Super 8 is pretty incredible. It has that classic feel the entire way through that takes you make to the 70s and 80s blockbusters. The trailers did a great job hiding a lot of what is in the film and the result is very rewarding. While the film is marketed as one big mystery, and ti does play out like one, the film really strives in its characters. The two young leads, Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning, are really the stars of the show as they don't like the pretentious wannabe kid actors. They are actually very good in their roles. In fact all of the kids, even if a couple are written to be obnoxious, do a fine job acting. The story runs fairly smoothly and only has a couple of predictable parts to guide it along. In the case of Courtney and Fanning's character, the history between their parents that is brought in time and time again really enriches the story as a whole. At the same time. Super 8 has action where it needs to be and the tension buildup is exactly what needs to be there. Now some may say the ending is a bit anticlimatic, and whatever side is taken, there is no doubt that it is still very effective and touching at the same time. Some will probably say this will be kind of the "ET" of the 2010's. They wouldn't be wrong but in ways this is almost the best alternative to the Cloverfield sequel that will probably never happen. Is it better than Cloverfield? Not sure yet, but with how fantastic Cloverfield was is a testament to just how strong this film is. JJ Abrams continues his success record as a director and this hits it off big time in theaters, he won't stay intact to just the TV side of Hollywood. This is the kind of blockbuster we need for summer and it is the best film so far this year. ****

SO excited for this.

If I'd just happened upon Super 8 by accident, flipping through the channels one day, and stopped on this very cool After School Special sci-fi melodrama - - well I woulda been impressed!

The actors are absolutely great - - what a treat to see talented non-big-name professionals plying their craft.

...but the story ends up being a simpleminded retelling of Cloverfield with an E.T. ending - - I'd thought I was seeing something original tonight, but it's actually just more of the same.

It's really a big heapin' helpin' of nostalgia and hokum all rolled up onto a Super 8 reel.

I blame J.J. Abrams - - he just can't seem to tell a story worth a damn.


3 out of 5.

Didn't know it had a poster like that, that's extremely better than the one with an angled landscape.

It's not as clever or exciting as Cloverfield, and frankly as far as science fiction period pieces go, one would be much better off seeing X-Men: First Class in the next room over. Where X-Men: First Class playfully interjected pieces of history into its story, Super 8 has a fetish for nostalgia simply to imitate Spielberg. There's a few cute references to the difference of today's technology, and the townpeople declaring the Soviets are the perpetrators got a laugh, but in the end the time period never serves any real purpose. Of course your movie is going to be cute and charming if you imitate Steven Spielberg. But by the time the credits roll, that's all Super 8 is: a pale imitation of Spielberg whose strained attempt to mimic the master keeps it from ever pushing past mediocrity. The opening train sequence is aggresively loud, but also ridiculously over-the-top. Which would be fine, but the action never reaches those heights again. And frankly, I blame it on (spoilers!)the subpar monster. Sometimes its Jaws. Then it awkwardly turns into ET. The climactic sequence where the lead kid giving a South Park-style monologue about getting over people being jerks saves him from getting eaten exposes this vast gulf. The alien is never believable because it imitates whatever the story calls for it to be.

End spoilers
Super 8 is a movie without a soul. Which isn't necessarily a problem for a big, Hollywood blockbuster... Except one that is focused on replicating the soulful style of Spielberg. There's individually clever shots and sequences, but at the end of the day this is a hollow shell of a movie wrapped in a nostalgic gift wrap that only emphasises its emptiness.

So again, if you want a science fiction period piece that contains excitement, joy, terror, action, thought, history, pleasure, originality, well-developed characters, forward momentum, and a satisfying ending, see X-Men: First Class. If you want a fun riff on Spielberg, go see Paul! That movie kinda worked because it took a British outsider's perspective on Spielberg, and then found a way to give the overdone first encounter narrative a fresh spin by making the alien a laid-back sagely pot head. Super 8 is pretty, half-baked, and for this kid who grew up on Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T, and Jaws, pretty dispiriting.

