Super 8
| release date | June 10 2011 |
| studio | Paramount Pictures |
| director | J.J. Abrams |
| writer | J.J. Abrams |
| starring | Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Gabriel Basso, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, AJ Michalka |
| rating | PG13 |
| site | super8-movie.com |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
1 Comments
I went to see Super 8 at the midnight screening last night. I was kind of disappointed at the turn out but hopefully it’ll do well by the end of the weekend. I found the BD review absolutely fitting considering the group behind me was a group of 15 year olds taking up literally the whole row. Between them talking loud enough that the whole theater could hear and an especially idiotic one saying “I call BS” every 5 minutes and about 3 times in the amazing train sequence alone, I was pretty ready to scream. one of the group literally asked at the end “So were there 8 kids?” (as opposed to the kind of camera used by the kids).
I definitely loved the cinematography and just the overall feel to the film. I wasn’t at all disappointed in the ending because it seemed to be just what the movie was leading up to. It had just the right amount of horror at least to the extent that it made me jump quite a few times and had plenty of suspense in a few parts. I liked that it didn’t rely too much on CGI and the special effects that were used were great, especially the train sequence. I was glad that I waited and didn’t watch any of the pre-released clips.
Beautiful movie, sweet story, interesting kids, great monster…..WAY too much crammed into that script. They could have simplified things a bit and it would have been more effective. I enjoyed it, my husband HATED it.
I thought the movie rocked! The story, the acting,the special effects and especially the CREATURE (Neville Page is a master at what he does) all kicked major ass! Cant wait for the Blu Ray to come out!
Super 8 really brings back the essence of classic Spielberg. The characters, the settings, just everything. This is an amazing film. The acting is spot on, the screenplay is perfect, the characters are all extremely likable, and Yes, the creature is badass. But it doesn’t really focus all of its attention on the creature so much as it does the characters. The development of each character is amazingly well done. You get to know each one and really understand them which is hard to come about in films nowadays. All In All, Super 8 is a great start off to the summer. I highly recommend seeing this film in theaters.
This movie is awesome! Best movie I’ve seen in theaters this year so far.
This is easily Abrams worst film.
This movie tries so desperately to be an 80′s Soeilberg/Amblim film that it looses any identity of it’s own and ultimately becomes a yawn fest. The first half is slow and bogged down in kiddie friendship. By the time the second act comes around things pick up but it’s too little, too late.
JJ is way too pre occupied in trying to stir up emotion in his young cast so any suspense or tension generated by the creature goes straight out the window. There is no mystery present at all.Speaking of the creature, it’s pretty much the same beast from Cloverfield. It isn’t revealed until the last act but by that time you no longer care about it or what its motivation is, which is identical to E.T’s plight. Yep, it just wants to go home.The acting is fine and the kids do a great job but this movie is an empty shell.
I’m getting tired of modern directors trying to recapture the feeling of movies from the past. Old movies are magical because of the time in which they came out. 2011 is such a different climate and film makers need realize this.
Sorry JJ, there is only one Steven Speilberg and you are certainly not him.
Don’t be fooled by the hype. Super 8 sucks.
This movie is far from perfect but I just fell in love with the characters. It really took me back to my childhood. Back to similar times when imagination, and wonder was all around it seemed. The monster is where this movie fails. It seems tacked on and out of place most of the time. Honestly when it went to the monster scenes that is where the movie seemed to fall apart. The relationships was what made this movie worth watching. I would recommend it to people that loved Stand By Me, the Goonies, and E.T.. While this movie isn’t nearly as good as any of those it’s a throwback to those type of movies, and the kids and relationships formed tug at the heart strings.
Been waiting for this movie for months. Finally saw it last night and was extremely disappointed. While it has all the elements of classic Spielberg, the magic you felt in his earlier movies was missing, at least for me.
While I thought this movie didn’t deliver in the action department too much, I really enjoyed the characters in the movie. The story is pretty good and the alien looks cool to me. Just think of him as a way bigger and pissed off ET lol. We need more monster movies like this, I still think Cloverfield is better though, just a little bit better. I recommend you watch this at least once. Its great for kids as well as adults.
What a wonderful homage this movie was, everything was mint, the score (old spielberg films), the filming (spielberg) , the spaceship (CEOTK), even they did a homage to romero (that put a huge smile on my face).
