[Mark Burgess]

I have seen the film now. It’s not very good.

Wow, for Emily Blunt! She is brilliant. Alas, the rest is gibberish. Weak story, gratuitous action. Empathy? Not really. The score was the only disclosure worth mentioning, but I have listened at greater length now and I think there are some musical references going on.

But – I am now sure that any references in the music have nothing to do with the storyline of the film. I think my little conspiracy of thematic references is probably John Williams self-referencing his own work for fun (and maybe because the film really needs something to help it along).

My Musical Resonance Imaging scanner has found a few more hat-tips in the album score. I jotted them down fyi,

A.I. theme: memory, celestial, reprise
Close Encounters theme: celestial, chase
E.T. theme: believe

Then there are lots of stylistic things, like the government “horns” and the “press” newsreel musical styles that JW often uses in scores, without them being actual quotes.

And that draws a line under it all from me. I think the score was better than the movie. It’s a shame that Steven Spielberg rushed into this project. The potential idea deserves something much bigger than this quirky cliché romp that smashes up a few vehicles for no obvious reason.