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When I come to this movie I ask myself two questions: what is the point of it and is it here just to show off special effects. The answer that I come up with is: there is none and yes. I haven't seen this movie seen I was a kid and the only thing I could remember was a scene where a number of spaceships fly over a road and a small boy cries out "Icecream". I really only watched this movie for the special effects, and one must say that for the time, the effects were very good. Watching it now, I just think that it is Spielburg saying, "hey, look how much money I can spend on a pointless movie." This movie indeed has not real point or plot. What seems to be happening is that machinery that has disappeared, allegedly because of alien abductions, is now appearing around the world. Then there are some strange lights appearing over Idaho and this kid runs out of the house and stands on a road as space ships fly over. There are a number of other people here as well. One of them is a guy that ends up losing his wife and kids because of this experience. Personally that scene just made me sick because it revealed the problems with marriage, people think it is great until they hit the first obstacle, and then marriage is horrid. People simply don't take note of the marriage vows anymore – to be with that person through all manner of hardships. The breakup of this marriage is simply pathetic.
All these people have been implanted with the knowledge of a mountain where the aliens are going to land. The army also knows of this place and forces everybody else out. Two people manage to get there though, even though the army tries to stop them by using a nerve gas scare and then sleeping gas. When they reach the place, the aliens appear in a huge ship that makes the mountain looks small, they speak with music (even though I doubt the humans actually know what is being said), and then the aliens return their abducties (all Americans), another lot are sent on board, we have a look inside the mothership and the movie ends.
From this synopsis there seems to be a big indication that there is no point to this movie. In my comments of this movie, I am probably going very much against what the critics say, but I seriously feel that this movie is long winded, dull, and pointless. It is not pointless in the existentialist style, but pointless in that it seriously has a non-existence plot. It is a movie simply made to show off special effects, and even Jurasic Park had more of a plot to it than this. There is the government conspiracy in this movie, but is still leads to a pointless ending. The boy is abducted by aliens, but why did the aliens take an interest in him in the first place? There is no answer to this and I feel that this was only done for some scene.
No, I do not like this movie. It may be quoted as a Steven Spielburg masterpiece, but I refuse to say that it is. It probably didn't flop, but that is because people were dazzled with the special effects. What is interesting though is that at the time of the creation of this movie, we have the government coverups. Cover-ups never came into constant use until the late 80's and the 90's so it is interesting to see it used here. The cover up is not as evil as it is in such movies as Conspiracy Theory or series like the X-files, but it is used. Possible it deals with the distrust of the government after Watergate, but moreso it is seen as for the publics safety rather than anything else.
There are no antagonists here, except maybe the army, and they are not portrayed in a genuinely evil light either. Rather they have their goals and they don't want people around to see it. Personally I think this is a movie that can be missed. There is a special edition that I saw, which means that it is longer and more boring than the original.
score 2/10
david-sarkies 18 November 2011
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2520335/ |
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29-11-2019 19:50:30
