Remember back when the teacher assigned the class to make their own movies as a final project? The payoff was the joy in seeing the films come together. J. J. Abram’s knows just how to capture this child-like feeling of cinema and mold it into a charming 1970’s Kodak with strong alien undertones.
Super 8 tells the story of Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a boy growing up in the late 1970’s who has just lost his mother to a work-related accident. Heartbroken, quiet Joe and his father, Jackson (Kyle Chandler), struggle to get over their loss.
Meanwhile, Joe, along with his friends Charles (Riley Griffiths), Cary (Ryan Lee), Martin (Gabriel Basso), Preston (Zach Mills), and Alice (Elle Fanning) try to complete their movie with a Super 8 camera. During their film process, a train derails and brings with it destruction, mayhem, and a military cover up. With so much going happening on screen at once, one has to wonder: does it add up?
First, let’s get to the best part of the movie: the acting. The characters in the movie interact smoothly and effectively, creating for us a believable atmosphere that’s teeming with emotion. The performances from the kids in Super 8 were superb with good character development. Even amidst the chaos that their small town faces, the fourth grade film crew is determined to finish their work.
The tension in Super 8 was enough to break through some of the clichés and make the movie more exciting, however. There are still cliché parts of the movie. Another negative part of the film is the sometimes awkward cuts that happen throughout.
Take, or instance, the first scene when we see the funeral of Joe’s mom transitioning over to Joe and his friends getting out of school for summer break. They don’t necessarily match up, but the actors almost cover it up with a well-written story. Abrams also tends to make his trailers mysterious, so that when the viewer sees the movie, they are seeing it from a different angle than from seeing the pieces of film in the trailer.
An old trait reoccurs here in Super 8: the revealing-of-the-monster-halfway-through-the-movie ruse. Sure, we see glimpses of it here and there, but Abrams made a good call in the monster department making it come alive visually, too, little by little. This keeps the audience engaged and wanting to see what is going to happen next.
Super 8 is in your face with good explosions, which serve to build up to an excellent climax. The ending of the movie, however, was a little unspectacular compared to the rest.
When all the film is pieced together from a 1970’s film camera along with the film of today, it really shows how far we have come. J. J. Abrams expresses feelings of nostalgia when he was a kid making movies with his friends, and Super 8 celebrates that in its own way. Along with good special effects in the microcosm of an Ohio town, it’s as enjoyable as making your own film back in grade school. The writer gives this flick the student stamp of approval and recommends it to anyone who likes the idea of aliens mixed into 1970’s American culture.