Super 8
SUPER 8 takes place in Lillian, a small steel production town in Pennsylvania in 1979. A quiet place, where everyone knows everyone else and nothing but drunken disorderliness ever takes place. This is where we meet our main character and his friends. A small band of middle-schoolers who are making a film to be entered into a festival. During the making of the film something extraordinary occurs that transforms all their lives and truly binds them together against great odds.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY
J.J. Abrams should be commended on this well written opus with genuine characters. Throughout the film, these characters remind you of your friends or childhood escapades as well as how old we all are now. You are sucked into these youngsters lives and their world so much so, that you tend to ignore a few minor plot holes, which given a different perspective, may not actually be holes but part of the overall arc of the story and characters. Every little detail comes back and means something or provides foreshadowing in some way. Especially in the growth of the characters to see not only their friends, but themselves for who they truly are.
The overall story may be a bit predictable, but in true Abrams fashion, he keeps you stimulated and second guessing your previous assumptions, even if they are correct. Throughout the film, there are glimpses of what is to be the “big reveal”, but in reality, it is the revelation that compassion and perseverance in life are our best assets. How we take things for granted, ignore our loved ones until it may be too late, and letting go of whatever the baggage may be that stops us from thinking clearly. The main story acts as a wrapper for the deeper story of the universality of the human spirit. Even the student film is a story within the story worth following as it adds comic relief. Everything plays into the other and each is important on its own as well as a whole. Great characterization and a story within story equals a well developed and super fun film.
On a technical level, this film was handled meticulously. The special effects are well done and the wide use of practicals brought forth a feeling of reality to the overall look and feel. Stunning cinematography sets the location and mood consistently throughout the film. The child actors were incredible as they upstaged the adults who were great in their respective roles. In truth, there wasn’t one bad part to this movie technically or otherwise.
For all of us who grew up on early eighty young adult action films, this movie will bring back fond memories and even a few inside jokes. Abrams takes us on a ride that starts with The Goonies and tosses in a little of ET with a dash of Close Encounters.
If you haven’t made plans to go see this film, do. It is a theater worthy experience that will leave you talking about it for days.
Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Joel Courtney, hits theaters June 10th, 2011.
