[6]

J.J. Abrams’ comprehensive homage to Spielberg’s early career is a decent spooky kids’ adventure movie. It does a good job stirring nostalgia among 30-somethings like myself. It’s not as mysterious or suspenseful as one might expect from Abrams, the creator of TV’s Lost and producer of Cloverfield. But it does have a solid emotional grounding like much of Abrams’ other work. The film is best in tender moments between the children, quiet character moments, especially between actors Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning. Fanning is truly remarkable here, almost single-handedly delivering three or four of the film’s very best scenes. If only the A-story were as interesting as the B-story. The monster should have been left more to the imagination, because when we finally get a good look at it, it fails to impress. And then there are the last five or seven minutes, a rapid plummet into schmaltz and saccharine bullshit that do serious injury to the relatively decent two hours that precede them. Even the littlest audience members will be rolling their eyes.