Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: David Koepp
Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo.
Major spoiler alerts…. Though there’s not much here to ruin something already spoilt!
Spielberg is a nasty man! Yes, I said it. For the first time a movie from his cannon that you simply cannot suspend your disbelief for even a nano-second. Sorry to disappoint, but this is going to be one of my few scathing reviews of Spielberg’s work.
British acting talent Josh O’Connor plays a math genius, Dr. Daniel Kellner, on a mission which is sort of trying to be altruistic by saving the world, and his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson). They’re on the run with something precious in their backpacks, from a rather nasty clandestine organisation Wardex, headed by Noah Scanlon. A lot of screentime here for another British legend, Colin Firth. There is a rogue element which is about to change the state of play, in the guise of popular weather girl Margaret Fairchild, masterfully played by Emily Blunt. Against her hapless boyfriend Jackson’s wishes (Wyatt Russell) she aspires to be a news anchor one day but suddenly has a bout of ‘speaking in tongues’ live on air.
From the clumsy opening ‘in-your-face’ wrestling sequence to the marauding car chases, this is not the film you think it’s going to be. The backdrop is a possible World War Three breaking out, … the premise is there are people out there who have a secret that is more headline grabbing than the end of the world… and they are about to risk their lives to show you. Yes, there’s action, there’s suspense, there’s a fun scene with a speeding train. Spielberg throws it all in here, in an attempt to pull on our heartrate, as well as our heartstrings. What should have been the denouement, a mystical spiritual awakening of sorts, falls flat, right when it should lift you up.
Unfortunately, the script by David Koepp, who should know better (Panic Room 2002), plays like you have just switched on the TV in the middle of a movie and you’re desperately trying to understand what is happening. At one point Josh O’Connor’s character Daniel says, “I don’t know what’s going on!” I almost shouted at the screen, “Neither do I!” When you eventually fathom the truth of the story it’s literally 140 minutes into the film and the lights are about to come on.
Spielberg is an arse… there I said it again. For the fans of the unexplained out there, he deliberately chooses the Nixon–Jackie Gleason story to lend legitimacy to the tale, he uses Roswell, I laughed out loud, he uses Kecksburg and crop circles…. and it’s really only for those who know what they know…he is making fun of his audience, and the joke is squarely on us…
He takes Emily Blunt, who gives a standout career best performance, in one of her worst movies… She beat him you see, with her own alien movie, A Quiet Place (2018), and Spielberg obviously couldn’t have that, so he cast her in this horror show … He bastardises sci-fi to the extreme. He’s even jealous of Netflix’s Stranger Things!
Not only does he mess with the geeks, Spielberg messes with everyone else. He presents us with the most anti-Christian piece of entertainment you’ll see all year… He drops the obvious, along with the subtle, as you see a Nutcracker and some festive decorations lying on the floor in the backroom of the studio…he’s telling us that if we buy into the alien disclosure, then Christmas is officially no more, effective immediately!
Blunt is the star here, there’s no doubt about it, and the supporting cast do their upmost to convince you… but even Colin Firth in all his besuited silver fox greyness can’t save this… forty percent true sci-fi…sixty percent rotten. If you want to pay for that, then I recommend it... but don’t think this is Close Encounters or ET… It’s no pop-corn summer blockbuster… it’s an in-your-face joke …it’s almost sacrilegious. You want aliens… you get aliens… but are you listening?