Like clover JJ keeps the monster out of sight till the last frames, you see it here and there, but never the full thing. It’s a really awesome creature. Nevelle page (I think thats his name) is an amazing designer and is easily the new STAN WISTON of our years. He truly makes awesome stuff.
The plot was very good, along with the story, which was heartfelt and sad and scary like old spielberg films. The acting was good all across the board the kids were very believable and reminded me of when I was a kid and filmed stuff (which I still do) All I know is that when the movie ended I left with a huge smile on my face. Which in these day’s and ages is hard.
Also would like to add I saw in IMAX, if they have a screen anywhere near you please do see it in this. Since it add’s to it. Oh and the train scene was fuckin epic seeing in on the big screen instead of 100000000 times on the comp. Go check it out.
If you like great story and character development, this movie is for you. However if you are looking for great action and suspense, skip this one, you will be dissapointed. Very few action sequences and so much focus on the kids relationship makes this at best an average movie.
This movie was an awesome experience! Let me first start by saying that if you love the classic Steven Spielberg films, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., The Goonies, Jaws, and even Jurassic Park, then you will undoubtedly love this movie as it is clearly J.J. Abrams (director of Cloverfield and Star Trek) love letter to the classic Spielberg films that made going to the movies fun. What Abrams does that makes this film so successful is he makes it very character driven. The characters can either make or break a movie, but Abrams cast amazing young actors and non-A-listed celebs to portray the roles in the film with realistic emotions and depth. Meanwhile, this film is also outstanding in how it keeps to the nostalgia. From beginning to the end, you literally feel immersed in 1970′s/1980′s culture all the way down to the most infinitesimal detail.
Speaking of Spielberg, who also worked together with Abrams on the film, Super 8 has many moments that look and feel very much like a classic Spielberg moment. There are moments that are shocking, touching, terrifying, violent, and powerful. The film succeeds very well in being an amazing Sci-Fi monster movie. Though it doesn’t have the touching connection of child and alien like in E.T., there are those moments that feel like you are watching Elliot on his bike when it is really Joe or his friends. Furthermore, this film has some rather frightening and suspenseful moments that can easily make you jump. There is a lot of atmosphere in the night scenes of this film to easily consider it as Sci-Fi Horror. This idea may also relate to how Spielberg used to delve into multiple genres in his films. For example, though Jaws was a fantastic Horror film, it also had touching moments of a drama. This film is no different, there are some clever chills and thrills, and even some bloody moments to make any fan of classic Spielberg happy.
As for the actors, I was very impressed with the cast, especially with how they were not very well known actors. They were all very believable in their portrayal of 1970s/1980s life. The child actors are especially note worthy in that they are the ones that hold the movie together. The best ones in my opinion were the actor who played Joe and Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning’s younger sister), who played the role of Alice. Fanning really delivers a wonderful performance as a young and somewhat troubled girl and at times she literally had me on the verge of tears. As for the adult actors, Kyle Chandler was awesome as Joe’s father and the deputy. There were moments where his character made me angry yet he had a way of subtly provoking pity due to his situation. Overall, the casting was impressive.
The most impressive part of this film though has to be in the cinematography and effects. One stand out scene has to be the catastrophic train crash at the beginning of the film. Abrams utilized the combination of CGI with actual sets to produce an amazing piece of eye candy in how this train crash was both extremely intense and frightening while also mesmerizing. Meanwhile, the night scenes and sound provided allowed for a lot of tension to be built up at a very good pace leading to some of the frightening moments of the film. Finally, the ending, which I will not get into too much detail with, is truly a spectacle that brings everything together and ultimately left me extremely satisfied.
Overall, I must recommend this movie to everyone. It is an amazing summer movie that will definitely gather following over the years and it should definitely be recognized as a revitalization of classic Spielberg with the right amount of scares, drama, and steady pacing to make this a movie that would be great to see in a theater. It is an awesome viewing experience, and it is also one that I shall definitely add to my movie collection when it arrives on DVD!
I asked my son whether he wanted to see X-men or Super 8. He said Super 8 and I was a little disappointed. Let me tell you, this movie was excellent. Don’t expect the greatest movie ever. Enjoy it for what it is. And if you can help it, don’t watch any spoilers before hand. I think that helped make the movie more interesting and entertaining. Movies usually blow their load in the trailer and suck ass. Not this movie.
