E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial – 1982 (WINNER)
This was a movie with a lot of special effects, most of which were pretty good, though not all of them. The real reason everyone came to see the movie was E.T. himself, and I think that for that, they did a fantastic job. However, it is significant to mention that in 2002, director Stephen Spielberg meddled with his own film. He redid a lot of the special effects with CGI, and that is the version of this movie that I am now used to watching. However, for this review, I watched the original theatrical version, and I have to say that I don’t agree with all Spielberg’s CGI changes. Here’s why.
One of the reasons for updating the special effects was to give E.T. more obvious or recognizable emotions. They gave him facial expressions that they were not able to create in 1982. But in most cases, I like the original version better. The updates made him too human. The stiffness of the original creature effects made him seem just a little more alien, and I was OK with that. Then again, other changes they made were really necessary. For example, in the beginning of the movie, when E.T. is running through a dark forest, the original version simply had an unmoving puppet on a track. The CGI updates actually had a moving, running creature.
There were a number of techniques used to animate E.T. There were, of course a number of puppets with a team of expert controllers manipulating the eyes, the mouth, and other parts of the face and head. Sometimes when only his upper torso could be seen, an actor with gloves on became his hands. But they also had a man with no legs in a suit. What we saw as E.T.’s feet were actually his hands on which he was able to walk. And we can’t forget all the detailed miniature models.
A little thing that I liked was in the part of the movie in which E.T. got sick. As his health failed, he developed a white film all over his body. An inconsequential detail, maybe, but I thought it added a huge amount of realism to the animated alien character and his unfamiliar alien physiology. Add to that his glowing heart, and you have a character that is both alien and real at the same time.
The most iconic shot from the movie is the one in which E.T. lifts Elliott into the air on his bicycle, and they fly past the face of a giant moon. The shot was expertly done, though you could still see those pesky dark outlines around the flying characters which damaged the illusion. It was very good, but not perfect. And the shot was mirrored later in the film when five boys on bicycles fly into a giant setting sun. It was really pretty fantastic!. Incidentally, the dark outlines were something that the CGI enhancements were able to remove, and the result looked fantastic!
And finally there was E.T.’s spaceship. It was a really cool globe-like design with lots of bright and colorful lights that looked great against the dark forest background. And the rainbow that it painted across the sky as it departed at the emotional end of the film was a nice touch. There were so many things that Spielberg got right, and I think the film really deserved its Oscar win.