Super 8

Back in the laste 70's and early 80's, blockbusters had heart and soul to go with their then mega bucks movies. Super 8 returns to such innocent times, delivering bang for buck but-first, foremost-respecting the old fashioned concept like, y'know, character emotion, story telling, something that most summer blockbusters are void of.
It's creator is, of course, J.J.Abrams, the guy who brought us Lost, unleashed the beast in Cloverfield, put Mission Impossible firmly back on track with the excellent M:I:3 and the best reboot ever in the outstanding Startrek (2009).
Super 8 is his personal project much as was E.T. to Steven Speilberg who here co-producers.
Set in 1979 tells the story of movie obsessed Charles (Riley Griffiths) and best friend Joe ( Joel Courtney), the leaders of a group of kids who run around town shooting a zombie epic on a Eumig Super 8mm camera. Sneaking from thir beds to film a night scene at the local train station. They continue to roll as a U.S Air Force freight train charges past and crashes explosively, then things get weird. Generators and car enigines burn out, power cables and microwaves disappear. The town's dog's hightail to neighbouring counties. And Miltary roll in....... and I don't want to spoil the rest!
All I want to say is that Super 8 owes as much to our childhood as monster movies of the past, it's inevitable it should look and feel like an early Spielberg movie. It feels like a hybrid of Close Encounters, E.T., Polterguist, Gremlins, Back To The Future and The Goonies, and this is the key to the films success, as not only are the cast faultless the film offers the perfect balance of thrills and chills the film should resonate as much as the listed family classics did for us as kids for the youth of today.
This is a perfect reminder of what made a young Spielberg the top of his game and the potential J.J. Abrams has to become the next Speilberg of today's generation.
This is a perfect mash-up of 50's sci-fi, 80's event movie and childhood innocence that leaves most of the summer blockbusters in it's wake.
An instant classic!
See if you like.....
E.T.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
Jaws
Polterguist.
Gremlins.
The Goonies.
Back To The Future.
The Lost Boys.
The Monster Squad.
Stand By Me.

Back in the laste 70's and early 80's, blockbusters had heart and soul to go with their then mega bucks movies. Super 8 returns to such innocent times, delivering bang for buck but-first, foremost-respecting the old fashioned concept like, y'know, character emotion, story telling, something that most summer blockbusters are void of.
It's creator is, of course, J.J.Abrams, the guy who brought us Lost, unleashed the beast in Cloverfield, put Mission Impossible firmly back on track with the excellent M:I:3 and the best reboot ever in the outstanding Startrek (2009).
Super 8 is his personal project much as was E.T. to Steven Speilberg who here co-producers.
Set in 1979 tells the story of movie obsessed Charles (Riley Griffiths) and best friend Joe ( Joel Courtney), the leaders of a group of kids who run around town shooting a zombie epic on a Eumig Super 8mm camera. Sneaking from thir beds to film a night scene at the local train station. They continue to roll as a U.S Air Force freight train charges past and crashes explosively, then things get weird. Generators and car enigines burn out, power cables and microwaves disappear. The town's dog's hightail to neighbouring counties. And Miltary roll in....... and I don't want to spoil the rest!
All I want to say is that Super 8 owes as much to our childhood as monster movies of the past, it's inevitable it should look and feel like an early Spielberg movie. It feels like a hybrid of Close Encounters, E.T., Polterguist, Gremlins, Back To The Future and The Goonies, and this is the key to the films success, as not only are the cast faultless the film offers the perfect balance of thrills and chills the film should resonate as much as the listed family classics did for us as kids for the youth of today.
This is a perfect reminder of what made a young Spielberg the top of his game and the potential J.J. Abrams has to become the next Speilberg of today's generation.
This is a perfect mash-up of 50's sci-fi, 80's event movie and childhood innocence that leaves most of the summer blockbusters in it's wake.
An instant classic!
See if you like.....
E.T.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
Jaws
Polterguist.
Gremlins.
The Goonies.
Back To The Future.
The Lost Boys.
The Monster Squad.
Stand By Me.

By a country mile, this was my favourite blockbuster of 2011 and just like in 2009, my favourite blockbuster of the year comes from the hands of J.J. Abrams, delivering a fairly obvious but nontheless superbly done homage to early Spielberg and the Amblin films of the 70s and 80s.

Set in 1979, it follows fourteen year old Joe (an astonishingly good debut by Joel Courtney) who lost his mother in an industrial accident a few months before. Becoming more estranged from his police officer father (Kyle Chandler) he's investing his time with his friends as they work on their friend Riley's dream of making a zombie movie to enter into a local competition. As ever, a girl figures to complicate matters in the form of Alice (an excellent Elle Fanning). However, one night when sneaking out to film at a local train station their lives are shifted when a massive derailment right in front of them brings mystery........and the military into their town.

As mysterious events begin to happen in the town, Joel and his friends may just end up being the only people to be able to understand just what was onboard the train that the military seem intent on finding.............

Yes, it's a mish-mash of Close Encounters/E.T/The Goonies as blended by Abrams and his little mystery moments etc and if that's a criticism of it then that's exactly what WORKS about it and actually elevates above the glut of sequels, superhero's and 3D hollow pretences at entertainment out there. This is a good, old-fashioned family flick with characters that Abrams spends some time letting you get to know, letting you get into their world and into their lives. The kids are incredible together and they feel like a bunch of real friends messing around and having a great time. All the while Abrams strings out the emerging mysteries in the town in the background before bringing them together towards the end. The emotional part of the story is pretty obviously done, but it's also effective because you care about the people anyway. It's simple.................but simple works.

Plus it still has it's share of visual effects (the train crash is a spectacularly OTT moment and more effects come in at the finale as well and look great) and explosions as well, alongside another great score by Micheal Giaccino.

OK, so I do have a couple of gripes about the film (the surviving of the train crash at the start is fairly unlikely for one character, and I would maybe have liked the alien's dimensions to be a little more manageable) and it's far from flawless........BUT.......the whole of Super 8 itself is so wonderful and likeable that these are small cracks of a price to pay to be briefly transported back to a time when movies made you feel something about the people at the heart of it rather than solely bombard you with nothing but CGI.

For that, I for one, am very happy that Abrams got to make his homage to his idol if this is the result.

was wary of getting this film as never been a fan of sugar coated films like ET. a shouldnt have worried cos although similar in that group of kids meet an alien that wants to get home , it differs in the kids are more mature as actors , alien isnt cuddly, and it may be to scarey for smaller children, a quite enjoyed this film and it is a return to family sci-fi, for todays families.

this film was everything i like about Steven Spielberg. It was ET THE GOONIES CLOSE ENCOUNTERS JURASSIC ALL ROLLED INTO ONE. THE YOUNG ACTORS ESPECIALLY THE LEADING BOY AND LEADING GIRL WERE AMAZING. BUY IT!