The gaping hole (spoilers within)

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2002)

Don't read this if you don't want a spoiler. Just one, but it's a big part of the film. It's last, prefaced by asterisks, just in case you're intrepid.
I have a rule about "classic" movies. If a movie is to be considered a classic, it must hold up to repeated viewings. I've seen "E.T." now probably about 6 times, but 4 of those times were at the urging of family members. The last time, of course, was for the newly-released 20th anniversary edition.
I first saw this movie in 1982 and I liked it OK. I was moved by the story and I felt that the adults in the story didn't all look like idiots, and that the kids weren't made out to be extremely precocious geniuses. Of course, I was only 18 years old then.
I saw it again, a few weeks later, on a date. It paled massively on the second viewing. I wasn't looking for flaws, but I felt like I could see every string Spielberg was pulling. Furthermore, I was unhappy about how hard he was trying to manipulate me. Below in the "HERE'S THE SPOILER" section is what I saw the second time.
And now, the gaping hole. E.T. is shown to have powers of telekinesis, healing, and intelligence. He can touch-heal a cut finger, bring dead plants to life, fly several bikes through the air and craft an interstellar communicator out of a saw blade and a Speak-n-Spell. I just can't see how a weak, slow-waddling creature with less manual dexterity than a raccoon could ever achieve interstellar flight. He certainly seemed much less intelligent when he was snarfing Earth food and drink left and right. Smart enough to build an ansible from toys, too dumb to fear food from another planet. Go figure.

*************** HERE'S THE SPOILER *******************
If you're going to fool movie viewers into thinking something has happened, you shouldn't make it blatantly clear that it HAS happened if you're going to contradict it later. You should leave some room for doubt. When E.T. comes "back to life", your manipulated emotions feel ripped off. We saw him die in extreme detail. The movie doctors describe degeneration of the body. We are led to believe that E.T. is dead in every way possible. Then, voila, he's back. Yippee.
Sure, you can argue that he's alien and that we don't understand aliens, but to me, that's a cop-out. Spielberg went too far to show death. Bringing E.T. back after going to so much trouble is cheap and soap-opera-like.