The first 25-30 minutes is fantastic... then... well... not so much... it's going to sound like I hated this - but I didn't.

Rating: 6/10 (23 November 2011)

THIS IS CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS EVEN THOUGH THE DIRECTOR TURNED THIS INTO ONE OF THOSE MOVIES WHERE THERE'S NOT MUCH TO SPOIL.
Man... I really, really wanted to love this movie. I went in with high expectations. I literally went to the rental box at 9AM Tuesday to ensure myself a copy for Tuesday night's "Mexican/Movie" night at the house. The burrito's were awesome - the movie was alright.
Not only did this one have to meet my high expectations, but it also has to be compared to masterpieces like E.T. and Close Encounters of Third Kind(don't blame me for that - Abrams and Spielberg knew that would be the case). If you're gonna make a movie like that for a 38 year-old guy like me - you better do it right.
The set-up is fantastic. I was as giddy as a schoolboy who'd just confirmed his first girlfriend throughout the first 30minutes or so of this film. The story planted all the ingredients for a great epic.
The band of kids are aspiring film-makers. The idea to use that was completely squandered in the second half of the movie - as were many other possible subplots.
I was expecting the government to hunt the kids(and for them to run from them/not just pop into a classroom and snatch them) - didn't happen. I was expecting more out of their developed film(not just hand it to dad at the end of the film and say watch this) - didn't happen. I was also expecting the story to focus more on its' lead character to drive the story - and that didn't happen either. Instead the film dives into to some really meaningless alien crap("I touched him and he just wants to go home), and turns a great set-up into an alien show fresh with hanging human bodies for food, and our lead talking himself out of being eaten. This film started to take all the wrong turns right at the point where it showed the doctor had survived the crash.
Basically, there were hundreds of opportunities to take advantage of subplots that had already been touched upon, and then the film didn't do it. Instead, the last hour of the film is nothing more than a big jumbled editing mess.
I'm a little ticked off because all the elements they needed to make this a fantastic(and I mean REALLY fantastic)movie were RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF THEM.
I'm no film-maker, but I could take the ideas that these film-makers had put into the first 30 minutes of this film and made this film into a masterpiece. You could have too. The set-up is freakin' brilliant.
There were three chances to put the government on the kids heels. And, I know they picked them up... later... for no good reason... That subplot really needed either a chase scene, or some follow-up on the general's part to find out why the empty film box was at the train station. And, every moment that the kids were filming close to the action - I was waiting for that Raider's of the lost Ark moment when the government looked in the distance on the hill and wondered - is that Indy digging the Well of the Souls over there? NO, these kids just film government operations freely. When the general looks out the window and does see the kids filming outside the house - what happens? - NOTHING!
next. Is that the best we can do on the ending? the little radioactive rubic's cube flies to the water tower, attracts everything metal within a mile radius, turns into a ship, and flies the alien away?
What happen to the Astin approach in Goonies where the one brave kid leads the others into the eye of the storm? The set-up was there. Instead of him running from the government, leaking his video, or leading his band of misfits against the man - we get "go save the kids"...I thought it was about the kids, and then Abrams turns them into complete weaklings by deciding to go save them all of the sudden. I wanted these kids to save themselves. I wanted them to keep diving into the situation. Personally, I don't think we needed to see the alien at all(at least past the glimmer of it on tape). This film needed to be about the government moving in, and the kids not moving out, trying to figure out what was going on. It needed to be about the kids saving the girl from the government and not the alien.
Funny. I'm still giving the film 6 stars. I just wasn't expecting to wake up today and score this the same as the rom-com "How Do You Know" from Sunday.
Obviously, the production values are top-notch. The kids as actors are passable(one early scene with Elle Fanning is particularly effective), and again, the first 30 minutes is amazing. I just hated to see this thing spiral out of control for the last hour. The first 30 DID remind me of Goonies, E.T., and Close Encounters, and it was up to that standard, but the last half reminded me of the remake of "War of the Worlds" in a very bad way.
Can you tell I'm disappointed? It's not so much with the overall quality of the film - as it is with the squandered opportunities in the storyline.