History YMMV / CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind

* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: The film [[GenreTurningPoint has defined]] near any "alien encounter" stories from ''Series/TheXFiles'' to ''Film/IndependenceDay''. As a result a lot of the mood and imagery has been emulated to death, and it's harder to recognize how revolutionary the film was.

** While the spaceship was magnificent, the aliens themselves weren't as impressive, even for their time. The long-limbed alien was a rather crude marionette puppet (though the animatronic by Creator/CarloRombaldi doesn't look much better), the rest were clearly children/little people in rubber suits. Additionally, the musical notes sounded from the spacecraft were obviously tubas and other wind instruments.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: While the spaceship was magnificent, the aliens themselves weren't as impressive, even for their time. The long-limbed alien was a rather crude puppet, the rest were clearly children/little people in rubber suits. Additionally, the musical notes sounded from the spacecraft were obviously tubas and other wind instruments.

** Did the aliens abduct dozens of people against their will in order to study our species, or were most of those they took with them and returned to Earth (decades later and un-aged) people like Roy who went willingly and were just as fascinated by the aliens as they were by us? Since they captured airplanes in mid-flight and entire ships from the middle of the ocean, it seems as though at least some of the people on board probably didn't want to be there.

** Did the aliens abduct dozens of people against their will in order to study our species, or were most of the people they returned to Earth (decades later and un-aged) people like Roy who went willingly and were just as fascinated by the aliens as they were by us? Since they captured airplanes in mid-flight and entire ships from the middle of the ocean, it seems as though at least some of the people on board probably didn't want to be there.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The film [[FollowTheLeader has defined]] near any "alien encounter" stories from ''Series/TheXFiles'' to ''Film/IndependenceDay''. As a result a lot of the mood and imagery has been emulated to death, and it's harder to recognize how revolutionary the film was.

** Roy is likable, but the fact that he put his obsession with the aliens ahead of being a good father to his children makes him unsympathetic to many viewers.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: At the end of the film it's implied that all of this was in order to make First Contact with the Human race, that the aliens are benevolent and want to be friends. Which is all well and good except they very explicitly have kidnapped people over the course of the last century. We don't speak to these people after they are returned except for Barry, who is a very young child and was only gone for perhaps a few months. These people are years out of time, their family and friends have moved on or died without them, never having known what happened to them. They haven't visibly aged, so they may not even know how long they were gone and are in for a nasty shock when they attempt to go home. We don't even know what was done to them while on the alien craft and it's possible Roy and the other astronauts are in danger.

** Averted with Music/JohnWilliams who may have lost Best Score for ''this'' movie but won with the ''other'' science fiction film he scored that same year: ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]''. Fans have been known to question why the Academy just didn't award him for both.

** Averted with Music/JohnWilliams who may have lost Best Score for ''this'' movie but won with the ''other'' science fiction film he scored that same year: ''Film/StarWars''. Fans have been known to question why the Academy just didn't award him for both.

* IdiotBall: Why did a room full of scientists and technicians take so long to recognize that they were looking at latitude and longitude coordinates. True, there were astronomers there who started out thinking in terms of ascension/declination, but as soon as that didn't map onto anything that made sense, they would have immediately tried latitude and longitude as alternatives.

* ShipTease: Roy and Jillian have chemistry and are bonded by their UFO experience. Generally downplayed, but towards the end of the film they actually do kiss and it's Jillian who tells Roy that it's OK for him to leave on the mothership. Of course the fact the two are married to other people means this falls into the category of an affair, albeit one under extraordinary circumstances. (This mirrors the experiences of many supposed "contactees" in real life, who often leave their families and form new relationships with others in the "contactee" movement.)

* ShipTease: Roy and Jillian have chemistry and are bonded by their UFO experience. Generally downplayed, but towards the end of the film they actually do kiss and it's Jillian who tells Roy that it's OK for him to leave on the mothership. Of course the fact the two are married to other people means this falls into the category of an affair, albeit one under extraordinary circumstances.

** Creator/RichardDreyfus wasn't nominated for Best Actor. However, he wound up winning the award for ''Film/TheGoodbyeGirl''.

* AwardSnub: It received eight UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations and won two, but Best Picture wasn't one of them.

* AwardSnub: It received eight Oscar nominations and won two, but Best Picture wasn't one of them.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: While the spaceship was magnificent, the aliens themselves weren't as impressive, even for their time. The long-limbed alien was a rather crude puppet, the rest were clearly children/little people in rubber suits. Additionally, the musical notes sounded from the spacecraft were clearly tubas or other wind instruments.

* SpecialEffectsFail: While the spaceship was magnificent, the aliens themselves were obviously puppets (the first long-limbed alien) or children/little people in rubber costumes (the rest of the aliens). Additionally, the musical notes sounded from the spacecraft were clearly tubas or other wind instruments.

* ValuesDissonance: NewAge faith in [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens alien intelligence]] as a benevolent [[PowersThatBe Higher Power]], and in the [[EverythingTryingToKillYou sterile void of space]] as {{Heaven}}, doesn't resonate much any more (especially not after ''Franchise/{{Alien}}''), to say nothing of the hatred that comes down these days on a parent who abandons his family to pursue some other goal. That last point has been rather controversial, though, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment to say the least]].