Everything I hoped for and more.This was a purely character driven film.Like everyone has said it gives you the classic 80′s feel of E.T.,The Goonies, and Stand By Me.Superb acting,plot,and effects.Highly recommend seeing this amazing film and stay for the credits there’s a great short movie that can’t be missed.The creature was awesome too!10/10!
Huge throwback here to begin the summer movie season. Super 8 is a knockout with spectacular effects, a vintage atmosphere and the sandlot-style characters. It’s a fantastic and mysterious spectacle.
Was fun to go watch a movie that harkened back to my earlier days. Let’s see, one part ET, one part Close Encounters, one part Goonies… Yep. Just about everything you could want in a movie that was a whole lot of fun. As opposed to the pathetic trailers leading up to it (Transformers 23, Captain America, etc.) it was great to see a movie that relied on characters to drive the movie. Certainly worth the watch as it trips you down memory lane to what fun movies where the special effects were secondary to the story was like!
It’s all there: the good special effects, the teen romance, the family drama, the creature we only get glimpses of, the military presence, the uplifting ending — but this movie just didn’t do it for me. I think because the calculation and by-the-numbers approach yields very little in the way of real awe or uplift. Everything happens pretty much the way you expect it to and the tropes and motifs are so blatant, homage morphs into copycatting. I felt very little at the end of this movie — neither for the people nor the creature. Technically very sound but nothing that approaches wonder or excitement. No goosebumps like I still get from watching Jurassic Park or Close Encounters or ET.
The ending really hurt the film for me. I really enjoyed the characters and everything leading up to the ending. I can’t blame JJ at all. I completely blame spielberg. Spielberg is so fucking horny for aliens. While still a very well made film, I can’t recommend it bc of the ending. 8/10 before the ending. With the ending 5/10
Love it or hate it I, I thought it was great summer movie fun. Not straight in your face action this was a throwback to olden days and I loved it. Reminded me of an old school Speilberg filmed with J.J.’s touch thrown in. Check it out.
Really good!
Super 8 to me was far from anything super (unless super disappointing counts). At first it started out great, excellent character development, and the train crash sequence was phenomenal. Throughout the second act of the film the creature was very elusive, which for me really built the tension, but towards the beginning of the third act I really just stopped caring. The creature reveal was horrid, absolutely did not do it for me. The closing scene was so Speilberg it was pure cheesiness, the happy ending ET style music was so overwhelming I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Although Super 8 is worth seeing I’d wait to see it on Netflix.
Loved watching this. Kind of fell apart for me in the last act and that was disappointing. With an adorable and hilarious credits sequence, though, it was easy to forgive.
Was Really enjoying this film until the ending let all the air out .
As a person whose favorite movie of all time is “E.T”, I get pretty judgmental of all films that claim to be “E.T. for a new generation”… that’s usually just a bunch of bullshit. But I will admit here and now that this movie truly is something close to that. The kids are what really make the film, the casting of the children was absolutely brilliant and all of them made the movie what it is. The story itself, the humor and comedy, the acting, the effects, everything was terrific. Both a family movie and an individual, standing on it’s own. I loved this film. Obviously, unless you’re like, a small child, it won’t scare you, but the important thing to remember is that being scary was not the point of this. It’s very nostalgic, which I loved. And just when you thought it was about to get cheesy and lame, one of the kids popped in with a single line that saved the whole scene. It just was a great film. LOVE.
Boring and lame were the first two words that came to mind when someone asked me if I enjoyed the movie.The movie was too long and I didn’t care for the characters. The ending was bad. It was as if JJ Abrams gave up on the ending. I had high hopes for this movie and was let down. Serious waste of money.
