It was no secret that this was Abrahm's homage to the golden age of Summer blockbusters, so it should come as no surprise that it follows the formula of ET, Close Encounters, Goonies, etc. If you've seen those then you know what happens. So it's not about the monster, it's about the kids. And while they may not be on par with Mouth, Brand, Mikey, Data and Chunk, they still got some good chemistry together. You could stick those kids in a completely different story and I'd still enjoy it. My only problem is the movie switched gears at the end. Is it a kids adventure or a horror?! And really I don't get some of this hate for Abrahms. I've loved all his movies to date... MI3, Cloverfield, Star Trek and Super 8. They guy knows how to make good entertainment.
This movie was more like The Goonies than Stand By Me. I wanted more like a Stand By Me version takes of E.T. I think it totally failed when it show the monster/Alien. Should have just kept it hidden. The glimpse of it captured on the video cam should be the only vague image evidence could have kept the movie more engaging. Another problem was that you knew right away the kids were never in any grave danger when you found out about the Alien and the change of tone in the movie serious to serious with mix of silliness. Another thing is the under develop fathers/son/daughter relationship that added nothing to the movie and than there's the mother's situation for just asking for sympathy instead of earning it. I do enjoy his MI3 and Star Trek but it's pretty obvious in this movie he's not capable of balancing all this complicated issue into a 2 hrs movie.
Yeah that was a bit of a let down... Spoiler I was expecting their individual journeys, especially the father, to be a little time consuming. Not long after the father escapes he finds his son. And then all that divided them, the grief of losing his wife and it's effect on his relationship with his son, the fact that he was never really there for him in the first place, seemed to vanish by the end. In that vein, the main villain never really got enough of a chance to really make you hate him. He died too quickly. I would have like to see him escape, while damaging the monster in the process, only to meet his fate later. Still thoroughly enjoyed it though. The kids were awesome.
it's like two movies. the first half great, the second not so much. which makes it a good not great movie.
One of the best movies I've seen this year, if not the best. The cinematography in this movie was amazing. The only actor I did not like in the movie was the fat kid, his acting seemed the least convincing out of all. Maybe it was the way he said "dude, this is so mint." every five seconds.
she was 12?? man she looked older to me than that thats crazy and I thought Dakota was still a kid turns out she is like 17 already. Anyways I saw this film yesterday and enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought it was one of the better films I have seen this summer and it really did focus on these kids even with all their quirks. I didnt really like how it played out at the end though felt that was a bit cheesy but everything else was pretty solid. Also loved how they showed Charles' film during the end credits that was hillarious
Finally saw this tonight. Very good- I'll give it a B+. And I think it's a Cloverfield prequel or at least a tie-in. I think JJ is building a big Alien series without telling anyone about it.
