*** Official "E.T.: THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.
Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!
If you need to discuss those type of issues, please post your discussion comments in the Official Discussion Thread.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Crawdaddy

 

[Chuck C]

I believe I'll start this thread with my review:
E.T. The Extra-Terrestial
What more is there to say but :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: Out of 5
More of my feelings found here.

 

[Peter Kline]

The film remains an emotional roller-coaster. Yes, it is manipulative at times... that's what film is. It definately should have been Best Picture in '82. I tried but failed to stop the tears. My nephew who is 8 saw it for the first time with me. "Awesome" was his response.

 

[StephenA]

I loved it. Just got back from seeing it with my sister. She loved it too. She wondered why they would remove the guns. She saw it like 5 or 6 years ago, but didn't remember it. I first saw E.T. in the theaters when I was 2 and a half. My sister and I were originally gonna see Ice Age, but it was sold out. We were about to leave when my sister suggested to see E.T. She said she would rather see it than Ice Age while we were watching it. It borught back alot of memories. I liked the enhancements for the most part. The added scene too.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Damn Steven Spielburg, he made me cry not once, not twice, but three times in this film. For the life of me, I can't rationally explain why. Tears would just pop out of my tears ducts, no matter how hard I tried suppressing them.

Henry Thomas did a fantastic job as Elliott, and the immediacy and range he showed in this film was pivotal for the audience to buy the concept of E.T. in suburbia. Drew Barrymore was precious and precocious.

E.T. looked like E.T. as I last remembered E.T. I didn't really catch all of the added scenes (I think the toothpaste scene was added, as well as Elliott's fake barf on the phone). The film looked well preserved/digitally re-processed, I can't find fault in the presentation I saw today. I wasn't even bothered by the CGI-ing of walkie-talkies for the guns (it just isn't that important to get all bent out of shape on).

The emotional resonance of this simple tale hits on all cylinders, and by the time the end comes, you are both sad and satisfied.

I give it 4 stars or a grade of A.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

This is a copy of a review that I posted at the John Williams message board, which is why I occasionally mention the films score.
To start off, I have to say that E.T. is not one of my favorite films. I've seen it a handful of times and have never been impresed by it. The acting is good, the score is great, yet ultimately, the film just didn't mean much to me. I prefer Spielberg's other alien film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That film is far more fun to me, and also seems to be more intelligently made.
But E.T. is one of the biggest money makers of all time, so Steven Spielberg and Universal decided to re-release it for it's 20th anniversary (even though technically it's only 19 years old right now). And for this new release, Spielberg has decided to tweak the films Oscar winning effects, add some new footage, change some old footage and add a new modern soundmix. Was any of this necessary? No.
In preparation for the new version, I decided to watch my Super VHS tape of E.T.. The effects looked wonderful and it sounded great. The film was perfect as it was. It never felt to long, and aside from the clothes worn, nothing in the film showed that this was an early 80's film. Perhaps I'm just a purist in all things, but E.T. didn't need to be revised. $399.8 million at the domestic box office proves that.
So, what is new in E.T.? If you don't want to know, do not read any further. You have been warned.
The character of E.T. has now been digitally enhanced. The puppet has not been totally replaced and can still be seen plenty of times. Sometimes, there is a hybrid on screen of the puppet and the CG creature (for instance when he's drinking from the refrigerator). The problem is, the new CG E.T. has very fluid motions and facial expressions that just shout out CG. This would not be a bad thing, but there are still plenty of shots of the puppet, and the expressions are totally different. Watch E.T. smile in the new bathroom scene. The puppet could never do that. But it doesn't matter. That puppet worked splendidly in the original cut. People all over the world were touched by this piece of movie-magic, so revising it seems more like an act of marketing and not of film making.
The bathroom scene mentioned above is a pretty good addition to the film though. It has a funny conversation between Elliot on the phone with his mother. It's not critical to the movie and didn't need to be restored, but it's not boring and is fun to see. There's also a cute bit about the height of E.T.
The other restored scene involves Mary picking up Gertie and Mike while they were "trick-or-treating". I can't figure out why this was restored. It doesn't add anything to the movie, and shows the neighborhood as acting like a bunch of vandals. There are pumpkins on fire, garbage cans being thrown, eggs tossed at cars that sort of thing. I'd love to know the reason for it being put back into the movie. This scene has music, but it's nothing new. I think it's tracked with "Frogs", but I could be wrong about that.
Much has been made about Spielbergs decision to remove the guns. He regretted ever having kids in that sort of jeopardy. In actuality, this only effects a few shots of the film, and doesn't really call attention to itself. Mary's line about having guns pointed at kids has also been removed. But, here's where the gun removal does hurt, John Williams's score. When Elliot and his friends are being pursued on their bicycles, there is a close up of a shot gun, which is really what makes E.T. decide to levitate the bikes. The shot of the gun is gone and has not been replaced with anything, so instead, there is a very noticeable music edit in this scene. Sort of a crossfade. Casual movie fans will not notice this. Williams die-hards are likely to be crushed.
Speaking of music edits, the end credits have been extended so that the crew can be listed for the revised version. The music has been drastically re-edited to accomadate this, and bears little resemblance to the cue that fans wanted so badly on the new 20th anniversary disc. At least the music still exists on its own on CD, and we can enjoy the cue there.
E.T. has never been one of my favorite films. It's a decent movie though, and the opportunity to see any reasonably good film in the theater is hard for me to pass up. Unless you hate this movie, by all means, see the 20th anniversary release in the theater. But don't be conned into believing this is the "ultimate" version of the film. It's not. The most effective version of E.T. is what was released in 1982.
Neil

 

[Mike_G]

Sometimes movies should be left alone.

I was wondering all this time WHAT would fill in the gap now left by the removal of the shotgun. NOTHING? I thought that if it were me editing the movie, I'd add row after row after row after row of police cars as far as the eye can see. Not as dramatic as a shotgun, but surely shows how Elliot & Co. are trapped.

Damn revisionism.

Mike

 

[Josh_Hill]

Saw it yesterday and Im seeing it again! They rarely make films like this anymore! E.T. is still one of the most heart-warming films ever made. The new digital E.T. is just fantastic, I was hard pressed to see much of a difference between the CG E.T. and the puppet. Great work ILM!
:star: :star: :star: :star: out of :star: :star: :star: :star: