LogFAQs > #892428412

My thoughts: I didn't hate it, but after finally seeing it I think it is pretty overrated. Biggest problems being it had an good hour of padding, the over-the-top dopey performance from Richard Dreyfuss and that it ends with nothing really happening. I liked that the story was a peaceful alien encounter story, which you have to respect especially in an era that was obsessed with disaster movies. But it ended right when it was starting to pick up steam. If they needed to end it for length, well they didn't have to show so many scenes of Dreyfuss and related characters obsessing over their Devils Peak visions. Or have a French character that existed only to slow the momentum of the movie down by having the audience wait for the translation from another character, or for his dramatic "speaking in English" moments.

Again I didn't hate it, it is an interesting movie in that its probably the one out of all of Spielberg's big budget Hollywood movies that has the most of his talents baked into it, but I can definitely see why Star Wars appealed to more people that year.