It’s the most flimsy kiddie adventure flick of the 80s—and that’s really saying something—but you have to go easy on director Joe Dante here. Paramount Pictures infamously rushed him through production, not caring that the script wasn’t finished, in order to make the July release date that their marketing gurus decided was the perfect day of the year to open a film about middle schoolers who figure out how to build a spaceship out of an old Tilt-A-Whirl car and then meet some friendly aliens who’ve been raised on TV signals from Earth.
Then the movie bombed.
Like most cult films of the time though, it eventually found an audience on video and cable. That audience was mostly kids who are always up for some special effects and misfit adolescent angst. The film also coasts on a Spielbergian sense of wonder and rides on a Jerry Goldsmith score full of lush orchestral moments and synthesizer crescendos.
With all of that stuff, nobody really cared how the story, uh, completely lacks a climax. This is a film that sets you up for a hearty meal only to serve you some stale popcorn and half a Milky Way bar. When it’s over you feel like you somehow missed something. It doesn’t age well to adult eyes today, but all three lead actors are still charming. Science-fiction geek and movie fanatic Ethan Hawke is clearly Joe Dante’s stand-in. Jason Presson is the brooding kid from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, but who’s a nice guy underneath. River Phoenix is the four-eyed science whiz who creates an airtight flying bubble, suitable for outer space travel, from nothing more than a few clever keyboard strokes at his computer because this is 1985 and all computers are strange and mystical things.