BrockTalk

While going to the movies is always a fun experience, it's not too often that the movie you are paying to see in itself is fun. I'm happy to say that J.J. Abrams's Super 8 is exactly the kind of fun experience I'm looking for when I go to see a summer movie. For me, a lot of the fun factor of this movie derived from pure nostalgia. This movie is the movies that I loved from my childhood, and that I still enjoy watching on occasion today. More specifically, Super 8 is a love letter to the Steven Spielberg movies of the 80's and early 90's. I'm talking E.T., Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the Goonies.

J.J. Abrams who righted the Mission Impossible ship with MI: 3, re-invented Star Trek for a new generation, and absolutely demanded my attention with the tv series Lost, continues to impress. The manner in which he was able to capture the style of Spielberg's films was astonishing. In fact, if I had been told that Spielberg himself directed this film back in 1992 but the film was just now released, I probably would have believed it.
As is the case in many of those films, the children take center-stage in Super 8, and carry the movie very well. Chief among these is Alice (Elle Fanning) and Joe (Joel Courtney) who find each other's friendship when family troubles brew for each of them at home. Abrams handles this relationship very nicely with just the right touches, and Joe's group of friends help keep things in perspective after a train wreck in their little town is just the beginning of strange and miraculous occurences involving the local Air Force and a brooding creature.

Super 8 isn't without it's imperfections, however, as is does make a few small mis-steps for sake of the plot, but nothing that impacts the movie significantly. You likely won't see Super 8 up for best picture at the Oscars next year, and while it's style and plot are far from original, that's okay, because it's not trying to be. It's goal was to simply bring this style of movie to a new generation, and it easily succeeds.