Super 8 Post Review

J.J. Abrams once stated, “I feel like in telling stories, there are things the audience thinks are important, and then there are the things that are actually important.” Out of all of his works so far, no other movie could fit his opinion any better that Super 8. When the first trailer released a year ago, it looked like another Cloverfield movie, which, while it did have characters, was not deep enough as a whole to be thought of as more than another Godzilla type film.

In Super 8, you could probably ask anyone in the theater after the movie and they would say they wished a giant alien would invade their town. And as much as this movie was about a government cover up and a giant lost alien, it was even more about the characters and how it symbolizes their lives. It was such insight on the lives of the kids and their parents that breathed life into this movie, therefore giving the audience a story to cling onto and characters to care for, and hence intertwining the story of the monster and how two of the main characters were reaching a boiling point in their lives, which ultimately resulted in a story to be taken seriously.

One thing I believe director J.J. Abrams realized is that monster scenes, full of terror, can no longer be taken seriously. It was always in the most perilous moments that there was instantaneously comic relief. This created the perfect blend of suspense and humor that the audience in my particular theater seemed to find refreshing. It was through these scenes full of action and dialogue that there was no dull moment.

Set in 1979, this movie revived the atmosphere of Spielberg’s older work. While it did have the Sci Fi elements, it also included a strong atmosphere of movies such as The Sandlot, Stand By Me, and The Goonies. The story is primarily told from the perspective of Joe Lamb, a troubled adolescent around the age of thirteen that has recently lost his mother in a tragic accident and has a struggling relationship with his busy father, who is a deputy in the town. Joe and his friends are in the process of making a zombie movie when the accident occurs. Filming at a train station, they unfortunately become witnesses to a government conspiracy.

Great performances were given by all of the kids, but particularly Joel Courtney, who played Joe Lamb, and Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning’s younger sister), who played Alice Dainard. Both kids pulled off emotional performances that give insight to a promising acting career. It is through all of the above and a classic soundtrack that sets the time period by Michael Giacchino (Lost, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Up) that this movie is ultimately worth seeing, nostalgic of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.