Numerous movies, mostly towards the end of the year and sometimes foreign are considered film critic crack. In many ways they cant get enough of the films that compete at the namely staged Oscars or French jaunt Cannes. This movie has been lauded the same way by film critics leading up to its release. I think in various ways that could almost turn a person off from wanting to see this. In a cynics sense it has too many things going against it. Over the top critic praise, Steven Spielberg’s production credits, which once having meaning now represent horror, & not only JJ Abrams but his, basically, copyrighted lens flair. This is a movie that a 20-something bohemian would love to hate. I fall right into that category having a long love/hate filled relationship with JJ Abrams work. The man has become the essence of ridiculous to many, including myself. The problem with Super 8 of course is that all these film critics are right. In many ways you almost want to hate this movie for being so damn good.
When the Paramount logo flies across the screen we are introduced to another insanely crafted JJ Abrams score but it almost doesn’t feel right. Its way too crafted. It feels out of this time. Too good for a man who has reused the same harmonies in previous films like Star Trek to have come up with something so expansive and at times haunting in its own way. This score takes us right to our main character, Joe Lamb, sitting on a swing in the snow outside of his house. Inside friends and family are gathered for his mothers wake. Not much is said about what happened. We know it involved a steel girder and her body was left unrecognizable. We also learn that in some way a somewhat disheveled Louis Dainard is somehow directly involved with Joe’s dad, Jackson Lamb, played by the ever awesome Kyle Chandler, who immediately handcuffs Louis when he walks in the house and drives him down to the station. Before the scene ends and even before the arrest we are also introduced to Joe’s friends: Charles, Joe’s best friend who is a fat film auteur, Cary, a budding pyromaniac with braces, Preston, the scared and very nerdy kid, & if I am correct, Martin, the lanky kid who just doesn’t seem so bright.
As the scene ends we are sent 4 months into the future. Its now what seems like summer and the kids are filming their breakout movie to be entered into the Cleveland Film Festival. Here we start to learn what the movie is really about. Yes, there is a monstrous alien that is about to start destroying the town along with many of the Air Force troop who are hell bent on keeping whatever got loose a secret but I digress and thats not the point. After school we follow Joe & Charles going back to Charles house to watch the latest clip from their recently developed film. As Joe is leaving we get a touching moment of Charles mom inviting Joe to stay for dinner and you can see the longing in him before he refuses and rides his bike across the street to his house. Joe catches his dad in the washroom crying, a jarring scene for any young buck, and we follow them out dinner at a restaurant to get the full affect of how Jack just doesn’t know how to cope especially with his son around so he tells Joe that he wants to send him off to camp for the summer. There really isn’t a fight. Joe protests but he still respects his father enough and knows the family dynamic that now might not be the best time to cause an all out yelling match. That however doesn’t stop him from sneaking out later in the night to film the scene of the film that will change their lives.
What really seems to be his huge go for this is the fact that Alice Dainard, daughter of Louis, has agreed to play the films lead at Charles’ request and is going to drive them to the train station even though she is underage. We get a snarky little quip here and there that really lets us see how close of friends these kids are. Apparently they are all really concerned with Cary’s budding pyromania enough so that Preston say’s, “Your obsession with fireworks, and I’m saying this as a friend, concerns me.. and my mother.” As they rehearse a scene where Alice just lays it out for them it starts, barely noticeable, but present, a lens flare none the less shows up. We get more here and there as they rush to set up the shot when they notice a train is coming. As they are filming the scene Joe catches it. A truck speeds onto the tracks and then all shit breaks loose. Huge explosions with metal flying everywhere and everyone going in all directions trying to stay alive. This scene no doubt will be amazing in IMAX. Joe watches the lid fly of the train car after everything has settled somewhat but we don’t see anything come out. He then goes back off to find the rest of his friends. When they reunite they have a brief scare that Alice died but turns our it was just Joe’s fake blood. They do find another mystery of Super 8, the ‘white rubix cubes’ and happen across the mangled truck with its driver still alive. Turns out it was Mr. Woodward the whole time and they all laughed and walk off into sunset, the end. Not really. This is just where the movie picks up a whole helping of steam.
The rest of the film takes the viewer through one wild journey. What are these military guys trying to cover up. What is snatching townspeople and their electronics. This is a summer blockbuster done right. Yeah some things are over the top and don’t make a whole bunch of sense but they are not so wild as to be totally inexcusable. Like the kids coming away unharmed from the train wreck and being able to drive away. Or a later scene with Jack evading the military guard and escaping. Yeah its a somewhat crazy scene but not completely unrealistic. But we get top notch performances from actors like Noah Emmerich who plays a no talk ‘contain this shit’ military officer. Throughout the film you can see the care put into this film by JJ Abrams. Its a somewhat love letter to the old school blockbusters of film. An ‘Encounter’ for a new age. It almost feels like he is trying to correct the mistakes of his previously produced, and in my mind, huge flop, Cloverfield. Gone is the shaky cam, late 20 somethings acting moronic and wait till the end to find out what the big bad is. Here we get the true monster movie he talked about wanting for his kid. Its hard not to walk away from the film feeling somewhat nostalgic and that ten bucks was worth the escape from the warm weather into air conditioning. Grade: A-
