I've always enjoyed movies told from the point of view of children, The Sandlot (1993) was one of my favorite movies as a child and as I got older, I fell in love with Carol Reed's brilliant film The Fallen Idol (1948). There's something magical about the innocence of a child's eyes. Unfortunately, though, these types of movies have all but been abandoned lately, replaced by animated movies or depthless comedies and fantasy adventures. Super 8 is a return to movies starring kids where the kids aren't performing super-human feats like in the Spy Kids movies and Chronicles of Narnia or caricatures of kids as adults view them, instead they act like kids, doing kid things with a kids heart.
Much will be made about how director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg are trying to harken back to movies like E.T. (1982), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) both directed by Spielberg, and The Goonies (1985), written and produced by Spielberg, which is true. But to end it there is cop-out writing. The key to the direction of Super 8 can be found in the credits when the movie the kids have been making, "The Case" is shown. It's a zombie movie and the director, Charles (Ryan Griffiths), who has a Night of the Living Dead (1968) poster on his wall, throws in a reference to George Romero, the king of zombie movies, by having the zombie-creating chemical be produced "the Romero chemical company". This is a child's way of showing an influence (though some might say Quentin Tarentino also does it this way). Abrams also fills his movie with tributes to the films that influenced him, however he does it in a much subtler fashion. I'm not just talking about the Spielberg children/alien movies, either but a plethora of movies ranging from the B-movies to blockbusters.
Super 8 is set in the small town of Lillian, Ohio and revolves around a group of kids, who while making a movie on their Super 8 camera, become involved with an escaped monster and an attempted military cover-up. To give away much more of the plot would be a disservice to someone who hasn't seen the movie, but there's a lot about this movie that can be dissected without spoiling the plot. The "monster lose in a small town" and military aspects hearkens back to the big bug movies of the 50s such as Them! (1954) or Earth vs. the Spider (1958). Part of the joy of this kind of movie is how Abrams doesn't show you the monster until much later in the movie, instead we're only shown fleeting glances, a technique Abrams used in Cloverfield (2008), but one that reminded most of how in Alien (1979), Ridley Scott keeps the Xenomorph more of an idea, a shadow, or a dot on a scanner until the very end of the movie. M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002) is another movie that uses this tactic and was clearly an influence on Abrams. This heightens the suspense and induces true excitement, not just cheap thrills based of monsters jumping out of closets that have taken over horror since the slasher movement began. Even blockbusters like Jurassic Park (1993) makes an appearance, with the monster attack on a bus echoing the T-Rex's on the jeeps and the King Kong "sympathetic monster" angle is explored. So when I hear that Super 8 is just a repackaging of E.T. and The Goonies, I'm understandably incredulous of how much the reviewer formed their own opinion. Yes it's true that those movies are a big influence on Abrams, but he also brings a lot more to the table and offers a return to the time of moviemaking when movies were about a feeling and had a heart, not being beaten to death with special effects an d flat characters.
Is Super 8 a perfect movie? No, but any movie that brings back that true, warm feeling of childhood adventure is a welcome return to movie making these days.
4.5/5
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