Set in 1979, Super 8 follows a young troop of friends creating a movie for a local competition. Witnesses to a horrific train crash, they turn detective as the military arrive to investigate mysteries of an alien nature.
J.J. Abrams has openly admitted Super 8 is part love-letter to his childhood, part love-letter to the Spielberg movies that formed the backdrop to it. With the bearded maestro behind him as producer, a thick sense of nostalgia permeates every frame as Abrams tries to recapture the best of Spielberg's early work. Super 8 pays homage to many things long forgotten and lost. These kids may be geeks, but their expertise is in the warmer fields of celluloid and model-painting, an age before the arrival of the cold computer and its emotionally stunted offspring, the internet. These children are artists, breaking the rules not because they're bored, but because they yearn to create outside of their boundaries. Films like these are won and lost on casting, and Abrams has hit the big time with the young actors brought on board. They're not just likeable, but believable, multi-dimensional characters that put blockbusters like Transformers 3 to shame.
The few flaws that keep Super 8 from greatness are small, but add up. Creating a clear homage can result in pale imitation. Although that's not quite the case here, there are a few ideas that stumble, or never quite make it to the finishing line. The central emotional strain suffers from an irritating quick-fix and the final encounter is an anti-climax of apocalyptic proportions. But right now, they don't matter. Super 8's greatest triumph is in reminding us that story wins over explosions every time, even if against a perspective that says more about the current crop than it does the film itself. |
