this is a Masterpiece.
It is no doubt a Success Story. But the Story here is Nothing New...A Boy and His Dog. Overall the Film is Just too Clunky and Unimpressive to the truly Objective Viewer.
If Detached from the Hype and the Hypnosis it is revealed as a Mediocre Children's Story packaged as a New Age Modernism of Suburban Sentimentality, with an Extraterrestrial Visitation template, that Struck a Chord with Family Viewings and a need for something Sweet to Balance the Cynicism, Violence, and Stylized Reality that comes to the Multiplexes on a Weekly basis.