Super 8 (****)
Directed by: JJ Abrams
Starring: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Riley Griffiths,
Zach Mills, Gabriel Basso, Ryan Lee, Noah Emmerich, Ron Eldard
Seen: July 29th 2011
**** Out of ****
I’ve been waiting for Super 8 with great excitement since the first
trailers were released in October/November of 2010. Overall I wasn’t
disappointed, as JJ Abrams has made a visually beautiful and emotionally
affecting movie that brings back memories of the movies you loved as a kid,
especially those made by the master, Steven Spielberg. Super 8 references
Spielberg so heavily that were it not for the fact that he is a producer (and
story collaborator), he could probably have had reason to accuse Abrams of
plagiarism. Abrams has made this movie with the enthusiasm of a child, bringing back the feeling of the movies when we were children, even having the main story
in the movie revolve around a group of children making a movie.
Joe Lamb (Courtney) has just lost his mother, and he continues life
with his father, Deputy Jackson Lamb (Chandler), a stern man who doesn’t really
approve of him spending his free time running around with his friends making
home movies. His best friend Charles Kaznyk (Griffiths) is the writer/director of
their zombie movie, and in addition to himself, Joe, Preston (Mills), Martin (Basso),
and Cary (Lee), he also hires Alice Dainard (Fanning), whom Joe is infatuated
with, to play the female lead. When they go to a small local rail station one
evening for after hours filming, Joe spots a truck driving onto the train
tracks just before the train crosses the railway crossing, and the ensuing
collision causes the most spectacular train wreck ever, the kids running and
diving to survive. Minutes later an Air Force Unit shows up to assess the
damage and close down the site as Joe and the group get away in the nick of
time.
The train was carrying more than just regular cargo, and whatever
escapes from the train starts wrecking havoc on the little town of Lillian,
Ohio. Together with a handful of locals, the Sherriff disappears, putting Joe’s
dad in charge of whatever destruction threatens the town. The Air Force
Commander, Colonel Nelec (Emmerich) is not very cooperative when it comes to
sharing information with the locals, going to pretty hectic lengths to try to hide
their secret, and in the madness the kids manage to get out of the makeshift
refugee areas back into town to investigate; headed towards a discovery that
makes for a pretty intense final act.
The child actors are very good in Super 8, with young Joel Courtney
and Elle Fanning beautifully playing off each other. Kyle Chandler has always
been excellent, and here he continues in that vein. Super 8 has one flaw in my
eyes:, an approximately 12 year old boy can hardly utter more than 3 sentences
without using either Jesus or God as an expletive. It’s out of place both for
the child the timeframe in which the story is set – and unsettling to me as Christian.
Apart from this the movie is absolutely fantastic, the visual simplicity of the
70’s made beautiful by blue lens flares adding a certain nostalgia to many
frames. The story is involving and emotionally charged, combining excitement
and feeling to perfect pitch in an adventure brilliantly played out on screen.
Super 8 is one of my new favourites, and if it wasn’t for the aforementioned
flaw it would rate at least in my top 10 movies of all time.
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