User Reviews

And the award for the best Christmas advert of 2019 goes to...

This is a very sweet advert/film short, showing our beloved ET making a speedy return to Earth to see Elliot.

It doesn't feel like a cash in, and there's a decent story being told. You even really forget what it's supposed to be advertising.

My advice would be to see the longer version rather than the short though.

The title "E.T.: A Holiday Reunion" summarizes fairly accurately what you can see in this short film that runs for slightly over 4 minutes. This is a little sequel to the really famous Spielberg movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" from 1982.Which is maybe most interesting about the entire thing is that they got Henry Thomas on board who reprises his role from back then and now he is a family dad himself and his kids are scared when E.T. shows up. Of course, E.T. is all kind-spirited still and he just wwants to visit his buddy from back then. So it may be a coincidence that it is the holidays because I somehow feel that E.T. does not really grasp the human meaning of Christmas. But it helps sentimental value of course. So does the snow and the photo towards the end is really nice. What did not impress me too much was the ride up there in the sky. Not this felt fairly uncreative and just taken from the movie like copy and paste. The hug before that was sweeter. Anyway, this is probably the closest people get for a sequel to E.T. I must say I am a bit baffled how there were so many writers in charge of this one here, like more than one per minute. Massive. The director is just one though, namely BAFTA nominee Lance Acord, who started as a cinematographer a long time ago, and of course is also in charge of the cinematography here. He is just one example how the name E.T. still draws big names to projects, especially if it is not just a fan film. Another example would be editor Kirk Baxter, a two-time Oscar winner. Sadly, overall I cannot give this film a thumbs-up, even if I wanted to. The main reason is that it felt really rushed overall. I wish they would have gone for twice the running time and taken things more slowly. Especially the ending before he leaves again is almost unwatchable because of how fast everything goes and the photo shows that there was actually enough time that they spent together, but sadly the audience is not a part of this. By the way, this is in face a commercial for Xfinity that is linked to how E.T. sees the technical progress on Earth since last time he was there. Oh well, who knows what things will look like in 2060, so the alien should not wait this long once. more. Kinda fitting too because most of Acord's directorial efforts were for commercials. Okay, close call overall for me here, but I give this one a thumbs-down. Maybe if you are more into E.T., you will like the outcome more. It is a massive success in terms of quantity because the film is still far away from existing for half a year and it is already close to 20 million views. But quantity does not equal quality here in my opinion. Skip the watch unless the original film is one of your favorites.