Super 8 is much better when it delivers a coming of age story/drama, character developement and tearjerker than when it delivers the sci-fi/action & adventure elements to the film. The acting was very impressive in this film from all of the mostly unknown child actors with Elle Fanning in her best role to date next to Phoebe In Wonderland and it’s amazing to me that this thirteen year old graces the screen effortlessly like she is a verteran actress, it’s uncanny. The story of forgiveness and letting go overpowers most of the action scenes especially the ending which may bring some viewers to tears and the natural bond between the kids reminded me of classic films like Stand By Me and The Goonies with a dash of Signs, Monsters and E.T. and is mostly like those films than being a full blown thrilling and terrifying sci-fi/action flick and to be honest this is just a retro family film than what trailers lead you to believe. There were a couple of plot holes that bothered me like where did all the missing dogs go? How did the monster get there in the first place and are there more? Was is just a mad science experiment gone wrong? Ect. When it actually shows the monster it wasn’t scary enough and went the King Kong route and made it have feelings which was a tad cheesy and what I’m trying to say is that it didn’t go horror enough with not enough terror and suspense for a monster movie or whatever it was aiming for which I still don’t know because it tried to juggle a bunch of genres at once which in the end kind of played against it and became less effective as it moves along. I liked how it was paying tribute to all of the classic movies of it’s kind of that decade but mabey a little too much because alll it does is make you rememeber the good old days of the movies that you longed for that it tries so hard to become that it doesn’t focus enough on becoming it’s own movie which sooner or later will be forgotten. Overall it was well made and a visual treat for the most part with very likable characters and impressive performances and a involving story with a huge passion for the movies at the handsof the director and producer makes this a genuine homage but not the classic everyone is making it out to be. See it with your family. Make sure you stay for the end credits for a nice little treat.
Beautifully done movie. I would believe this to be an unofficial prequel to cloverfield though Since JJ denied it. I will always love Abrams movies. The characters were captured great and I do not believe that the story dragged on or was slow by any means. But maybe that is because the kids in this movie reminded me of myself when I was younger in film making.
A nice suspense flick with a good story, character development, and a few jumps. Content is tame enough for kids. Good late 70′s atmosphere. Not a true horror movie – but I recommend it.
This one is on the verge of greatness but it’s lacking 2 things:
- More creature action
- More time with the kids that are so likeable
Even still, I highly recommend this flick.
Hobo Approved(TM)
Can We Really Call This Horror? Geeez This Was Sooo Borinq. iAuctually Left The Theater For About 25Mins To Go Get Some McDonalds Across The Street. Nothinq Was Interestinq About This.
If you grew up in the 80s, this movie will strike a nostalgic nerve.
If you’re under the age of 12, this will be the type of movie you remember for the rest of your life.
The kids and their developing relationships are what makes this movie work. The aliens and action pieces are secondary and mostly serve as metaphors for this time of adolescence. If you’re expecting an action-packed sci-fi/alien/thriller, you’ll be tremendously disappointed. Good film.
Things I LOVED about SUPER 8:
- The alien itself was shown just enough. You never get a GOOD look at it until the very end and even then it’s always shrouded in darkness and shadows. It worked in JAWS. It works here. The less you see of something the scarier it is.
- However what you DO see of the alien shows it to be from the same gene pool as the CLOVERFIELD alien. A nice touch that puts this in the same universe as that other Abrams production.
- The alien’s ship at the end bears a striking resemblance to E.T.’s mother ship!
- I LOVED the scene were the power electrician on call (direct copy to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS) is changing a power cord and sees the monster moving in the trees (a direct nod to JURRASIC PARK) and over the radio they call him Brody (a direct name check to JAWS).
- Overlapping dialogue. A staple of Spielberg. People in the foreground having a conversation and another set of characters in the background also have a conversation at the same time, their dialogue overlapping each other even though BOTH conversations are important for the audience to hear. It’s such a simple way to force an audience to lean in and pay attention during “boring exposition” scenes but it works.
- The kids. Man they are perfect. They all seem like real kids just fooling around and not “stage actors” pandering to the camera. The chemistry and camaraderie was genuine and infectious.
- LENS FLAIRS! Lens flair is that streak of light that runs horizontally across the screen when a direct light source is pointed at the camera. It’s technically a mistake in the film development process but Spielberg and others embraced this anomaly and used it as a tool in their filmmaking to help “sell” the fantastical elements of their films. Here Abrams doesn’t just allow lens flairs to creep in; he seems to be specifically LOOKING to incorporate them into almost every shot. It’s an aesthetic choice that many have complained about. I personally LOVE lens flairs and the atmosphere it lends to any given scene.
