Popular reviews

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  Review by Mary Conti 27

  When 9/11 happened, I was in middle school. I was 13. When the first plane hit, I was just getting settled into second period. At about 9:15, the principal turned on the speaker and delivered the news. But we didn't hear about the planes, because at that point, there wasn't enough information to know about the planes in the first place. All we heard were the buzzwords: "Terrorists" "Attack" "Explosion" So the school was to be evacuated for safety precautions, of course.

  It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I saw no explosions that day. I didn't see any death. I just saw the people in my life and strangers completely freaking out, and it wasn't until…

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 18

  Back in my day we had proper summer blockbusters that were determined to absolutely traumatize children

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  Review by James (Schaffrillas) ★★★★ 1

  Why tf did they have to show the aliens onscreen, I was actually taking them seriously before then 💀

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★★ 11

  One of the medium's foremost masters of screen space has a panic attack, a full-blown psychotic breakdown when confronted with the post-9/11 horror and confusion and paranoia that comes with the realization that our space no longer feels safe. Some of the straight-up cleanest and scariest monster/disaster suspense sequences ever put to film. Watched this on the new 4K Blu-ray and felt like I was seeing a number of its gruesome images I've never been able to get out of my head for the first time again; the stylish shadows, light blooms, muted colors and grain textures all look incredible and only serve to heighten the ground-scale vaporizing, rivers of corpses and fertilized roots of human blood. Someone should scare the shit out of Spielberg again so we can get more movies like this and Munich.

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  Review by Erik 🎼 ★★★½

  steven spielberg: i guess i’ll do this alien movie now

  john williams: i have to go as hard as possible in every scene or i’ll die

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★★ 11

  Much of Spielberg's enduring power as an artist lies in his ability to create popular, powerful myths about the past, present and future of America that all in one way or another deal with World War II as the crucible that defines our identity and justifies our role as masters of the world. Here, in one of his best movies imo, he hauntingly channels virtually every disaster and atrocity of our two plus centuries from the Civil War to 9/11 and Iraq with even a little holocaust thrown in, to project all of it back onto the American homeland in this vivid nightmare of all the wars we've ever fought happening to us. What if America wasn't safe anymore? What…

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe 6

  SPACE WEEK MOVIE NO. 3
  
  Poochie-ass ending.

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★★

  The first two-thirds are among Spielberg’s most effective works, and one of the scariest things anyone has made in the last 20 years. (It’s basically all of my anxieties condensed into 70 minutes — thanks Spielberg, I didn’t want to sleep tonight anyway.) The pace and intensity of absolutely nightmarish images seems unsustainable — and apparently it was, because the final act shifts to something that’s much less frightening and then much less bleak. Even if that material has its roots in H.G. Wells’ original story, it still doesn’t quite fit the magnificent freakout that precedes it.

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  Review by Syaoran ★½ 13

  I guess Spielberg focused too much on capturing that chaotic end-of-the-world atmosphere that he forgot to present a cohesive narrative and likable characters.

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  Review by clementine ★★★★

  the aliens in this are the scariest i've ever seen second to the ones in chicken little

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  Review by Reece ★★★★ 2

  i do not simply crave, but rather NEED, a Spielberg directed horror movie today

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  Review by Olivia 🏳️‍⚧️ ★★★★ 2

  spoiler alert: tom cruise runs