A well made alien invasion movie with a touch of gold from the duo of Abrams and Spielberg...

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2013)

J. J. Abrams has touched this film with a finger made of gold. It's a solid storyline about five children ultimately making a movie before the events on their 'own movie', if you will, begins. At the same time its a fairly basic plot with little to no complexity in it, which makes for easy viewing. The actors playing the five children, for actors who only appeared in minor TV/ film roles prior to the making of this movie, brought their best guns early and produced a inspired performance. For a blockbuster production team headed by none other than Steven Spielberg himself alongside the immense directorial skills of Abrams himself, this really makes for a blockbuster movie, that has been underrated since its release. Finally, the film also has an aspect of heartbreak within its roots, and that comes in the form of the alien's goal, to return to its own planet. It makes you despise the army and the scientists who have held the alien hostage for testing since it crash landed in its spaceship. At the end when the alien's intentions are revealed, it makes you look back and smile at how valiantly the alien fought back to get what he desired, no matter the cost of life and destruction it may have caused.
A brilliant story about a misunderstood alien invader. Abrams produces again.