Things I did not love about SUPER 8:
- The movie spent a good amount of time with the kids AND with the father figure. I feel like neither got the total amount of screen time they deserved to be REALLY well rounded characters. THE GOONIES focused entirely on the kids with the parents showing up in the background. JAWS was about the adults, with the kids in the background. Here J.J. wants us to like the kids AND the parents just as much but in my opinion the film would have been stronger if it lost the negligent father subplot all together and spent 100% of the time with the kids.
- The music was always appropriate and never distracting or bad, but it wasn’t memorable either. The scope and sense of wonder was still conveyed by the amazing actors and the great direction and didn’t need the music to sell its points, but a defining theme was missed.
- The subplot with the dogs was brought up and then dropped just as fast. I got the impression there was a lot of the “b story” that was either truncated or left on the cutting room floor. As it is the movie moves along at a great clip and never gets slow, but a little more clarification on some of those monster related subplots would have helped.
- I know the monster angle was supposed to be vague and I don’t need answers for everything (I prefer when it’s left up to me to decide something) but the monster itself goes from being “threatening” to “sympathetic” and back again a few times and I never really bought it. They talk about this “psychic connection” that is made between the creature and anyone it touches. That is a really cool idea that is brought up and then just kind of dropped. Once again I see why they wanted to stay vague on most of this stuff, but it was so underdeveloped I wish they filled us in more. I guess that might have been their intent?
- The ending has everything, and I mean EVERYTHING wrapped up in a neat and tidy little bow. Is it melodramatic and overwrought? Absolutely. Is it a series of almost unbelievable coincidences all lining up in our protagonists favor? Hell yes. It is appropriate for the type of film this is, and exactly how Spielberg would have ended his movie. I mean the Goonies had a pirate ship and long lost treasure and the cops show up at just the right moment. So if the goonies can have a feel good sappy ending then I guess so can SUPER 8. Even still, it all starts adding up mere moments before the big final here and the ease with which it all works itself out could have been handled with a little more subtlety.
This was definitely NOT what I expected. One of 2011′s most anticipated movies turned out to be a tiresome and underwhelming retro-fest, probably made for nostalgics who constantly claim that movies nowadays aren’t what they used to be back in the golden days.
Pros:
– I loved the performances from the kids, especially Riley Griffiths as hobby-zombie-movie-director, Ryan Lee as hilarious firebug and the gorgeous Elle Fanning as supercool not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman girlie.
– The soundtrack is great; lots of cool 70s tunes from ELO, Blondie and The Knack.
– Larry Fong’s camera work looks just outstanding. Lots of beautiful pictures, lots of fantastic pan shots.
– The train explosion scene is quite amazing.
Cons:
– The movie is sooo incredibly boring and tedious, I almost fell asleep.
Apart from the explosion and 2 or 3 (quite unspectacular) alien attacks, the entire first hour is so incredibly lame, it’s hardly believable. The rest of of the movie is a bit better, but not much. Thank you Mr. Abrams for writing such a lousy script!
– They show sooo little of the alien that by the time when I finally got to see it in its entirety, I already lost interest in it.
– Btw, the alien is actually an unoriginal-looking, unconvinving and forgettable blend of the Cloverfield monster, a giant spider and one of the creatures from “Battle LA”.
– Abrams’ constant Spielberg/80s-cocksuckery was plain annoying.
I mean, come on… Super 8 is actually not more than a blatant E.T. / Close Encounters rip-off, packed with unnecessary nods and reminiscences to Spielberg stuff (Amazing Stories, War Of The Worlds and Jurassic Park come to mind) and other 80s stuff (The Goonies, Twilight Zone, Back To The Future, It, etc. etc.).
– It was also extremely annoying that Super 8 just can’t decide which genre it wants to be: kids movie, science fiction, mystery, comedy, drama, horror, comedy, love story, action…
Abrams threw everything into it, while at the same time completely ignoring the fact that it would benefit the movie if all these genre elements would fit together at least somehow!
– Shooting a 80s retro movie + using super-modern CGI = loss of credibility.
– Oh, I forgot to mention all the countless plot holes, illogicalities and unanswered questions.
What happened to the dogs? Why was the alien in the train? And where was the train heading to? How was it possible that the guy who caused the train wreckage survived? A magnetic pull that pulls off people with guns but not people with necklaces? What’s with the Rubik-cube-thing that escaped through the wall? etc. etc.
