Super 8 (J. J. Abrams, 2011)
Posted: August 7, 2011 Filed under: Films | Tags: Cinema, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Dawson Leary, Dawsons Creek, Film, J J Abrams, Movie, review, Spielberg, Super 8, War of the Worlds 3 Comments »“Production Value!“
Super 8 is the pale riff on Spielberg that Dawson Leary might have made had ‘the Creek’ carried on. It’s got the details right; the gang of kids, the era, even the clutter and mess in the character’s homes (the bed headboards with the marks where stickers have been torn off etc), but surface and detail don’t make two things the same. Unfortunately, Super 8 is a film made with the blindness of a fan, a film so in awe of it’s inspiration that it even places home movie making (a detail that biographs both director and producer) centre stage; meanwhile the sense of wonder, Spielberg’s magic ingredient that keeps you coming back and even grants beauty to War of the Worlds (2005) mechanical killers, has been left at home.
So where does this leave us? The kids that share the age and imagination of the main characters probably wont be too interested in the Speilberginess of it all and those of us still enthralled by Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) will only see a void instead of new horizons. This is a film without an eye on the stars and it’s the fanboys (like J.J. and Dawson), those to whom details count more than soul, that will get the most out of it.
Sure, it’s enjoyable in a goofy way but next week we’ll be talking about something else.
Super 8 is in cinemas now.
PHEW! Glad someone else wasn’t left in awe of this! I was all just a bit ‘Meh’ for me. I blame the SUPER-ANNOYING kids – didn’t root for them once. The two dads were my favourite thing about this. Was a bit of a stupid, clumsy flick IMHO.
I liked it probably because it reminded me so much of those 80′s films such as The Goonies, Stand By Me, E.T., and so much more but I see what you’re saying about it being kind of a rip-off. Good Review!
My super8 seems a want and I can not. An attempt to approach the spirit of film style eighties Goonies or ET, but it remains just that, a try.
The story is hackneyed to the utmost and the characters of children are archetypal ad nauseam: the fat smartass, the bastard little guy, the protagonist who has just suffered a disgrace and the pretty girl.
Is entertaining, but of course, any comparison with the aforementioned ET, The Goonies and Stand by Me, for example, is a real insult.