Super 8 Review

Super 8 Review

By Jose

Plot:

After witnessing a mysterious train crash, a group of friends in the summer of 1979 begin noticing strange happenings going around in their small town, and begin to investigate into the creepy phenomenon.

Main Cast:

Joel Courtney (Joe Lamb), Ryan Lee (Cary), Zach Mills (Preston), Riley Griffith (Charles), Gabriel Basso (Martin), Elle Fanning (Alice), Ron Eldard (Louis Dainard), Kyle Chandler (Jackson Lamb), Noah Emmerich (Nelec)

Review:

Super 8 was directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. So obviously it was going to be a great movie. Then you add in the fact that it has an alien terrorizing a small town. So now it should be great. Well to be honest. It wasn’t.
It wasn’t this great movie from these two great minds. It was just a good movie about a group of young kids filming their own movie during the summer until an escaped alien and the air force come to town and screw things up.

Super 8 seemed and looked like, from the trailers we have seen, an action movie dealing with an alien rampaging in a small town with military secrets and these kids stuck in the middle. What we got was a coming of age film about these young kids involved in this conspiracy and alien “attack”. And looking at it from that angle you got a damn good movie. A fun and light hearted, yet action packed and mysterious movie. And I liked that movie.

Speaking of the kids in the movie. The main young cast were awesome. Plain and simple. We have a couple of them that have been around and some new comers that felt and performed like they have been in a dozen movies already. They all were great and fun to watch on the screen. The chemistry worked between them all and it felt like these kids have been friends all their lives. My hats off to them and I hope to see them get more roles in future movies. The adult cast was just there and the main two Kyle (Jackson) and Ron (Louis) were the main focus being fathers of the main tow kids, Elle (Alice), and Joel (Joe).

The effects were actually pretty good in the movie. You felt like you were thrown back in time to 1979. The train wreck/crash was great and felt like you were in the middle of it. Although I do find it funny how the kids actually survived such a crash and all those explosions. And then later they survived almost being blown up in a house later. But it’s a movie so we can’t really argue about that. Now on to the alien. I had a bad feeling that the alien was going to be invisible until the end or not even seen at all until the end. I was thankfully wrong. Throughout the movie we get glimpses and hints at the shape and look of the alien and the ferocity and anger it had toward the military/air force. And then a full reveal at the end with Joe and Alice and Cary. It was a nice design, almost a mix of spider and gorilla. The very end when the alien is recreating his spaceship to leave was pretty cool. And it was nice to see the alien cubes coming together and morphing into the ship along with all the other metal and devices.


Final Thoughts:

So Super 8 was not this alien action flick but a coming of age movie with a focus on the group of young friends. It felt like watching Stand By Me or in a weird way It. The young stars were all funny and hilarious and great in their roles and made the movie for me. Stay for the credits to see their zombie movie. Seriously hilarious.

Ratings: 4 out of 5