Okay, we HAVE TO talk about this mess of a movie that has single-handedly created a brand new genre - senile sci-fi - where the bad guys never look behind and the good guys don’t know what YouTube is.

So many plotholes and inconsistencies, the story is stupid as f***, it’s beyond predictable and cliché from every angle, the runtime is way too long for what it is.

The one good thing about it is Emily’s acting. She is such a delight to watch, her range is very impressive!

I cannot fathom how this got anywhere NEAR 80 on RM, what a sad day for journalism with such obviously paid-for reviews.

A few people walked out of the first screening here too including my neighbour.

Well hopefully I won't dislike it that much when I see it in exactly a week lmao

I'm not super excited for it and the length might get a bit much (lately I've been seeking out movies that are less than 90 minutes to watch at home haha) but I have a cinema membership for €17.99 a month so I pretty much go see anything that seems even remotely good.

And I like Josh O'Connor.

On 16/06/2026 at 17:46, pavi said:

Okay, we HAVE TO talk about this mess of a movie that has single-handedly created a brand new genre - senile sci-fi - where the bad guys never look behind and the good guys don’t know what YouTube is.

So many plotholes and inconsistencies, the story is stupid as f***, it’s beyond predictable and cliché from every angle, the runtime is way too long for what it is.

The one good thing about it is Emily’s acting. She is such a delight to watch, her range is very impressive!

I cannot fathom how this got anywhere NEAR 80 on RM, what a sad day for journalism with such obviously paid-for reviews.

A few people walked out of the first screening here too including my neighbour.

I had a friend ask me to go and see this with him, I declined. So it looks like I didn’t miss much.

Full disclosure though I hate sci-fi, so I was probably never going to enjoy it.

I didn't dislike this as much as others seem to, but I definitely didn't like it as much as I wanted to, either. In terms of modern Spielberg 'The Fabelmans', 'West Side Story' and 'Ready Player One' outsold for me.

I really liked this oops

Yes, there were holes. But it was also thoroughly enjoyable and had a good balance of things happening to keep me engaged!

It’s nowhere near as bad as the first couple of posts make out 😂

I guess it was a bit slow in parts but I enjoyed it and it kept me intrigued throughout.

Wasn’t the hugest fan of the ending mind!

Just saw it, I think it was pretty entertaining and very well made as per usual for Spielberg, Emily Blunt in particular was fantastic and the score was typically beautiful. Definitely dragged a bit in places and I think the powers the main duo had were very woolly and the plot quite jumbled and overstuffed.

The ending is definitely has that typical Spielberg wow factor and incredibly shot for the recorded footage in particular, but I'm not sure it actually says that much, especially about Extra Terrestrial life. He was clearly going for a Close Encounters... vibe but it felt like everything it was trying to say, has already been done.

I still can’t get over the ending - all this 2.5 hour ruckus just to get a senior ET in a wheelchair that does absolutely nothing and a ‘listen!!1’ cop out. WoW sO sMaRt!! Spielberg needs to watch something other than his own movies from 1990s. I am still deeply offended and can’t believe how much of a waste of time this pretentious piece of trash of a movie was.

7/10. Emily's performance is award-worthy and it should have been titled Close Encounters Of The Fourth Kind. The logic of the situation is a bit plot-holed (and always will be when one is dealing with super-advanced alien plots) - but the moral of the film is pretty-much spot on with it's heart in the right place. Project Hail Mary did it better though, but Spielberg direction/cinematography is always a treat.

40 minutes ago, Popchartfreak said:

The logic of the situation is a bit plot-holed (and always will be when one is dealing with super-advanced alien plots)

I don’t agree and we shouldn’t lower expectations. Plenty of alien-plot movies have amazing world building and are incredibly well thought out.

Maybe it’s because I’ve watched SO many sci-fi movies but I see nothing being even remotely advanced about this movie’s plot. On surface it seems to have a lot but when you start digging deeper, very little is left.

MINOR PLOT SPOILER IN THIS, Sorry though they give it away fairly early in the film!

I was referring to the plot device of super-advanced-aliens coming to Earth, (which has been going on since the 1950's in movies) rather than this movie having a super-advanced alien plot, which I agree it definitely wasn't, it was more of the same, aliens as our saviours/conquerers, its usually one or the other plot. ET had a twist on that basic theme, human beings as being the ones to be frightened of. Spielberg's biggest plot-hole was more to do with the lack of interest following up a mission that had gone disastrously wrong 80 years earlier, when they are seemingly intent on spreading their message enough to turn up in person just after a massive global World War. If they are that advanced, why not just study language from a distance, film a statement with very clear subtitles and post on global TV, movie or internet and follow-it up afterwards in person when invited in. Boring plot maybe - Childhood's End, Contact have a variation on this but I still love the books and a lesser extent the films/series anyway 🙂- but peddling the old Aliens Roswell myth is a bit old hat these days, it's been done to death since Close Encounters (which was my all-time fave film for quite a while afterwards) and I was disappointed Stephen S was revisiting it when it wasnt really needed with a bit of plot rewriting.

Saw it today, didn't dislike it, didn't love it. Sadly I don't consider myself 'movie-articulate' enough to understand or explain everything particularly intricately or interestingly (sometimes even my own thoughts about a movie) but I will say I wasn't particularly loving it until nearer to the end. Maybe like the last half an hour I loved... Something like that, I'm not sure, I wasn't looking at the time lmao. So I particularly enjoyed the parts with the two leads being like, shown themselves as kids and how the rest came to be (incredible explanation, I know), and the parts with all the news channels at the end. Those bits were very gripping for me, the rest a bit less so.

I gave it 3 stars on Letterboxd (a strong 3 stars let's say ).