And not to blindly agree with a slowly growing consensus of critics (because we internet movie fans NEVER do that!) but I do think the shitty ending retroactively ruins the movie.

I agree with MovieDude's assessment of the emptiness of Super 8. Even the "Super 8" film making premise itself really serves no real purpose in the film. Sure it's cute and funny at times, but it goes nowhere, and ends up being just another story fragment thrown at the wall in the hopes that it somehow forms a coherent screenplay.

Super 8 is an excellent coming-of-age drama restrained by a decent monster movie. The film is written and directed by J. J. Abrams and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg's name is important here because it's clear the popcorn master's late '70s and early '80s oeuvre was a key reference point for Abrams. Shy children with troubled and/or estranged parents thrust into a cosmic adventure which will also, of course, result in personal growth. There's no doubt Abrams followed a trail of Reese's Pieces when devising and crafting Super 8.

The storyline concerns a group of children in southern Ohio producing a short zombie movie for a regional film festival. Among them are director Charles (Riley Griffiths), makeup artist Joe (Joel Courtney), and lead actress Alice (Elle Fanning). Just as a tender affection begins to blossom between Joe and Alice, the group witness a spectacular train crash. The train's cargo, a mysterious and dangerous being Abrams spends most of the film showing out of focus or barely in the frame, is unleashed, putting the children and their town in grave danger.

Super 8 is set in 1979. Abrams does a bang-up job bringing the period to life, from detailed production design to a hits-filled soundtrack including cuts by Blondie, Wings, and the Knack. The real magic here is watching these children of the '70s roam free, surely at least partly inspired by Abrams' own youth, as they use their imaginations and film cameras to escape rather mundane lives in a small steel town. Their scenes together have a legitimate sense of hope and wonder, and it's exhilarating. In many ways, I feel Super 8 plays as a lighter, more optimistic version of last year's stunning coming-of-age/genre blend Let Me In, directed by Abrams pal Matt Reeves. The two films even share a distinctive shot: a distracted gas station attendant oblivious to the violence outside the window behind him.

Abrams has assembled a fantastic cast of young talent. As the soulful Joe, whose mother has just died as the film begins, Joel Courtney gives an understated, compelling performance. His melancholy and yearning is completely convincing. As the rotund and mouthy director, Riley Griffiths is an energetic stealer of scenes. And Elle Fanning, who gave a wonderful performance last year in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, further establishes herself as a world-class talent here. There are two scenes in particular--one where her character proves how talented an actress she is, another where she has a heart-to-heart with Joe regarding his mother's death--where she is nothing less than sublime. She also shares a sweet chemistry with Courtney.

The film is less successful--not a failure, just less successful--as a monster-movie summer extravaganza. There are long stretches where the creature, stomping around town interrupting electricity and attacking unprepared citizens, seems entirely beside the point, as if Abrams realized halfway through the shoot he better inject his small, closely observed tale of young movie nerds with a shot of CGI-heavy adrenaline so as to render it worthy of its prime June release date. And when the monster becomes the focal point, the film loses a bit of steam. There are potent thrills, sure, but a lot less heart. (By the way, while Abrams' visual style is crisp and appealing in general, he seriously needs to transcend his love affair with lens flares. There are a few scenes in Super 8 where they are a grating distraction, especially when they shoot across, and therefore slightly obscure, a performer's face. One here and there is nice, but, in the immortal words of Will Smith, damn. Are there lens flares in J. J. Abrams' dreams?)

All in all, I left Super 8 satisfied. It's a rousing success as a film centered on, but not pandering to, children, the inner lives they lead, and the power cinema and its infinite possibilities can hold over them. It also nicely evokes and recreates '70s styles and social attitudes (there's a great bit where a frantic townswoman insists the recent terror must be the doing of those dastardly Russians). As a sci-fi-leaning monster movie--I've seen better (including Spielberg's War of the Worlds and the Abrams-produced Cloverfield), I've seen worse. Final score: not quite perfect, but very worthy indeed.

B+

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, and I mean no offense, but...you do know Matt Reeves (a more talented filmmaker than Abrams, I'd argue) directed Cloverfield, right?

