Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster
Close Encounters of the Third Kind

What’s Aged the Worst?

Close Encounters of the Third Kind The Rewatchables

Some alien effects, too little period-appropriate smoking, the lack of PTSD awareness, stealth observation, and endless recutting have aged worst.

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:20:39Read transcript
  • The child-performed alien suits are criticized while the marionette and final alien are defended.
  • The lack of cigarette smoking is selected as an element that does not match the film's 1977 setting.
  • The family's failure to recognize Roy's trauma and half-face burn as evidence of PTSD is judged to have aged badly.
  • The possibility of keeping UFO observation secret in a camera-phone era is rejected.
  • The forgotten television series Soap and its abduction plot are proposed as a dated reference.
  • The mothership interior in the 1980 cut and repeated recutting are criticized as revisions that aged poorly.