everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Just saw Ethan Hawke promoting his new movie on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallow (June 15, 2017). Can't believe he's 46. Well it got me reminiscing about his first movie, Explorers. So here I am. It may not be an epic flick but it is a classic. The movie My Science Project falls in the same category. Watching Explorers takes me back to my childhood.

Three kids (River Phoenix, Ethan Hawke, Jason Presson) build a spaceship from designs they get in their dreams. Then they launch it into space and meet some bizarre aliens. Like many other reviewers, I have mixed feelings about Explorers. Everything up to when the kids meet the aliens is excellent. Well-written, imaginative, exciting, beautiful film that could stand on par with anything Spielberg has done. Then the aliens. What's there to say? I've read a lot of breakdowns of it where people try to explain what Dante was "trying to say" and such. But, at the end of the day, these feel like excuses for why a great movie turns into a big joke. Still, the ending is nice and ultimately it's an uplifting, fun movie. Even the alien parts are watchable. Though admittedly more watchable for me after repeated viewings than the first. Give it a shot and judge for yourself.

Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke), an alien-obsessed kid, dreams one night of a circuit board. Drawing out the circuit, he and his friends Wolfgang (River Phoenix) and Darren set it up, and discover they have been given the basis for a starship. Setting off in the ThunderRoad, as they name their ship, they find the aliens Ben hopes they would find... but are they what they seem? Joe Dante is an interesting character. Rising from the films of Roger Corman, he has made some of the great horror films -- "Howling", "Piranha" and "Gremlins". But he also has made some classic kid movies. While it is not strange for someone to make different kinds of films, it is interesting to see how one mind can approach two very different ideas. (Though we are treated to a newspaper that suggests "Explorers" exists in the same world as "Gremlins".) Along with "Flight of the Navigator", this was one of the two great kids-meet-aliens movies of the 1980s. You could possibly add "Mac and Me", but to include that in there would be giving it too much credit. Allegedly, the studio finished the film without Dante and what we see is basically a work print. If that is true, it is a darn fine work print. What more would Dante have done? Interestingly, a different but related theme was explored by Bob Balaban in his episode of "Amazing Stories" this same year (called "Fine Tuning"). They would make an excellent double feature.

Explorers is directed by Joe Dante and written by Eric Luke. It stars Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson and Amanda Peterson. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by John Hora.It's the family friendly sci-fi that Joe Dante did after he made Gremlins, and it's a film of much fun and childish splendour that is only done down by getting away from itself in the last quarter.Plot basically sees three young lads (Hawke, Phoenix and Presson) with different talents and ideals who come together to fashion a spacecraft as they deal with the perils of school (bullies, puppy love, scholastic pressure). Taking off, the boys eventually go into space and encounter an alien race who have an interesting view on the human race...Dante had studio interference to contend with and he eventually re-edited the film for home format release. The film does feel compromised and rushed towards the end, but the story holds up real well and the young actors (Dante's excellent direction of youngsters is often forgotten) engage and entertain for all the right reasons. It's a bit derivative and it does at times feel like Dante is just making a movie so he can bathe in homage nostalgia, but there is intelligence in the sci-fi factors before it gets confused as to its messages and the aliens we finally meet annoy and disappoint.Weird and wondrous, fun and fragile, Explorers is a mixed bag for sure. 7/10