Poor man's Stranger Things

Rating: 5/10 (4 November 2017)

This is JJ Abrams attempt at a Spielberg homage, and it has all of the typical Abrams flaws. First the good, the production value is good, it certainly has a lot of references, to just about ever Spielberg movie. The music, the plot, the characters are all reminiscent of classic 80s Spielberg movies most notably ET.
Unfortunately for ever good Spielberg beat, there is Abrams shortcomings. weak plotting, characters making choices not consist with their characterisation just so the plot can move along, and a third act that just falls apart. Abrams is by no means a bad director but he's a journeyman at best, and when he's trying to imitate Spielberg his flaws become all the more glaring.
Essentially this wanted to do, and failed to do, what Stranger Things succeeded to do with such aplomb. Spielberg is now a genre and some can do good genre pieces and some can do failed attempts at one.