Movie Review: ‘SUPER 8’

No doubt, J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 is one of the most anticipated films of the summer.  Some may say that it is the kickoff of the summer blockbusters.  The general public seems to be interested in it and sci-fi/genre fans are interested as well considering J.J.’s contributions to the Star Trek franchise as well as co-creating Lost.  Beyond the break, you can find out if this flick is worth your sweaty, summer cash.

Super 8 is J.J. Abrams’ first non franchise film and will obviously be used as example towards his filmmaking career.  The film focuses on a group of young boys trying to complete their zombie/ghoul magnum opus filmed on Super 8mm.  While shooting a scene with the group newcomer Alice Dainard at a train station, an accident happens and the train derails.  One kid, our main character, Joe Lamb, noticed prior to the derailment that it was caused by a pickup truck that headed straight on with the front of the train.  It is then realized upon Joe and his group of friends that this was no accident.  As Joe digs deeper in the explanation, his town is overrun by military personel while he tries to juggle a possible romantic entanglement with Alice.  There is some baggage with Alice, more specifically with Alice’s father and the Lamb family.  I could state it, as the film addresses it immediately but I don’t want to give everything away.  After all, the advertising of the film sells you on mystery and the “what is it” factor of old sci-fi films.

It is obvious that Steven Spielberg has quite a heavy hand in this film, intentionally or unintentionally.  Not as much as Poltergeist maybe where the majority of the film lost some of Hooper’s signature flavor.  You can still tell Abrams, in his short career, is the man behind the camera.  Lens flares and all, Abrams directed the flick.  What is unknown is if this was a tribute to Spielberg films prior to production or if it evolved that way.

One of my biggest problems with Super 8 was that it seemed to rely too much on other 80’s childhood, coming of age films like E.T., The Goonies, and Stand By Me.  This wouldn’t normally be a bad thing if he struck those heart chords that must be struck, but Super 8 feels like a shell of a Spielberg, or hell, a family adventure/coming of age film.

The kids in this film are great.  Elle Fanning & newcomer Joel Courtney especially.  The other kids in the group are charming, especially Ryan Lee as Cary.  However, the story rests solely on Fanning’s Dainard and Courtney’s Joe Lamb.  Their scenes of friendship and possible love are the emotional ties to the film, which I found more intriging than the monster aspect or even the other kids.  There were times when I just wanted to stop all the action scenes from progressing and focus on these two characters.

However, Abrams doesn’t focus too much on the other kids once the monster from the train is loose on the town.  They almost become throwaway characters (Truth: I had to look at imdb.com to what some of the kids’ names were).  So much time is invested on the fact of showing as little as possible of the monster and the fathers of the Dainard and Lamb household that at times it seems to unbalanced.  Not to mention, the look of the film with those damn flares.  Look Abrams, I like what you are doing with your stories, but you need to lay off the visual trickery.  There is already a man that has made lens flares his signature and his name is John Carpenter.

Overall, Super 8 is an uneven but entertaining film and one that features some intense, but quick thrill sequences.  Will it be lumped into the group of the past films I mentioned?  Nah.  However, it is nice to see something different being nowadays and more focus on character development than just a monster flick.

Also, kudos for getting the kids to say the word “shit” as many times as you can – if not more than what might be allowed (queue Spielberg pull on MPAA) – in a PG-13 film.