I have to be honest, this was one of the most boring movies this summer. I know some people absolutely loved it. Maybe they felt like they were witnessing one of Spielberg's classics all over again.
But to me, the movie just did nothing for me. The alien hardly makes an appearance, and when it does it had no wow factor since it was recycled from J.J.'s Cloverfield. Also, the character conflicts are predictable and extremely sappy to the point of sickening.
By all means I'm not saying the movie is bad. The movie had some of the finest child acting that I have ever witness in any movie, period. The look of the film was terrific, spot on for a Spielberg homage. And if you went into this movie fresh, hadn't seen Jurassic Park, Goonies, or E.T. then it's not out of the question for you to have enjoyed it.
Seeing as though I have seen every Spielberg movie ever made, I'm not that big on seeing slices of his early work thrown into a soup of a film. If I ever have any trouble sleeping I'll be sure to put this into my dvd player.
Start Film
The first clip finds young filmmakers Joe (Joel Courtney), Charles (Riley Griffiths), Cary (Ryan Lee), Martin (Gabriel Basso), Preston (Zach Mills) and Alice (Elle Fanning) kicking off some shooting for Charles’ latest masterpiece. They decide to include a passing train for what the wannabe Hitchcock describes as “production value” but are shocked when the speeding locomotive suddenly crashes…
Joe's Missing
In the second piece of footage, deputy sheriff Jackson Lamb (the ace Kyle Chandler) is trying to make sense of the chaos that has descended upon his previously sleepy town and then learns that his son, Joe, has vanished along with his pals. Naturally, he’s not pleased.