Hey folks, Harry here in London again... Staring at the British Library across the street, that wonderfully bent over statue... The lit face of the clock tower.. A report about sheep on my tv and a wedge of cheese beside my computer. All very good, until I read this ... this report just depressed me...
Hey Harry,
Let me introduce myself, I am StevenMatthews, a student of cinema/television at the University of Southern California. I am also in the Style of Steven Spielberg class here. Tonight, we watched an advance copy of "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary Edition."
Before I give you my comments on this film, let me tell you that like many other people of my age, I grew up with this film, and in fact, love this film. It is my favorite film. I know that this is not the greatest film of all time, far from it, but it meant a lot to me growing up and is my favorite. Now, for the movie...
Going into this screening, I knew what was going on. I had read the earlier post from Salt Lake City and I was hoping for the best. Now, I know they said that the new visual effects added to the film and that we wouldn't notice them. Well, hate to say it, but most people at the screening noticed them, and they stood out like a sore thumb.
The most annoying aspect of the new visual effects were that they did not fit in with the original footage of E.T. One minute he's hopping around, moving fluidly in decent -- DECENT -- cgi, and the next minute he's wobbling around in the original footage, with different bodily dimensions (the change in arm thickness was very annoying). Now, I don't mind filmmakers (Lucas) changing things in their old films that might need to be changed (adding more people and creatures in Mos Eisley). However, what I do not jive with is changing things that don't need to be changed. The most annoying examples in the E.T. Special Edition are when we Elliott first comes face to face with E.T. at night in his backyard, when E.T. laughs at the Tom and Jerry cartoon, E.T. eating the potato salad and drinking the beer, the close ups of E.T. right before he makes the bikes fly (both times), and when Elliott first falls off the cliff on the bike. In each instance, the add extraneous movement to the shot. The cgi is good for the most part, but they changed things that didn't need to be changed. The basic trouble is, and it might be because I've seen the movie so many times, that when you see the new effects they take you out of the movie and you start watching for when you're going to see another one. There were subtle movements in the E.T. puppet in the original that make the performance but are removed in this version...such as when E.T. pulls back at first when Michael reaches out to touch him. That is gone. To me, moments like that which made the original are now gone.
As of right now, I'm watching the original on VHS to get the bad taste of the Special Edition out of my head. Also...Harry, you said you just wanted to hear the new remastered score...which is amazing...HOWEVER...since they cut the close up of the shotgun, the score is mixed in a way so that one of the best musical moments in the entire movie is gone. This, also, took not only me, but most of the other people I talked to, out of the flow of the movie. Now, if he had some other insert and kept the musical score, I wouldn't be as angry as I am now.
I am angry, though. It might be too early to say, but this just might have had a negative impact on my view of the original version of this film. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the Special Edition...people that haven't seen this movie will love it, but I was not as much disappointed as much as I was hurt by the unnecessary changing of a terrific film.
StevenMatthews
