Gutting disappointment disclosure day - SPOILERS

[Puddingypops]

I sooooo wanted to love this film, I was excited all day to see it, John Williams?! Spielberg??? Alien epic?!?! YES YES

But as I filed out of the packed cinema with everyone else walking in stony unsure silence my first words were “well that wasn’t what I expected” and by that I expected it to be good

i actually found it bad

Emily blunt was exceptional I will say that, I enjoyed it when she started speaking other languages and had hope it would be deliciously mysterious happenings like that to come….

I also like the way the aliens, when we got to see them for the 2 minutes they were in the film, walked…and I liked their fingers

thats it for things I liked unless you count how much I enjoyed Josh O’Connors stealth mode in hiding behind a 2 foot slatted fence with gaping gaps in it 2 yards away from 50 military guys not trained to look around.

can we seriously not get a real fox to sit and walk? No? Let’s make one that looks ridiculous, same with the deer, and the bird, I was completely removed from the whole film every time cgi made an appearance.

car chase, car chase, car being dragged FAR TOO LONG by a high speed train, like that guy would miss shooting them from there too

no chemistry between the characters, I know what the film wanted me to feel, what messages it was going for, but if I don’t feel them then what’s the point

anyone else feel the same?

It was ok but the ending was so flat, and so much unexplained. They could have explained a lot lot more of what had been going on in the last few decades, even if they didn't want to show the aliens message.

Yeah it was a bit of a cop out, I mean it built and built towards this epic reveal. And the reveal was an alien which we knew and a message which we dont

and I’m sure that “listen” could be a metaphor for the whole message, listen to eachother, your conscience, nature, god, etc etc I get it, but it didn’t move me

i felt more moved by watching grown millennial men cry on TikTok that morning about a Zelda game remake from their childhood

Just seen it and loved it! The 2 ½ hours flew by.

Just goes to show were all different 😁

They wouldn't have room for a sequel then, it's all about the money.

I'm pretty sure the message was

"Surprise! We didn't come in peace after all, my mates will be here soon and we're going to kill you all. mwahahahaaaaa". 🤣

I actually laughed at several points in this film eg the aliens, the teary eyed humans, the Keystone Cops agents. It did have a bit of a spoof about it. I was disappointed that there wasn't more of a religious tie in to it all but as for the end 💩

Twas shite

If only that high powered government agency had a helicopter eh? Would have helped them

and if there were a way to stop her broadcasting at the end that wasn’t just shutting down the power,,,, best we all leave then

Well let's be honest the film wouldn't have existed if the first bloke had just uploaded one set of files to Tiktok. 🤣

I have to say I’ve obviously never seen an alien and I’ve seen lots of wildlife and the aliens looked more realistic than the animals 😂

I think all alien movies have one of two messages (with the exception of 'time is not linear' in a movie that I won't spoil):

• The we're going to kill you one - which you wrote so brilliantly! Or;
• Stop effing up the planet, we're here to show you a better way and to send a warning.

I'm looking forward to a movie with a really radical message like:

• Why did you cancel 'My Name is Earl'?
• Do you fancy a hot night with gray guy/girl with twelve nipples?
• You're all living in a petri dish in a laboratory... you're our zoo!

😂🤣😂

I thought it was terrible. A real let down. The story, sense of place, plot, and pacing were all off.

I don't understand why the CGI animals were so cack. Or why the nun was wearing so much make-up. Or even why the construction in the warehouse was necessary. Tagging on a verbal reason as an after thought didn't make it believable.

Honestly, I've lost count of the number of times I've watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so this truly was gutting. I can't quite believe the same director was involved.

As for Colin Firth... I don't have words.

TBH it all smacked of the emperor's new clothes. Someone who cares about Spielberg should have stepped in and said, "Mate, this ain't it."

It didn’t feel like a Spielberg film did it? I’m wondering if there is a reason for that though. Maybe it’s an anticlimax because he’s telling someone’s else’s story and hasn’t had input from the point of creation. The believer in me wants to think it’s just a tool for desensitising us and then maybe there will be a real disclosure.
Hopefully there won’t be any uncanny valley animals of farthing wood in my garden anytime soon though 😂

It definitely didn't feel like a Spielberg movie at all. Everything I loved was missing, like the rich detail of home life in Close Encounters or ET that made the characters feel real and human. The absence here of any sense of who these people really were left the whole piece so, so flat IMO.

I'm still annoyed 😅

Agree it was awful. I SO wanted to love it. I can’t believe how bad Colin Firth was. Woefully miscast and his dialogue was oddly spoken. Script was awful in places. Jane was weird as a character.
Loved Emily Blunt and the bit with the house. But the rest… and that ending. What even was that???

That ending was the key (as in brickwork) for the sequel. Perhaps best if they don't make one!

Not a patch on the original War of the Worlds!

I actually thought Eve Hewson outshone the more established cast. I wanted more meat in terms of the story and less car chases. I enjoyed it but I don’t think it lived up to my expectation and the secrecy surrounding it. I am going to watch Mark Kermode’s review later to see what he thought.

When the bad guys snuck up on Daniel & Jane in the motel by having bright flashing lights on their cars, it lost all credibility for me.

I’ve just left the cinema after seeing it. What a bloated mess. Hard to know where to start, there was so much wrong with it.

‘Can we seriously not get a real fox to sit and walk?’ 🤣

The animals were awful. I laughed out loud when the first fox appeared.

The animals reminded me of the movie Leave the World Behind with Julia Roberts when all the animals came to their house.

I laughed at the aliens' bodies 🥱😂

Did they really need to rebuild the WHOLE house? Really?

Yeah, I did laugh at Stealth Mode Josh sneaking away from the safe house, entirely visible to anyone with peripheral vision or just vision.

Maybe it's just a softening up for real disclosure. (On that, the podcast Sound, Light & Frequency is well worth a listen.)

Overall, I enjoyed it but I'd already heard/read some disappointed reviews so my expectations were adjusted beforehand.

There is a better film in there trying to get out. One that doesn't include Colin of Mumblecore.

If it turned out to be true maybe the aliens refused to act in animal form😂