– The ending is quite terrible.
To cut a long story short: Super 8 super sucks.
I suggest Abrams to stick to TV productions, and Spielberg to retire. End of story.
3,5/10
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J.J. Abrams tries to be Spielberg but doesn’t quite manage it, what we get instead of a Spielberg movie is an OK kids monster movie, that entertains you, but has dissapointing monster design and a plot as you’ve seen it a 1000 times before. So if you’re bored one night and want to go to the cinema, you can go to Super 8 and expect to be entertained, but please don’t expect this to be Spielberg niveau or anything more than a typical Sommer Blockbuster.
Thought it was awesome, will be buying it on Blu Ray. Go see this film. Nothing more to say.
The PG-13 rating should tell you something. Super 8 was excruciating to watch in it’s pathetic attempt to pay homage to Spielberg’s 80′s magic summer movies of yore. There’s lots of promise here, but Abrams puts the brakes on big time to keep from an R. I’m not buying in to this eye and ear candy. Give me an adult movie not this teeny-bopper fluff.
The acting was brilliant from the whole of the cast, the short film at the end (with the credits) was funny, well crafted and amazing (different need to get me a Super 8 Camera). The storyline of the movie was really good on the mystery and intelligent (loved how they kept the alien a big mystery until you saw it fully at the end), while having the right set of emotions that was brought into this movie, had a few goosebumps, thrills and jump watching at the cinema, with terrific sound effect and the special effects blend in well with the movie. All a fanatics movie from J. J Abrams and Steven Spielberg. Also Got for my brithday a Chinon 44 power zoom super 8 movie camera which I wanted before seeing ‘Super 8′, but I need to have after seeing this cool summer Movie.
For each talented director, there is one film, or perhaps many films, that the man or woman was destined to direct. For J.J. Abrams, director of the recent reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise, his film is “Super 8″. I knew the man was talented as both a writer and a director; a sci-fi geek who is always ready to explode with knowledge and insight. He has a fondness of the works of Steven Spielberg. And now, he’s made a film not only about his fondness, but also his childhood, his life, his emotions, and his career choice; the long, endless road that is filmmaking.
“Super 8″ is a beautiful film. Few movies can make me feel like a young kid, and I like the feeling when a film finally can. If you cherish such a feeling, then you will also cherish “Super 8″. You either resonate with the emotional material present in it or you do not. And if you do, then you may agree with me when I say that “Super 8″ is truly something special. It is not among the typical Summer Blockbusters, yet it is a film of summer. It is unlike anything I have ever seen from Abrams, or perhaps even its genre. It does more than I expected or asked out of it.
I love films about filmmaking. This is another one of the greats in that department. The story begins with the emotional mourning of its central hero, Joe (Joel Courtney). He has just lost his mother to an event that can only be described as an “accident”. Even though he is suffering from such a loss, life moves on. Soon, we learn that Joel and his friends; Charles (Riley Griffiths), Preston (Zach Mills), Martin (Gabriel Basso), and Cary (Ryan Lee), are planning on shooting a zombie movie in their local area to submit to a film festival. For the shoot, they ask Alice (Elle Fanning), a girl who Joel fancies, to play the wife of the film’s character.
On the night of the shoot, things go wrong. A train collides with a truck containing the kids’ science teacher. The train was carrying strange material, and the first thing discovered is a mass amount of small, white cubes; which look like Rubix Cubes, but they cannot be used in the same way. And soon, the U.S. Air Force is in town, investigating. But, what are they investigating? Dogs are disappearing, and so are kitchen appliances, cable wires, and even people. There’s no explanation to how this is happening. I can’t tell you anything else beyond this because that would be spoiling the film, and much like the Abrams-produced “Cloverfield”, the best way to go in is knowing as little as possible.
