By Chip Schrader
Movie Reviewer
“Super 8” begins with a high angle shot overlooking a factory with a sign that reads “Safety is our first priority.” A man is on the right taking off the numbers 784 and replacing them with 1 to signify the number of days without an accident. The scene shifts to a middle school-aged kid sitting on a swing with a locket in his hand. His friends are gathered inside with the rest of the mourners wondering if he will still want to work on his zombie movie project, even if his mother his dead. A man comes to the wake to mourn and is removed in handcuffs.
“Super 8” takes viewers back to the 1980s, a time when producer Steven Spielberg was in his prime, directing or producing blockbusters like “Goonies,” “Poltergeist,” and “E.T.” Old time Spielberg fans have waited for the day that he would ditch Tom Cruise and work on another movie centered on children and the classical form of science fiction that made him famous, namely “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Like Spielberg in the past, director J.J. Abrams directs the children in “Super 8” so well; the movie takes off and never lands.
Kids in backpacks riding their bikes through a suburban town marks a period of time when Internet and social networking has not spoiled childhood. The boys are out with their super 8 camera shooting that zombie flick they were talking about in the first scene.
The crew consists of five boys. Throughout the movie, only three have predominant roles: Joe, the sensitive child of the woman who died; Charlie, the wannabe film director and Cary, that kid that wants to blow things up. They are eventually joined by a talented girl, Alice, who aspires to be an actress.
The kids are very funny in this movie, and it has been a long time since such a fun story has been united with this caliber of acting. To dig too deep into the story would be to spoil the whole experience, but anybody who has a love for the old creature features will love this movie. The camera angles are dynamic and exciting, the special effects and action are wildly entertaining, and the story is interesting.
There are some flaws, though. Loose ends are either untied or unsatisfactorily resolved as the movie wraps up. One instance of this is that we never really discover why the dogs ran off just before the town turns into a war zone, nor do we see their reunion with the family. Instead, we just see a scene where we learn over a phone call that Joe’s dog, Lucy, was found in the next county.
There are also characters that vanish, and we never see their story completed. At 112 minutes, the movie could use at least another 20 minutes to more deeply explore the characters, only because they are so interesting.
Bottom line: long-time movie fans have waited twenty years for this film. It may have its flaws, but the movie is so entertaining that nobody cares; it just ends far too soon. This is Spielberg’s best project since “Schindler’s List,” and this film will propel J.J. Abrams’ career as a director.
The kids are all believable and funny in this movie, and young starlet Elle Fanning is unbelievably good. Her scenes with Joe take us all back to a time of our first crushes, so much so that the viewer can feel that pang that hasn’t been felt in years. The action sequences are intense and the language may deter the younger audiences, but this is the way movies used to be, and this will hopefully be the beginning of the end of corny and sanitized youth movies. 5 out of 5.
Photo caption: (Courtesy movie poster)
Movie Reviewer
“Super 8” begins with a high angle shot overlooking a factory with a sign that reads “Safety is our first priority.” A man is on the right taking off the numbers 784 and replacing them with 1 to signify the number of days without an accident. The scene shifts to a middle school-aged kid sitting on a swing with a locket in his hand. His friends are gathered inside with the rest of the mourners wondering if he will still want to work on his zombie movie project, even if his mother his dead. A man comes to the wake to mourn and is removed in handcuffs.
“Super 8” takes viewers back to the 1980s, a time when producer Steven Spielberg was in his prime, directing or producing blockbusters like “Goonies,” “Poltergeist,” and “E.T.” Old time Spielberg fans have waited for the day that he would ditch Tom Cruise and work on another movie centered on children and the classical form of science fiction that made him famous, namely “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Like Spielberg in the past, director J.J. Abrams directs the children in “Super 8” so well; the movie takes off and never lands.
Kids in backpacks riding their bikes through a suburban town marks a period of time when Internet and social networking has not spoiled childhood. The boys are out with their super 8 camera shooting that zombie flick they were talking about in the first scene.
The crew consists of five boys. Throughout the movie, only three have predominant roles: Joe, the sensitive child of the woman who died; Charlie, the wannabe film director and Cary, that kid that wants to blow things up. They are eventually joined by a talented girl, Alice, who aspires to be an actress.
The kids are very funny in this movie, and it has been a long time since such a fun story has been united with this caliber of acting. To dig too deep into the story would be to spoil the whole experience, but anybody who has a love for the old creature features will love this movie. The camera angles are dynamic and exciting, the special effects and action are wildly entertaining, and the story is interesting.
There are some flaws, though. Loose ends are either untied or unsatisfactorily resolved as the movie wraps up. One instance of this is that we never really discover why the dogs ran off just before the town turns into a war zone, nor do we see their reunion with the family. Instead, we just see a scene where we learn over a phone call that Joe’s dog, Lucy, was found in the next county.
There are also characters that vanish, and we never see their story completed. At 112 minutes, the movie could use at least another 20 minutes to more deeply explore the characters, only because they are so interesting.
Bottom line: long-time movie fans have waited twenty years for this film. It may have its flaws, but the movie is so entertaining that nobody cares; it just ends far too soon. This is Spielberg’s best project since “Schindler’s List,” and this film will propel J.J. Abrams’ career as a director.
The kids are all believable and funny in this movie, and young starlet Elle Fanning is unbelievably good. Her scenes with Joe take us all back to a time of our first crushes, so much so that the viewer can feel that pang that hasn’t been felt in years. The action sequences are intense and the language may deter the younger audiences, but this is the way movies used to be, and this will hopefully be the beginning of the end of corny and sanitized youth movies. 5 out of 5.
Photo caption: (Courtesy movie poster)
