**THE WACPINE OF ‘E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL’**

WRITING: 10
ATMOSPHERE: 10
CHARACTERS: 8
PRODUCTION: 10
INTRIGUE: 8
NOVELTY: 9
ENJOYMENT: 10

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**The Good:**

E.T. is the ultimate family science fiction film. It combines that magical wonder of 80s fantasy adventure films with the grounded science fiction previously explored by Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). It's all made clear by the opening sequence, which despite its creepy elements is more akin to make children wonder rather than shit their pants.

The child actors are fine, but not overly interesting. Henry Tomas is middle-field but convincing. Drew Barrymore is incredibly cute and surprisingly natural despite her young age in this film.

A testament to the brilliance of Steven Spielberg as a director on the one hand and Thomas as an actor, on the other hand, is the plethora of mostly silent, non-dialogue scenes between Elliott and E.T. that convey emotions effectively through the use of nothing but visuals, gestures and music.

It's refreshing to see a sci-fi film that depicts aliens as something else than killing monsters or threats to mankind. E.T. is very much a story about friendship and family, and for once, it is the adults who are the primary adversaries. They even tease this by only showing their legs for the first half of the film, in classic film villain style.

Spielberg's choice to portray most adults as anonymous people and show them from the chest down makes this very much a film meant to be understood from the perspective of a child. It's a simple, but effective artistic decision.

John Williams once again presents a beautiful and emotional film score, this time of a slightly less majestic scale than usual, but no less memorable.

Kudos to the people, who designed, controlled and voiced E.T. He's still one of the best-looking, most realistic and most likeable aliens in cinema history.

In terms of emotional content, E.T. remains one of Spielberg's sweetest, warmest and most touching films. It's not scary or overly exciting, but it's so magical and grounded, that it's hit hard. This is one of the most personal films Spielberg has ever created, and that is perfectly captured by the emotional atmosphere present throughout the story.

The final 30 minutes of the film twist things so significantly that the entire film suddenly gets a completely new layer of meaning. This is the major emotional and deep part of the movie. It's the kind of movie writing magic rarely seen today.


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**The Bad:**
I don't know why, but I have always had a slight problem with Dee Wallace as the mother. She seems oddly uncomfortable or uncertain about her position in this film, which carries over to her performance.


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**The Ugly:**
"Zero charisma!" must be the worst insult I've ever heard.

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**WACPINE RATING: 9.29 / 10 = 4,5 stars**