New Horror Feature! Spielberg Feeds on Himself! Again!

Rating: 3/10 (29 December 2011)

This gets a 3 only because of Elle Fanning's performance. The rest...please. Having now seen 'Cloverfield' and this, I feel very justified in having disliked Abrams' pretentious, awful skyrocket to fame, 'Lost'. This film is nothing more than an expensive link in the chain of Spielbergian schlock, and I am way, way weary of his endlessly repetitive tricks. Yes, I know he didn't direct, but it doesn't matter; he's been an industry forever, and his plant spews out the same, button- pushing garbage all the time. We have young kids being "real". We have parental angst. We have last-minute, soulful bonding. We have a misunderstood alien. We have comic relief stoner dude, and we have arch villain from the military. Etc., etc. If this isn't insulting enough, there's the really, really absurd situation of a man surviving driving into a massive freight train going full speed, AND a supposedly intelligent deputy hinting to Evil Military Dude that he's onto their secrets, and he wants answers, damn it. Ultimately: enough, Amblin. You have been making the same movie for 30 years now, and it's not getting any better.