Super 8 (2011)

Studio: Paramount Pictures/Bad Robot

Theatrical Release: June 10, 2011

PG-13

Review by James Klein

I have no problem with movie directors paying homage to certain films or genres. I love early Brian De Palma films like Sisters, Dressed to Kill, and Blow Out which pay huge homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Quentin Tarantino pays homage to almost every movie he's ever seen. Even a lot of zombie films that have come out in the recent years all seem to borrow something from George Romero's Dead films. And now J.J. Abrams is doing a film much like an old Steven Spielberg film. I'm not talking about War of the Worlds/The Terminal/Amistad Spielberg. I'm talking about Close Encounters/E.T. Spielberg. Abrams even goes so far as to get Spielberg himself to be the Executive Producer. Abrams does capture the style and feel of a Spielberg film (there is one shot in Super 8 that shows the small town from a hill top that is taken directly out of E.T.) What Abrams doesn't capture is the feel of awe, a sense of wonder, that Spielberg was able to do all through the 70's, 80's and 90's. Super 8 is just not super enough.

The best part of the film is the first half of the film. Right away, the audience is pulled in with these great, fleshed out characters. The star of the film is Joe, (played by Joel Courtney, his first film and hopefully not his last) a junior high school boy who loves monster make up effects and is helping his friend Charles finish his short film that summer of 1979. Joe is just coming off the death of his mother and lives with his father who is a deputy police officer in the small town. When Joe, Charles and their friends accompanied by Alice, the girl whose father was involved in the accidental death of Joe's mother are out late one night shooting their movie at a train station, they see a truck jump the train tracks and head right at the train in almost a suicide attempt. The train is destroyed and something that was inside one of the train cars escapes. Soon, the residents are disappearing as this creature is terrorizing the small town and Joe's father is soon in charge of the manhunt. When the military gets involved, they find out that this creature has been here for many years.

What makes Super 8 enjoyable are the fantastic actors, almost all of them unknown. The young children are great and while I normally get annoyed with a lot of young actors who seem to be trying too hard or come off as cutesy and sweet, these characters seem like real 12 -14 year old kids. I was really captivated by these kids trying to make their zombie film and how they went about making their little movie. I almost wish the film dealt with these kids and their lives and left the monster stuff out. It's as if JJ Abrams realized he had to make the film into a sci-fi/horror movie and threw in this creature at the last minute. Once the threat of this monster begins, I slowly lost interest and just didn't care anymore. The subplot involving Joe's dead mother went from sad to melodramatic and cheesy. The film had some laughs with the kids but took itself seriously until half way thru the film when they introduced this stoner teen who was spouting off one-liners left and right. Even the ending seems abrupt as if something was edited out of the final cut. For me, the film collapsed on itself and I kept wondering when the movie was going to end.

Super 8 is not a bad film by any means. It is well acted and the first half of the movie really had me pulled in. But once the CGI creature shows up and the evil military soldiers arrive, the movie turned predictable, lame and boring. I simply didn't care what was happening on the screen anymore. I almost wish the real Spielberg could have taken over the director reins on this and maybe pull out a much better film, or at least a better second half. Because Super 8 is super mediocre.