Good attempt at adapting the story, but Spielberg's the wrong director

Rating: 7/10 (13 June 2006)

I think that had David Lean gone ahead and directed this movie it could have been an all time great film. Instead, Spielberg brought his personal angle to it, which means it falls from greatness.
I think Spielberg wanted to bring an E.T. "Child-centric" theme to the film. Great, but the problem is that it means the other characters have to be neglected. Had Lean made this, he would have made the film an hour longer by including those other characters. I mean, Miranda Richardson gets second billing, yet she has about 4 lines of dialogue. I wanted to know more about her and the other supporting characters. Unfortunately they were sacrificed in the edit room, for time I presume.
You feel that Empire of the Sun has an hour of deleted scenes that, if put back in, could make it one of the best films of that decade. I wish he'd had the confidence to give us more characterisation than just Jim (played by a remarkable Christian Bale). Still, it's a strong film with great technical proficiency. It's definitely worth a viewing.