Super 8 is the newest film written and directed by J. J. Abrams, starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Gabriel Basso, Kyle Chandler, Noah Emmerich and Jessica Tuck.
Plot:
Joe (Joel Courtney) recently lost his mother and his relationship with his father (Kyle Chandler) is strained. So it’s not really surprising that he spends most of his time with his friends. Charles (Riley Griffiths) is shooting a movie, where Joe does the make-up, special effects and audio. When Charles casts Alice (Elle Fanning), Joe is electrified. But during their first shoot together, they witness a train derailing – and something escapes that train. The military moves in quickly and weird things start happening.
The kids were adorable and I could have watched three films about Joe and Alice, easily. But (and I know I just said basically the same thing yesterday): the monster part seemed out of place and didn’t work for me. Apart from that, I liked it.
The parts of the film about the kids who shoot their movie [which is pretty damn awesome and made my amateur-filmmaker-self insanely jealous of their make-up and special effects] is wonderful and feels extremely honest, if tinged with a shitload of nostalgia. And that’s not even mentioning the result: The Case is a wonderful short zombie film which I was very grateful we got to see during the credits.
And the story between Joe and Alice was very cute. Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning work really well together. Elle Fanning was generally very impressive and definitely the best thing about the film. Too bad (and annoying as hell) that she gets conveniently kidnapped for a third of the film. But otherwise there would have been no girl to save, which no movie can do without.
As soon as the film moves away from the kids and to the alien, it kept losing my interest though. I didn’t care about the alien, and the ending really didn’t work for me. It was tack-overkill.
J. J. Abrams proves once again that he is an excellent pacer (and that he just really loves lense flares. Completely random, computer-animated lense flares). He also shows a very nice sensibility when it comes to showing the kids’ relationship with each other.
Summarising: If it wasn’t for the monster film butting in, this would have been excellent. As is, it’s alright.
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[…] it’s completely obvious where J. C. Abrams gets his love for lens flares from. […]
I absolutely loved the ending. Especially because nowadays in movies, they so very often tack another “wrap-up” scene on, with people discussing what happened, and a “Kirk/Spock/McCoy on the bridge”-like last minute joke. “Super 8” endet exactly where it hoped it would end. And I found it really poignant and quite moving. Yes, it wasn’t very subtle. But I thought it was handled really well.
I have to agree with you about the monster, though. I really didn’t care for its design, and for me, it was the only real letdown of the movie. Far from those classic designs like “Alien” and so on. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you right now what it looked like. Other than that, I loved everything about this movie. For me, it’s still the best blockbuster of 2011.
In case you’re interested -> http://www.fictionbox.de/index.php/content/view/10899/88888942/
I have to admit that I barely remember what the ending was. But I’ll trust my past self when she says that it didn’t work for us. ;)
I just scrolled through my 2011 tag to see what the best blockbuster that year would be for me. And just considering movies that are unquestionably blockbusters there are several I liked way more:
Captain America. Hugo. J. Edgar. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Cowboys & Aliens. Rise of the Planets of the Apes. Kung Fu Panda 2.
Hell, even The Muppets was better than this film. And that is only going back to August. Mind you, those are not necessarily good films, but films I liked and enjoyed more than Super 8.