Back from Super 8
I work up this morning to an email saying I could go see Super 8; the new movie from JJ Abrams creator of LOST, Alias, and director of the recent Star Trek reboot, in IMAX Fake IMAX a day before it comes out. It appears that they are doing a heavy Twitter and Facebook campaign due to fears that people don’t know enough about the movie, partly due to the cryptic trailers that show very little about the film. Well seeing a movie early is always fun in my book, so they sold me and I was quite happy with the movie. WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!
JJ Abrams homage to Steven Spielberg is a quality movie that harkens back to some of those great kids movies of the 1980′s (Flight of the Navigator, Explorers, The Goonies) with more explosions. The characters and the pacing are right on par with your kids involved in extraordinary circumstances and triumph in the end. It was nice to see real kids play the roles in a movie not scared of being more mature for kids, which is where memories of E.T., The Goonies, and other kid movies of the 80′s really hit home. This isn’t a kids movie like iCarly or Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. It is dark. The kids swear. People die. Nothing graphic, though it does have tense moments due to your typical Hollywood magic (movie gets quiet and there is a monster and loud sound!). The first hour or so of the movie is strong and feels much like JAWS. Abrams paces the film well not letting you see the monster, but the last 30 minutes fall flat. In the confrontation between the lead character and the monster (this kid is stronger then everyone thinks) he just yells at the monster and they have a heartfelt chat telepathically that the monster should just go home, not kill him and his friends, and should just go home. Which is what happens.
Overall Super 8 is offspring of someone who watched E.T. and JAWS too many times. While the ending leaves a little to be desired, the overall film is worth seeing.