Oh, one more observation: in regards to the creature, Abrams tried a bit too hard to have his cake and eat it, too. For 99% of the movie, it's pure terror. IT EATS PEOPLE, for fuck's sake. Then Abrams goes for the E.T. ending, but it's just whiplash-inducing. The knowledge the creature was mistreated by the government isn't enough to justify the leap.

Super 8 is, overall, a good film. But it is also a frustrating one. The film's first hour is excellent: it appears that J.J. Abrams' attempts to channel Spielberg are succeeding with flying colors. The 1979 setting is perfectly displayed, the teenage protagonists all feel like real individuals, and there is a genuine sense of foreboding menace when the mysterious creature stays out of the camera view. But then things start to feel a little off. The delightfully playful innocence of the film's first act starts to get replaced by a more generic monster movie, complete with shadowy military officials and a somewhat dispiriting lack of clarity. And the emotional payoffs for the two parent-child relationships in the film are not quite as satisfying as they could or should be. That said, a good amount of this film does work and makes it worth seeing. The acting, in particular, is very strong. Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning (who already seems less precocious than Dakota was) are completely natural and appealing, while the other young actors are similarly good; these characters' dynamics feel so lived-in and true. Kyle Chandler and Ron Eldard are also strong despite less character development on their ends. And there is a beautiful score by Michael Giacchino, which should be no surprise considering his past work. From my personal viewpoint, Super 8 doesn't live up to some of the hype that preceded its release. It's certainly an enjoyable and well-made picture with a lot of positive qualities. But the uneven second half of the film keeps it from living up to its full potential. B

Freakin' amazing. Loved every second of it.

A+

Fucking Super!

Fantastic, it exceded my expectations.
A

This review from hadesbc in the comments section of Ain't It Cool News captures some of the reasons for my dissatisfaction with Super 8:

Super 8 fucking owns X-Men MovieDude.

Save Fassbender and McAvoy none of them even come close to matching Super 8's acting chops either.

Pretty much agree with this.

I enjoyed it.

Within the first 10 minutes I thought I was going to love it a lot. By the end I just liked it. The first half's great, the second half is kind of messy.

3.5 / 5

One of those movies that probably seemed much better on paper.

The alien is kind of silly, I wish they just made a film about kids making movies. Kind of felt like it was watching a story into Spielberg's own childhood, I like the train crash and I thought the end credits scene of the completed film was the best part.

Other than that, I'm not really sure what kind of film this is trying to be. The emotional payoff felt extremely weak in the end by both fathers. I really don't understand if they actually changed or it they'll just merely except that their kids will become lovers. Overall, I laughed a lot and thought the kids were really funny, and some intense moments.

B+

I generally agree with the consensus. The film is great until we see the monster up close; then it does a rapid about-face, one that seems neither appropriate nor believable. It'll eat adults, but not children? The creature also looked too much like the Cloverfield monster, and sounded too much like the Lost monster (as well as the Signs aliens). Something more down-to-earth (and Spielbergian) would've been welcome, but I guess Abrams had to make his voice heard as well.

Still, it's pretty grand throughout, though I also wish Abrams would quit it with the lens flares. In Star Trek they mostly worked, here they looked like flying saucers hovering above the train station. But it's still fantastically directed in general, and I'm not sure how you can say this was a soulless film - the emotional payoff for the characters may not have been strong, but this is a movie in love with movies, and I'm fine with that.

Abrams addressed the lens flare in an interview and more or less aid, 'What can I say? There are too many, my d.p. told me not to, but, fuck it, I love 'em!'

http://www.slashfilm.com/film-interview ... stery-box/

Another good analysis of the story failure:

SUPER 8's Secret Is A Terrible Script

...which is an extension of the same critic's original review:

SUPER 8 Makes Us Nostalgic For Spielberg Movies (Because They Work)

...both provide insight into the film's fatal flaws.

I've become pretty excited to see this. Sounds like something I'd really like. I love a good coming-of-age film.