Super 8 (2011, J.J. Abrams)

Position and...action

Lillian Ohio, summer 1979 : Joe (Joel Courtney) spends his free time making movies with his friends (Charles, Martin, Joe, Preston, Cary, excellent as a zombie by the way). They go out day and night playing around doing projects with their super 8 camera, maquettes and make-ups, sparkle candles and fireworks.

SUPER 8

Everyone must have noticed and pointed out the similarities to movies in the 80’s such as Steven Speilberg’s ET, Joe Dante’s Explorers,  Richard Donner’s Goonies, Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me and certainly some more, stories revolving around kids and teenagers looking for extraodinary adventures. This is nothing original still the kids’performance was great.

One night while filming a scene with beautiful Alice (Elle Fanning), a train passed by and suddenly, everything blows up. Noone gets hurt but from that night on, something strange occurs, people and pets disappear in misterious circumstances. And the US Air Force is around cleaning up the crash area. That is where the adults enter the scene. Nothing original either. Joe’s dad, deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler) suspects something but has no serious lead. People are scared to death and even accuse the Soviets (ha ha ha). But soon, back to the kids who end up discovering the story behind all this, which brings us to their close encounters of the real thing. The comparison to Spielberg is fair but the sci-fi elements are a little bit artificial in my humble opinion. The  ending was lame because of that psychic-connection-to-understand-each-other stuff which doesn’t make sense at all. Shame !!! With what he is capable of doing, J.J. could have done way better.

Spielberg and Abrams

The movie is worth watching though. The nostalgic parts are particularly priceless. Super 8 could simply be considered as a mix of old classics but with more perfected special effects. My favourite scene is the one with the guy listening  to « a walkman, like a stereo, play on cassette tape » and then the sheriff says « Kids walking around with their own stereo, just what we need… ».

Memorable quote

Martin : production value