I made a joke about it above, but when I saw Thor it was Shield’s onsite complex, together with the eventual rapproachement between Coulson and Thor, that made me think of the comparison with E.T. Then, the other things – a young woman dressing the stranded alien in clothes she had lying around, Thor trying to phone home, etc – made the later movie seem in many ways like a reboot.
2 Likes
We have to give him time to gather all the bits so that he can call his people to come and get him.
Has anyone tried giving him Reese’s Pieces ?
PARTIAL LIST OF SCI-FI FILMS THAT WERE IN THEATERS
IN 1982 THAT WERE BETTER THAN E.T.
TRON
Blade Runner
The Road Warrior
John Carpenter’s The Thing
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
E.T. won at least four Oscars, none of these other films won anything
5 Likes
I was also ten when E.T. came out. I didn’t see it right away (movies stayed in theaters for more than three weeks back then; I remember one of the theaters here in Boise celebrating when Raiders of the Lost Ark had played there for a full year). Hype for the movie was EVERYWHERE. Every TV show, magazine, news story, and church sermon was about E.T. I was 100% in.
Then I saw the movie. It just fell flat for me. There were some parts that I kind of chuckled at but I just couldn’t relate to the main character that was the exact same age I was. Everything about it rang false to me. It was a huge disappointment.
Fortunately, the movies you listed also came out that summer. The same week I saw E.T. I also saw Tron and Star Trek TWoK twice. Those movies sucked me in and spurred my imagination. They didn’t even have any kids in them but I found characters I could relate to and care about in them. I didn’t see those other R rated movies until I was an adult but they all hold up for me to this day, unlike E.T.
I really wish that film makers would get away from the idea that children won’t enjoy a movie if it doesn’t have a child in a starring role. Spielberg and Lucas became legends with movies that didn’t have any kids starring in them but that kids still loved (Star Wars, Close Encounters, Raiders, Jaws). Both of them jumped the shark when they started putting child actors in the main roles in their films.
1 Like
The way Primus sucks or the way flying united sucks?
2 Likes
I blame qwerty kb’s! “S” right next to “D”; can you imagine that?! 
I will fight you over TRON.
Okay maybe better than ET. I remember mostly liking ET but thinking back it is the usual Spielberg overly sappy.
But TRON. Meh. It is pretty to look at and I was happy to catch a 70mm print of it somewhat recently but it really isn’t that great a film as 15 year old me thought it was.
1 Like
I adore TRON for being such a time capsule and being gorgeous (also got to see it in 70mm, and wow, it’s pretty, and that score!), and Jeff Bridges is the perfect casual Han Solo type, but yeah, as a movie/story? Not that great.
5 Likes
It is very much that. The visuals and score do make up for the story if you get to see it on a big screen.
3 Likes
TRON just needed a good rug to tie the whole film together.
10 Likes
Total revisionism. Notice they replaced the guns in everyone’s hands with remotes and phones and gadgets?
Bullshit. This is America.
Spielberg never could really explain why he did it, but lastly…
In a June 2011, interview, Spielberg said,
[In the future,] … There’s going to be no more digital enhancements or digital additions to anything based on any film I direct. … When people ask me which E.T. they should look at, I always tell them to look at the original 1982 E.T. If you notice, when we did put out E.T. we put out two E.T. s. We put out the digitally enhanced version with the additional scenes and for no extra money, in the same package, we put out the original '82 version. I always tell people to go back to the '82 version.[113]
For the film’s 30th anniversary release on Blu-ray in 2012, and for its 35th anniversary release on Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2017, as well as its corresponding digital releases; only the original theatrical edition was released, with the 20th anniversary edition now out of circulation
2 Likes
It’s the magic of cinema.
1 Like
I think E.T. spoke to a lot of kids at the time, though (I was 12) and enjoyed it a lot, although I see more of the flaws in it as an adult. It involved kids not terribly different from myself who did relatable 1980s things like ride bikes unsupervised by helicopter parents and play D&D. It’s not surprising that newer things like Stranger Things took those nostalgic concepts. But I get the feeling of a popular movie not clicking with you. A few years later I saw The Goonies and didn’t like it at all (although I was 15 and was probably out of its target audience).
2 Likes
And we all know that it makes perfect sense for a hot-shot programmer like Bridges’ Flynn to run an arcade – isn’t that what arcade owners do – write the code for their games? Tron is a flawed movie too, but I love it, not only for the visuals, music, and 1980s nostalgia, but I love the idea of programs being people inside the computer – it reminds me of the ridiculous classic SF trope of atoms being little solar systems with electrons being planets with tinier inhabitants.
2 Likes
Ah, Nostalgia, it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.
That reminds me of one of my favorite dad jokes.
What’s E.T. short for?
Very small legs.
…sorry.
3 Likes
sorry. loved ET then, love it now. Stranger Things paid homage to the D&D and general kid-ness of it for a reason.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
