Still spellbinding...

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2012)

The thing that struck me as I sat down to watch this film was, although I've seen it several times before, I never realised just how good the musical score, by John Williams, was. I'm not just talking about the well known themes, it goes without saying that these are epic, I'm on about the much quieter themes, particularly at the beginning of the film, they are very subtle, but fit the on-screen action perfectly.
It's not a film with any great performances, although everyone did a pretty good job; Henry Thomas as Elliott was pretty annoying at times, but it has to be said, he was also pretty good at the emotional stuff. Dee Wallace as Mary, the mother, did a pretty good job, as did Robert MacNaughton as Michael. Also worthy of note was Peter Coyote as the government agent, Keys; although he didn't have an awful lot to do he did it pretty well. For me, the star of the show was a very young Drew Barrymore, who was quite adorable as Gertie.
I said earlier there were a few flaws which, for me anyway, prevented this film getting a higher score. One of these was the design of E.T.; yes I know he's quite iconic now but I always felt it looked like a small man in a plastic suit. He's also far too cute. The other thing that lets it down a bit is the CGI, I know it's only really used in a couple of scenes and the technology was in its infancy back then, but I'm afraid modern equipment does show it's limitations. As far as the story, the production and the direction of the film goes, all top notch and well worthy of all the praise it's got over the years. And even with these 'flaws', as I've called them it's still well worth the couple of hours it takes to watch!... RECOMMENDED.
My Score 8.4/10
IMDb Score: 7.9/10 (based on 155,657 votes at the time of going to press).
MetaScore: 94/100: (Based on 26 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: 98/100 (based on 92 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 65/100 'Liked It' (based on 30,829,669 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.