Good Catch with the picnic basket!
I actually watched this part but missed it.
I really did sleep through most of the movie.
I caught the beginning and the end and that was enough.
I fell asleep after the Alien grabbed the meteor.
My problem with the movie is that it was basically a movie to check all the boxes.
They put women, blacks, homos, Asians, witchcraft, pedophilia... etc. etc. inside of the story.
So like you say, he used his formula and they made it very pretty but the story just wasn't there.
It was certainly no RUSHMORE and that's one of his best ever!