Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.
Please welcome the first review of one of my Top Ten Movies.
Now, I should start by telling you an interesting fact about this movie and I. I absolutely hated it until maybe two years ago.
I'm one of those people who hates a classic until they actually see it. *Cough* The Godfather *cough.* Okay, well I did see it before, but I was rather young and if you have seen this movie, you can understand how it may scare a 7 year-old (ya know, men wearing astronaut suits barging into a house, a creepy looking alien, etc.). But I decided to give this movie a second chance, because I love Steven Spielberg and everything he does. I mean... four movies on my Top Ten list are directed by him.
Anyway, so that was my relationship with this movie before giving it a second chance. I watched it on HBO (it was the 20th Anniversary Edition with the new visual effects and delete scenes). The day after I watched it, I purchased the 2-Disc Limited Collector's Edition DVD for forty dollars (I had to buy it from a collector since the 'limited' time was long over).
I loved the movie so much. And I cried. And to this day, I cannot watch that movie without crying at the end.
I was watching an exclusive about War of the Worlds and in it they took notice to the fact that my lord and savior Steven Spielberg normally does movies about kind aliens like E.T. and the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I had never realized it. When you think about it... most movies featuring aliens portray them in a negative light (i.e. Mars Attacks!, Monsters vs. Aliens, the Alien series, the Predator series, etc.). That's one thing that I like about this movie... E.T. is the protagonist and he is the hero of the story while 'the Man with the Keys' (Peter Coyote) is the antagonist. We're rooting for E.T.
The cast is amazing! The boy who plays Elliott is an amazing young actor (well not so young anymore) and no offense to Elliott, but Drew Barrymore is the one who makes the movie as the little sister Gertie. She is just so freaking cute as a young child. The rest of Elliott's family, Dee Wallace as his mother Mary and Robert MacNaughton as Elliott's older brother Michael, are also terrific. Michael's Yoda impression is hilarious.
The special and visual effects are really fun to watch to. I usually
have a hard time realizing that the movie I'm watching is from years and years ago, but Steven Spielberg always seems to pull it off. At no point in Jurassic Park do the dinosaurs look fake. I think the scene that I enjoy the most is watch the kids get chased on their bikes. When they're approaching a barricade of cops and E.T. takes over and they start to fly, I get goosebumps. It's such an epic scene. One of my favorites.
In the 2002 re-release version with the occasional CGI E.T., I'm still uncertain on whether I like his CG (computer generated) version or not. This was back when CG was rising to its peak and you can tell that E.T. is not really there. But you have two choices: a puppet or a CGI. The puppet, I think, works best... not with all scenes and situations, but it's what I'm used to. The puppet version is slower and at time jerky whereas the CGI will randomly do things smoothly and quicker. I understand that that is why they put the CGI in, but you can't change his speed on me. E.T. is slow, cautious, and curious. You can't take him out of that character.
Kind of a random discussion there. Ha.
What's great about this movie is that it's so heartwarming. How lame does that sound? But I'm not kidding. I will love this movie even when I'm old and I'm sure that if I wasn't such a scared little kid, I would've loved this movie then too. They aren't kidding when they say it's great for the whole family. Aww.
And that's why Steven Spielberg is a true genius. How many directors (minus James Cameron, who'd I'd say is a close second to Spielberg) can put out the most classic, iconic, ground-breaking movies? Jaws was his first step, and E.T. was his second...
I love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment