When I first saw this film many years ago I thought it was incredibly moving. After seeing it again recently I realized how cheesy and overly manipulative this film actually was. Am I alone on this opinion?
sharelol...
Uh, no.
It's a kids/family film from 1982.
Is the Wizard of Oz cheesy? Yes...does it hold up to super hero's dressing up in skin tight pants to fight robots and aliens.
YES!
That’s a huge problem with early Spielberg films. He had a tendency to really overdo everything and this film is full of ham fisted moments and silly flourishes that remind you its a movie. Close encounters is the same way, he was so focused on making every scene it’s own little standalone movie that it’s just too much. Even later films like Jurassic park have little touches that you would see in the earlier films.
shareNever liked it. I missed it when it first came out but had some of the toys and I liked the way ET looked. By the time I saw it in the late 80s I was really disappointed. Love every single Spielberg film before that though.
sharewhy manipulative?
shareI last saw it a couple of years ago and thought it held up beautifully... obviously, it's not the enchanting experience that it was when I was a ten year old in 1982, but for me it holds up as one of the most magical of science-fiction adventures, charming, funny and very moving. The cycling past the moon sequence still drew tears.
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