The first twenty minutes are the best thing I’ve seen so far this summer and they feel like Spielberg himself shot them. The scenes are warm with edge. They have a great mixture of laughs with rising dread. We care about the characters and we’re ready to follow them on their journey as the film unfolds.
Unfortunately, the last twenty minutes are terrible and serve to remind us that there’s only one Steven Spielberg. If your film has a bad ending, everything good that came before will be forgotten. That’s what happens here.
The flaw is the alien. Once it takes center-stage, all the heart and drama the film has displayed quickly dissipates. The kids go from being compelling to cardboard action figures and the plot stops developing.
The best Spielberg films always saved the biggest twists and thrills for the final act. He understood you had to end with a bang. Abrams’ films tend to end with a whimper.
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