Super 8 Review

Super 8 Review
What exactly is Super 8. Is it a monster movie?...Yes.  Is it about aliens?...Yes. Is it a coming of age story?...Yes. Is it a military thriller?...Yes.  Some how this movie is an amalgam of several different genres and styles. It is going to be one of those great summer movies because it mimics classic films in each of these genres perfectly.

If you love E.T. Jurassic Park, The Goonies, Jaws, and Close Encounters, you will love Super 8.  The film deliberately and unapologetically steals tone, tempo, and technique from all of these films. Despite being completely unoriginal the film works brilliantly as an homage to all of these past films.  You hold a special place in your heart for films like E.T. and The Goonies, for whatever reason they resonate with you, and because this film is so reminiscent of those classics you will love this movie.

Most impressive to me in the movie was the fact that for a movie about kids, I genuinely and sincerely feared for these kids safety. Today's kid friendly adventures are way too easy.  Like children of this generation they are soft, and squishy. There is no true danger, but Super 8 puts our children in real and frightening jeopardy.  The much publicized train wreck is so much more intense, and real than the trailers teased us with, and the violent nature of both the human characters and the alien menace are just as nerve-racking. I still struggle with what was more believable, the creature or the fact that the kids survived with not much more than dirty faces, and a scrapped knee.

The creature in this movie, just like the shark in Jaws, is most effective when you cannot see it.  Once the proverbial cat is out of the proverbial bag, and we get a real good look at the monster, the creature looses is fear factor, and becomes less frightening and more foolish. I realize that J.J. Abrams purposely allows this to happen because at that point in the film we are meant to understand the creature, to sympathize with it, and realize that its just misunderstood, and shouldn't be scary at all. Of course that is difficult for us as an audience to do, especially when we spend the better part of an hour and a half scared to death of the beast.

I loved Super 8. I loved it despite the horrible 1950's B-movie style monster. I loved it despite being a complete rip off of other influential movies of my past.  I really loved it because the real heart of the movie lies in the young actors that portray the cinephiles, the group that only wants to make a zombie movie, and finds themselves embroiled and intwined in a military conspiracy.  The story of these kids, dealing with the events around them, and growing up in the midst of all this chaos is where the movie shines.

If I was a kid today, and I had never experienced the 1980s classics that were dangerous, and scary and oh yeah involved kids, then Super 8 would be an awesome experience, full of thrills, jumps and jolts. And if I was a good parent to a kid today, after I we saw Super 8 I would turn to that kid and say, are you ready to be really blown away? Then I would proceed to show him all the classic and unforgettable films that influenced and built Super 8.