The title refers to the camera that the young filmmakers of the movie use to film their zombie movie. J.J. Abrams used to make use of the same camera as a kid; going around his yard, and most likely shooting whatever he wanted to. He wanted to make a movie about his childhood past-time, and it was a good idea indeed. The film pays homage to the Steven Spielberg movies that Abrams is most fond of, and it shows. “Super 8″ has the overall “feel” of a 70′s science fiction movie. (Spoiler Alert) Yes, it involves a monster, but unlike many movie monsters, or aliens, Abrams’ creation lingers in the dark, and is left mostly discreet. (End of Spoiler)
Abrams expresses emotions and devotion through cinematography. I wouldn’t have been so touched, say, in the scene where Elle Fanning demonstrates a zombie neck bite on Joel Courtney’s character, if it had been shot typically. But no, it was shot masterfully; focusing on human feelings. And as for the special effects…well, they are awesome, but they don’t invade the screen. The train crash is one of the best I’ve seen.
The kids do a spectacular job. Joel Courtney is effective as the film’s main hero, and so are his friends. Riley Griffiths is very, very funny as the fat, bumbling directorial figure Charles. Elle Fanning is delightfully sweet as Alice. Funniest, and most entertaining of all, is Ryan Lee’s Cary character. The kid is like some off-the-wall psychotic; a child obsessed with fires and explosions. He reminds me of a young Michael Bay, and he garners a lot of the film’s unexpected laughs. Kyle Chandler is also very good as the central kid’s protective and grieving father. And (Spoiler), you’ll never guess who plays the villainous force behind all the mayhem and destruction (end spoiler).
In a world where science fiction films are almost devoid of emotion and ambition, “Super 8″ is simplistic bliss. It understands that with science fiction films, it’s all about the approach, and this is why the film is a great science fiction film; not a bad one like “Battle: LA”, nor a mediocre one like Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds”. Nostalgia is a sweet, sweet sensation like no other. “Super 8″ exists in an era that the audiences of today probably won’t initially warm up to, but it is not made for teenagers, or kids. It is a film made for smart movie-goers; people who grew up with Spielberg, much like Abrams did. I like to think of J.J. as one big nerd; one that also happens to possess the ability and creativity to make movies. The experience of “Super 8″ is unforgettable, and I would gladly see it again to laugh once more, to be thrilled once more, and to observe the visual and emotional creativity present. This is one of the year’s best films.
Pure Spielberg nostalgia. Had it’s share of flaws but I dug it for what it was.
This movie was a tiny bit better than I was expected. It’s like a watered down Stephen King story. The monster/alien was pretty cool looking. It’s big reveal was similar to that of Jaws, they didn’t show it until the middle of the movie. In the early 80′s, a few friends are making a zombie movie with a Super 8 mm camera. When a train derails, an alien breaks loose and creates havoc on the town. I’d probably recommend SUPER 8!!!
I was hoping for more. Plot holes, fake nostalgia. Dissapointed.
I liked the first 3/4 of the film but not the last bit, could have been better
What happens when you get Abrams and Spielberg together? Awesome happens, that’s what. This movie was a fitting tribute to spielberg’s origins–a lot of film maker’s origins–and how far he’s come; we even got a few visits to some old sets to lend to the nostalgia. Myself, I could have done without the whole drama between the two fathers, but I’m told you have to have human conflict to add interest in movies (…couldn’t more alien vs human conflict be substituted in instead?). It was a sweet romance though, with some well written kid characters with some GREAT lines (“Drugs are so bad!”). The ending, I could have done without. It just… the rest of the movie was so intense, and then that. Not my fave, but the rest of the movie, A plus.
Much credit has been given to Super 8 purely on account of how much it reminds the reviewer of ’80s Spielberg classics.
I can definitely see this, it reminded me of ET and The Goonies.
The sense of wonder was established early on, and I couldn’t wait to see where the film took me.
All the kids were fantastic, truly talented actors and actresses.
But.
All of that can’t save a movie that refuses to finish in the third act what it started in the first act and maintained in the second act.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
The alien is portrayed as a malevolent, destructive and terrifying presence throughout the first 80 minutes of the movie. This is actually the entire point of the first 80 minutes of the movie – to show there is something weird and dangerous in the town, and that it needs to be identified and stopped.
In the last 30 minutes, the film shits itself. It becomes about the boys helping this enormous, dangerous alien get home.
I give a fuck if Abrams was trying for nostalgia; that doesn’t mean shit when it comes to telling a story, much less completing one.
Then again, I think the audience that the movie was designed for really liked it, so…mission accomplished, I guess. Most of them still think Spielberg directed it.