J.J. Abrams' Super 8 (2011)

[number8]

How did I know that they were going to get Drew Struzan to do the poster.

I'm renaming this movie SPIELBERG SPIELBERG: THE SPIELBERGERING PART SPIELBERG.

[Dukefrukem]

How did I know that they were going to get Drew Struzan to do the poster.

I'm renaming this movie SPIELBERG SPIELBERG: THE SPIELBERGERING PART SPIELBERG.

He should do every movie.

[Watashi]

This movie is good, not great. Abrams' direction is fine, but I wish the script was a lot stronger and more to the point. I wish Abrams wasn't so restrained into making Steven Spielberg: The Movie, because if anything, the stuff without the alien are the best parts of the movie.

[Watashi]

Also, if you didn't like the lens flare in Star Trek then well.... I don't have good news for you.

[Watashi]

Rumors have it this is the monster/alien in this movie. Rumors also say it's the alien in Cloverfield 2, Steven Sommers' When Worlds Collide or Abrams' Star Trek 2.... so who knows.

[

Show Spoiler

]

This is pretty much what the alien looked like. Nothing really special.

[Morris Schæffer]

Best poster ever? Not by a long shot. There's nothing inspired about anything that Struzan does. I recall those prequel posters. He knows how to create a striking poster, the colors were vibrant, but it's usually just an assortment of faces.

[Winston*]

Man, this movie sucked. What a waste of time.

[Winston*]

This movie is good, not great. Abrams' direction is fine, but I wish the script was a lot stronger and more to the point. I wish Abrams wasn't so restrained into making Steven Spielberg: The Movie, because if anything, the stuff without the alien are the best parts of the movie.

I do not understand what parts of the movie you are talking about when you say the "best parts". Everything was lame.

[Watashi]

I do not understand what parts of the movie you are talking about when you say the "best parts". Everything was lame.

How do you not understand? Scenes that focus just on the kids and not the alien are the best part. It's right there in the post!

[Russ]

How do you not understand? Scenes that focus just on the kids and not the alien are the best part. It's right there in the post!

Wow. Your humor detector AND saracasm detector both malfunctioned at the exact same time.

[Watashi]

Wow. Your humor detector AND saracasm detector both malfunctioned at the exact same time.

Russ, I was being sarcastic back to Winston. Way to ruin the fun.

[Russ]

Russ, I was being sarcastic back to Winston. Way to ruin the fun.

My bad. Guess I need to get my sarcasm detector replaced.

[megladon8]

So what's the alien like?

[Ezee E]

This is very good. Still has the same weaknesses that any Spielberg movie would have, but its first 90 minutes are pretty great. Two fantastic action sequences, and the stuff with the kids is something that I think a lot of Match Cut will enjoy.

[

Show Spoiler

The very end and the forced friendship between the father and the other girl's father... Not so much. A few bad special alien effects.

]

Also, a very John Williams-ish score.

[Ezee E]

So what's the alien like?

Kind of what Mara implied. I expect lots of stuffed animals.

[megladon8]

Seriously? The alien is cute and cuddly?

[Ezee E]

Seriously? The alien is cute and cuddly?

Like Pikachu. But kind of mean at times.

[Winston*]

Don't dislike the movie as much today as I did last night when I'd been drinking. But still don't get what the point of it is. Both the story with the kids and their parents, and especially the alien story seemed completely half-arsed to me.

[Winston*]

I did kind of like the anti-pot scene.

[Watashi]

Super 8 can't really decide what movie to be. Sure, it's a love-letter to all things Spielberg and has the glossy 80's feel of kids going on an adventure that we don't see of anymore. However, this letter rambles on and never clearly addresses the point of the all the love. All I could think of was how better the movies were that Abrams was paying tribute to (Jaws, Close Encounters, Jurassic Park). Abrams has fallen in a trap door in which he draws suspense by teasing and hiding what the alien looks like. In Jaws, Spielberg teased us by not showing the shark because the shark was based in reality (we all know what a shark looks like) and it allowed more time to focus on building the relationships. That kinda works here, but the constant teasing of the monster is pointless because that's not what the focus should be. Is this a killer monster movie or a coming-of-age film? You can't develop both at the same time. Either show the monster from the start so we can develop a sense of empathy for it or not show it all. [

Show Spoiler

I don't buy the scene where Joe confronts the monster and understands him, because seconds before it killed two people and was about to kill Alice. There's no reason why everyone would watch in awe as everything is being blown to shit and magnetized everywhere.

]

The kids are great and Kyle Chandler is awesome in everything he does, but I wish he was given more to do.

This film actually reminded me more of The Iron Giant than anything Spielberg. Except Bird's film, the "monster" is a completely developed character who we invest in the entire runtime.

[B-side]

This is pure homage, through and through; campiness and all. Continuing what Cloverfield started with film as a historical documentation of the extraordinary, this is truly a love letter to cinema before it's a love letter to Spielberg's familial alien/monster dramas. It's no coincidence that the monster shows up at the height of the family's emotional turmoil and when the kids' camera was rolling. The film as a whole works on a level a child would recall or conjure. Their cheap little zombie film turns into a real life monster film complete with anonymous military henchmen, cover-ups, an absent father, a love story, etc. And the monster is nothing if not a universal archetype in both form and status. I was totally geeking in a way only a cinephile can by the kids' dedication to the film and the chubby kid's knowledge and opportunistic seizing of "production values."

[Sxottlan]

This was good, but I'm not thinking great. I don't know if the criticism that it was predictable is entirely fair given it's a homage to a particular era for a particular director. However, I thought it was. I think the ad campaign gave away just enough that I was able to piece it together as to what the creature was doing. Called the heirloom bit at the end too.

At least there were fewer lens flares.

With exception of Priest and POTC, this summer has been quite good so far.

[B-side]

Oh, I adored the lens flares in this. Fantastic.

[Sxottlan]

Final shot question:

[

Show Spoiler

In the final shot of the film, it looked like they turned down the lights of the town instead of a fade to black as the ship flew away. Does anyone else remember? I couldn't quite tell.

]

[B-side]

Final shot question:

[

Show Spoiler

In the final shot of the film, it looked like they turned down the lights of the town instead of a fade to black as the ship flew away. Does anyone else remember? I couldn't quite tell.

]

[

Show Spoiler

Seemed like a fade.

]