Boring and slow paced .. repeated story

Rating: 3/10 (12 June 2011)

Wow, what a mess !! I was really expecting much much more from J.J Abrams and Spielberg, instead, i was slammed in the face with this awful film.
So where do i begin ? the story ? nothing original here what so ever, and i understand that they meant to bring us back to the old days, but even then they should have had to invent something new to add to the story. some people in here are happy that it is so like E.T !! but does that really make it a good movie ? if we really want E.T, why not just make a sequel ? and if i really want to go back and enjoy the old movie days, i can always visit them on DVD, i could just watch E.T on DVD. Don't get me wrong, i would love to see something that brings back the old movie making style, but i want that to be executed better with a touch of originality.
in short, a group of kids witness a train wreck, after which something mysterious is unleashed and is terrorizing the small town. meanwhile, we have the kids themselves struggling with their own family problems and relations.." Sigh " .. very slow paced, boring for the most part and filled with cliché characters, moments and scenes. the kids do a decent job in acting, but i gotta blame the bad writing in making such cliché characters, and typical over-acted relations. I never connected with the Parent-child relationships here, i never felt it. however, i did feel for the love and admiration created between Joe and ALice.
they tried to make an adventure type of film with thrills, something like the Goonies, but i just didn't feel the tension or thrills. typical tension arising scenes like when a trapped door won't open, or when a lighter is not igniting are a bit cheap for the smart movie goers nowadays. one scene where the kids running in the middle of the suburbia during a heavy military firing was meaningless, had no point other than trying to create and adventure type of scene, but really was ridiculous and out of context.
classic jump of your seat moments were frequent here, and were pretty predictable and lame, however, i did see a couple of senior people watching jump during these scenes, but is that the target audience for this movie ? while i was watching, i tried to figure out who is this film meant to be for ? i guess they were probably thinking a Horror film for kids and seniors.
Another big problem with this movie, was the sound effects, it was loud, a bit too loud !! i mean i love it when the movie theater shakes during action scenes and so on, but here, they seemed to have crossed the limits on how loud they can go, it was really too loud it was annoying and uncomfortable.
there were also other problems involving the plot, but i won't go through them so i won't ruin or spoil the movie for others, although, i gotta say you are not missing anything if you give this one a skip.
the fact that JJ Abrams and Spielberg are behind this movie was a shock to me, i really can't wrap my head around this fact, sorry guys but you really screwed up here, i was waiting for some surprise, a twist, something to shock me at the end..but it never happened and this ended up a slow paced, boring, familiar story with cliché characters, that I'm sorry to say, i won't recommend to anyone.