Film Review: Super 8

Do you remember the magical feeling you had when you watched films like Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, E.T., Stand By Me and The Goonies for the first time? That's Super 8, and probably that is the best compliment I can come up with. And seeing as Super 8 is produced by Steven Spielberg, who directed CE3K and E.T., and produced The Goonies, it's hardly surprising.

It's also no surprise that director J.J.Abrams considers Super 8 as a homage to the films above, it's plain to see in the plot - it's 1979 (we think, the exact placing of the film is slightly ambiguous) and some kids are shooting a Super 8 film for a school competition when they witness a huge train crash involving a military transport train and a vehicle. The army is called in, and strange events start occurring as the kids try and uncover the trains mysterious cargo. But there's more to the film than mere supernatural events. Like any shining example of this type of film, it's about the people and their relationships with each other.

The main protagonist in the film is Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney, in his film debut) who recently lost his Mother in an unspecified work accident.Living with his deputy sheriff  father, who holds a grudge against Louis Dainard, father of Alice (Elle Fanning), who Joe starts to become rather sweet on her, much to both fathers dismay.

Unlike most films, the kids in Super 8 are all fantastic, again drawing comparisons with the films mentioned above. They are all likable, and it's the little things like them swearing. Kids swear, and a lot of films don't seem to recognise this. Not taking anything away from the adult cast, they too are great in their roles, but this is about the adventure the kids have more than anything.

It also has the same kind of humour running throughout, the funniest moments are undoubtedly from Donny (David Gallagher), a stoner who ends up helping the kids, he gets some great lines during his short appearance.

Some may call it cynical to set the movie in the late 70s/early 80s so that it would illicit memories of the classic Spielberg films, but I can't see it having any of it's charm if it were set in the present day. It was seemingly a more innocent time back, and today people are just nastier. Sad, but true.

It almost seems like a case of having to go backwards to go forwards. With constant sequels, prequels, reboots dominating the Summer, it's a film that pays tribute to the blockbusters of yesterday that has become (so far) the best film of THIS Summer in my mind. It's got everything drivel like Transformers and Pirates Of The Caribbean didn't have, likable characters, originality (it's not too much like CE3K etc. for it to be a rip off) and most of all heart, you care about whats happening on screen.

My only complaint was that it wasn't longer, a disappointed groan came up from me when the credits started rolling, but stay tuned at the end for the film the kids were making is shown, and even that was more entertaining than most of what the studios have offered up this Summer.

As a side note, I normally include images from the films above, but the poster, which is an obvious tribute to the work of Drew Struzan (it could even be one of his), who mad the posters for classics like Blade Runner, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and erm...the Police Academy series. It's a great poster, anyway.

*****
A classic to rival the best vintage Spielberg film, J.J. Abrams just nailed it, with a little help from the man himself I would imagine. It's not often you get this kind of feeling in the cinema these days, a very special film indeed.