desipite being a bit of a bi-polar film in terms of voice and animation (example being the awkward and a bit unnecessary mix of CGI and traditional animation that serves to date the film), its still comes out as a fine work of art
I tried not to be too prejudicial or harsh on this film, but yeah, this film falls waaaay too flat. It has all of the style, but none of the substance of the original film, coming off as a fan-film by a starrey-eyed ametuer who has all the admiration, but none of the understanding of richard kelley's work. I can admit, that there were some parts that I found good, and the soundtrack is great, but ulitmately, the film could have used some originality by just ditching entirely the time travel and rabbit and Donnie Darko copies, and making Samantha her own character instaed of just a pale copy of her brother. Or just creating new and original characters. Or having characters with ANY sort of redeeming interest at all. Or by just not making the film period. This film is bascily a dime-store rush-produced empy copy of the original, nothing more.
I have vague recollections of seeing this film when I was like 4 or 5 or so, but seeing it recently, brought back all sorts of uncomfortable feelings from watching it at that age... E.T. comes off as more creepy and disturbing than friendly - especialy seeing a dehydrated, disease-ridden E.T. passed out in a ditch and being eaten by Raccoons... then of course there's all the excessive fog, and the portrayals of just about all adult male figures as being towering, frightning beings... in some ways it feels more like a violation than a connection between E.T. and Elliot... that, and the plot and dialog has all sorts of gaping holes in it. But despite being over-rated in my opinion, it does stand as something of a 1980s film watershed that deserves a watch.
ugh. I tried to enjoy this movie, but I just couldnt. lets see, I had to put up with Shia's "acting", constant rotating crane shots that made me dizzy, horribly written lines, the onslaught of shallow blonde tan-skinned whores, the worst racial stereotyping Ive seen since Phantom Menace, and action scenes that just ending up becoming more boring and comical than interesting. Granted, I liked that there was more dialoug between the robots, and Shia and Megan have at least SOME chemistry, but ultimatly, this is a film written by idiot high school sophomores, for immature men-children who never matured into proper adulthood.
one of david lynch's more abstract films (which is really saying something), and not entirely perfect, and not something that everyone will entirely "get"... but still has a great atmospheric feel to it that makes for a fine abient noir... Lynch definitly steps a bit out of his comfort zone with some new styles, and not all of them pay off... but I would call it a film for its time