If you have been following the site for a while now, you should know that my most anticipated film of the year is Super 8, directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. In case you haven’t been following the films viral marketing, Paramount put on a contest via Twitter Tuesday and gave fans the opportunity to “win” tickets to a special screening of the film last night. The film was show in 12 cities across the US and the studio provided those in attendance with concessions, movie posters and t-shirts for the film. Fortunately I was able to win a few tickets to the Dallas screening and I must say, even though I had to wait in line for a while, Super 8 was thus far the best movie of the summer. Not to mention there was a special message before the film from Mr. Abrams himself which was pretty cool.
Without giving too much away, Super 8 is best described as a mash-up of The Goonies, E.T. and Close Encounters with some JJ Abrams magic. Super 8 is about a group of kids filming a zombie movie for a film festival and happen to catch an Air Force train being derailed and something escaping from one of the cargo trains on their Super 8 camera. Strange things begin to happen around town i.e, the town’s dogs all go missing, people are being reported as missing, electronics and power keep disappearing and, most importantly, the military has overtaken the small Ohio town looking for “Something”. The military won’t disclose what they are looking for, but the children soon realize that whatever the military is looking for, it is definitely not from this world.
This film literally has everything in it, suspense, mystery, romance, tragedy, comedy, whatever it is you are looking for in a film, Super 8 has it. I think the one thing that really makes the movie is the fact that once again, Abrams was able to prove that you can make a Hollywood Blockbuster with an original idea. In an industry where remakes, reboots and retellings are pretty much king right now, Abrams and Spielberg manage to bring something back to the big screens that has been missing since the 80’s.
Spielberg is everywhere in the film and I loved it, it just feels like you have taken a step back in time when films like Close encounter and E.T were staple points in the industry. For being shot under $50 million, the film really capitalized on the effects and showed that it doesn’t take $100 million + to make a great special effects film. The only issue I had with the cinematography of the film was that there were a lot of camera flares in the film and made some of the scene difficult to see what was going on. This could very well be due to the film being a digital copy as oppose to a reel, however, this is something to easily get over and doesn’t ruin the film.
The effects and scenery were great, but what really made the film memorable, were the kids. Abrams wanted to use unknown child actors and actresses for the film to help shroud the mystery and I think this was a terrific idea. For most of the children, this was their first film and by their performance, you would think they are seasoned veterans. The group was made up of Joel Courtney,Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Riley Griffiths, Gabriel Basso and Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning‘s little sister). Joel, Riley and Elle were awesome in the film, Riley provided just the right amount of humor mixed with seriousness in the film to make him, in my opinion, the most memorable character in the film. While Joel is the focal point of the film, I wouldn’t have minded seeing a little more of Riley and his outlook on the situations.
Overall, the movie was a success. It made adults feel like kids again. How many films can say they are able to do that? I hope with the kick up in promotion and trying to make more people aware of the film, that this becomes as successful as it deserves to be. J.J. you did it again! Oh yeah, in typical J.J fashion, if you follow his work closely you will know that he loves placing his make believe slushy brand, Slusho, in all of his work. I won’t tell you where it is, but I will say it’s there and it’s early in the movie, so keep your eyes peeled. Also be sure to stay during the credits for an entertaining little treat.
Rating: Emotional ride from beginning to end and a new idea in an industry full or remakes and old ideas. 9/10
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