Super 8

Both Abrams and Spielberg used 8mm cameras to preserve their first forays into filmmaking for future generations. It’s up to you whether you appreciate or condemn the fact that Super 8 raises questions as to which of them actually directed the film. The sci-fi plot isn’t entirely meaningless, but it essentially serves as a MacGuffin (symbolically entering the story together with a train) that aids the development of the characters and the relationships between them. The increasingly tense situations accelerate the process of growing up, which happens in relation to the protagonist’s parents. Joe has to accept the death of one of them and the authority of the other, who comes to understand that he can leave some responsibility to his son (and thus also let up on his excessive strictness). As in early Spielberg films with adolescents, basically ordinary characters become heroes when coming face to face with an extraordinary adventure. Super 8 also references films such as The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by situating the plot in a small American town and through its interest in a family whose cohesiveness is a crucial condition for a happy ending. Abrams managed to seamlessly combine a 1970s family drama with action for the 21st century, though he doesn’t show the same skill in directing the dialogue scenes as he does in the dynamic action sequences, when it doesn’t matter at all that a bunch of kids are running away from an unknown danger. More than other films, Super 8 will please those who love movies, and not necessarily only Spielberg’s films. It humorously draws attention to the make-believe of film, especially during the good forty-minute introduction, an enchanting tribute to all amateur filmmakers (it’s just fake blood). But most of the scenes are pervaded by an amusing nostalgia, including making light of certain “rules” in earlier films of the same type (“Since when is this guy the boss?”). It’s Joe, the film’s protagonist, who is in charge of the special effects and masks in the micro-crew. He passes off reality as more attractive, offering what life itself doesn’t provide. Which, as we well know, is what movies do. Of course, it’s not a bad thing to be reminded of this from time to time by the people who make the movies. 80% (09/10/2011)

J.J. Abrams uses exactly the trick that Steven Spielberg used thirty years ago to captivate audiences in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. What the children do and how they explore the circumstances surrounding the unknown phenomenon makes sense. What all the various parents do, however, feels less genuine, and suddenly, the majority of adult characters seem very unfamiliar, and the viewer must root for the children's efforts to succeed down to the last detail. This may explain why a wider range of viewers were disappointed. But after a minute, I understood that I would love the main group and had a clear view. A nostalgic sci-fi movie in the most positive sense. (09/01/2011)

The first half was definitely a lot stronger, because by the second half I was having trouble keeping my attention at times. In fact, I started to get slightly lost in the fight scenes and I wasn’t really feeling any suspense. I'm definitely not disappointed though. You can smell good old Spielberg and it maintains its grandeur. The child cast in particular was excellent. Elle Fanning has grown up and is already a great actress. A weaker 4 stars. (12/08/2011)

The spirit of the late seventies / early eighties and a bunch of kids setting out for adventure. And it’s good, really good. The kid actors can actually act, suspenseful at times and it simply works as it should, until an unbelievably over the top ending where the eighties feel crumbles in Abrams’ hands because the movie turns into a modern blockbuster à la Cloverfield and not what it was emulating up until then (and making reference to) in other words E.T., The Goonies, Stand By Me and It. Paradoxically, in spite of the finale, it applies here that “all’s well that ends well" thanks to the outstanding zombie credits with a typical Abrams punchline concerning the title. In any case, I am content, but not as enthusiastic as I was about Son of Rambow. That movie managed what Super 8 did. Only better, less flashily and overall more pleasantly and sincerely. Well, although... We can find this during the closing credits of Super 8 too, I’m telling you. (09/14/2011)

Super 8, whose first teaser was released a year before the premiere, is an ambitious project that recycles all of the clichés of the genre and the period. J.J. Abrams is brilliant in the technical aspects, but the scope of his imagination and sense of consistency are not enough to create an equally brilliant script. This is evidenced by the film’s biggest shortcoming – the sloppy, stupid ending. Super 8 is not boring, and it has a nice 1980s atmosphere and skillful child actors, but it lacks suspense and surprises. It’s a wannabe horror (and let’s be frank – unnecessary) version of E.T., which an older viewer will watch without much excitement, while the contemporary teen audience, raised on Lord of the Rings, The Matrix and Twilight, won’t find anything of interest in it. Abrams should have paid homage to a great artist who inspired him to become a film enthusiast in the form of a letter instead of keeping us in anticipation of a remarkable film event for a whole year, in vain. (09/08/2011)