ET Just Went Hardcore

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2012)

If you combine the creative mind of J.J. Abrams with the great Steven Spielberg, you'll get a pretty unique, entertaining alien film that can be quite enjoyable to all. I completely lost interest in alien films, but this film really brought back that interest that I lost, and grabbed my attention by bringing an exciting and entertaining film. The film is not childish in any sort of way and focused very well on these children. You follow these children as they go through this crisis while filming their movie, and being involved with these crazy events that occur. You get enough character depth to care about these characters and somehow relate to any of these kids. The movie has this "Goonies" vibe to it, as you can't hate the characters and you know that this film will present an awesome adventure. Everything was just well paced and didn't lose track of anything; the film had heart and it worked out pretty well.
Personally, I find it hard to not even get thrilled while watching some of these scenes. J.J. knows how to keep the audience excited and that is what he does in this film. You will definitely be up for a fun ride as what you see is quite enjoyable to watch and does bring in the thrill that made this film significant. When hell breaks loose, that's when the excitement kicks in; explosions everywhere, carnage from left to right, and thrills that made this a fun ride. My jaws dropped during these scenes, especially during the train crash as I was just blown away with that event. There are plenty of special effects and CGI used, but this really helped bring in the excitement factor that this film perfectly portrayed.
Director J.J. Abrams somehow does a good job of keeping the audience in suspense as he will not reveal something important until the end; that is how you will feel in this film. If you have watched "Cloverfield," or J.J.'s famous TV series "Lost," then you know that you are up for a few surprises as the film tends to keep the appearance and information about the monster a secret. Strange occurrences are occurring in this small town and everything gets out of control; you will simply be sucked into the story, wondering what is going on and why these things are occurring at the same time. You will only get a few glimpse of the monster and will not be able to see the monster as a whole until the end of the film. People maybe frustrated by this, but I thought it boosted the interest as you will keep wondering to yourself about this creature. I really liked the creativity that J.J. does with his work and the monster looked pretty awesome; as a fan of monster films, I really liked how this monster looked.
Personally, when I see kids cuss on screen, it feels like it was used to surprise and make the audience laugh, seeing that a young 5 year old child is cussing. However, when it comes to this film, I really didn't mind about these kids cursing like crazy. The dialogue works really well in this film and I actually liked the conversations that these kids have. The kids are all different, having different characteristics, likable, and relatable. Thinking real hard, I am possibly the fat kid because of how he acts and actually picturing myself acting that way during a crisis like that. My good friends are filmmakers and watching these kids reminds me of the good old times of us filming our own film. The acting is pretty good in this, especially coming from the kids. I was never annoyed by their existence in the film and actually liked their performances. All of the kids were great, but I have to say that the best is possibly Joel Courtney as the cops son and Elle Fanning. Both were just fantastic in this film and really liked, both of their acting and the characters they portrayed. All of the other cast members were actually pretty good and really liked the performances from everyone.
Two great minds helped made an alien movie that delivers a great fun ride, likable characters, a very good storyline, and a mystery behind this monster that will slowly reveal itself, keeping you wondering about this being.