Review 245: Super 8
In the summer of 1979, six friends, Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths), Preston (Zach Mills), Martin (Gabriel Basso), Cary (Ryan Lee) and Alice (Elle Fanning), spend their time making a zombie movie with an 8mm camera. Joe does the make-up and he tales a liking to Alice who has only recently joined the group. While filming at the local railway depot, they see one of their teachers, Dr. Woodward (Glynn Turman), turn his truck onto the track and drive into an oncoming train which derails. As they continue trying to make their film, they realize that an extra-terrestrial was being carried on that train and is now loose in the community.
The plot is beautiful blend of action, suspense, humor, drama, visual dazzle and emotional depth and generally just everything you could want form a classic science fiction film. This is beautiful, gorgeous, facinating, poetic often scary tribute to vintage sci fi Steven Spielberg (who is also the producer) classic summer blockbusters such as E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, The Goonies and Cloverfield and it deals with similar themes to classic Speielberg sci fi films such as friendship, alienation by the loss of a parent, denial, youth spiritual yearning, family, love, coming of age and aliens trying to get home. It's also a nostalgic film: a film that takes us back in time to era when Walkmans were the cutting edge of technology and and children relied on walkie-talkies to comunicate to each other. So it kind of reminds us of the limited tech there was in that era.
It's a film made by a man who loves films for people who loves films and there are just so many things that children, teens as well as myself can relate to such as the kids making the film with their Super 8 camera and a great thing adults can reflect on, it's just so accurate to how kids when they get hold of a camera and realize what they can do with it.
Friendship: Some of the movie is about six friends who go out to make their own Zombie film to enter into an international film competition
Alienation by the loss of a parent: At the start of the film we meet Joe and his dad, Jack (Kyle Chandler) as broken people who are mourning the death of Joe's mum who died in a factory accident and Jack blames his wife's co-worker, Louis Dainard (Ron Eldard), for her death, as she was covering his shift while he was recovering from intoxication the night before.
Denial:Similar to Jaws Colonel Nelec (Noah Emmerich) takes action to clear people away form danger.
Encounter with aliens form other worlds: Just like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Super 8 suggests that humankind has reached the point where it is ready to enter the community of the cosmos.
Youth Spiritual Yearning: As Joe and his friends learn more about the alien they kind of grow up and Joe I think lets go of the sorrow he has for his mom and just Barry in Close Encounters of the Third Kind they serve as a motif for childlike innocence and openness in the face of the unknown.
Family and putting the past behind us: Joe and Alice's families are in troubled situations after the incident at the factory and they won't see each other but when Joe and Alice go missing they must put their argument aside to find them.
Love: There's this subplot involving a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance between Joe and Alice. They are love but their fathers have a grudge against each other.
Aliens trying to get home: I don''t want to reveal to much but that's basicly it, like E.T. were all the alien wants to do is rebuild his spaceship to get home.
J. J. Abrams' direction is sensitive, the cinematography is stylish and captures the beauty of the 1970's, the special effects are amazing, the score by Michael Giacchino is majestic, beautiful, the setting of Lillian, Ohio, the production design (recreating the 1970's) is splendid, the costumes are terrific, the make up is rich, the scenery is breathtaking, the props are immaculate, the sound effects are fantastic, the creature design is fantastic, the suspense is killing, the are some really nice moments of humor and the ending was superb. I also like some of the character moments e.g. the scene were Joe and his dad have and argument.
The acting is beautiful, particularly from Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning who play their role extreamly well and share some chemistry, Riley Griffiths, Zach Mills, Gabriel Basso, Ryan Lee and great as the four friends though Riley Griffiths comes very close to Fanning and Courtney, he is just so likeable and funny and mesmirising, Kyle Chandler is very strong as Joe's dad, Noah Emmerich is menacing as Colonel Nelec, Ron Eldard is great as Alice's dad and the rest of the cast is fantastic.
Super 8 is a wonderful tribute to classic Spielberg films and genuine example of J. J. Abrams' filmmaking at his finest, 4.5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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