Super 8

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Belinda, Paul, Alex, Kyla

Yay!

So this is a much more intimate little character coming of age story than you might think. The Monster stuff is only a very tiny part of the film and you barely see him anyway. Actually half way through you forget about it altogether and then he feels a little out of place at the end in this nostalgic little first romance tale. It's like someone replaced the dead body in Stand By Me with the Cloverfield monster's younger brother, I think that's the best way to describe it.

Elle Fanning is just great in this. She was one of the few reasons I didn't kill myself sitting through Somewhere and was fantastic in the criminally underseen Phoebe in Wonderland and here she someone you can see yourself falling for and doing whatever it took to keep her safe.

The group of friends are great too. They use bad language and talk over one another, like kids used to in films. It's refreshing, fun and relatable. I also have to admit geeking out over them making a zombie movie on Super 8 film. Damn I wish I grew up in a decade and a half earlier.

There are a lot of Spielbergian filmic signposts throughout the film. They do manage to invoke a sense of nostalgia from me but I don't see it as just a cheep knock off, most of them are just a kind of feeling or similar situation that's evoked. Mainly to do with the monster attacks and some of the family dinner scenes.

Still it's a very J.J. Abrams movie. I cant help but look at the design of those strange cubes and think of some other kind of Rambaldi Device macguffin.

The main problem is the two story elements, The kids movie coming of age and the Monster story, are quite disparate. They don't ever gel that well together except when one is used to heighten the other at the end. You can kind of tell they were two separate film ideas they mushed together in the script. But to be honest I don't mind so much, I've been brainwashed to love most anything J.J. does, ever since I first was him in a small role in Six Degrees of Separation.

There are also a few choice funny moments, I really love the stoner at the photo lab, he was delightful. The greatest bit is they actually play the whole zombie film during the credits. Brilliant.

No doubt I'll be seeing this again very soon so I'll probably have more thoughts then. Just know for now, it's not Transformers or a big action blockbuster, temper your expectations and you will probably find yourself enjoying the hell out of this.