Super 8
Rating 6 out of 10
I am always leery of any movies that get above an 80% on www.rottentomatoes.com. As goofy as most movie reviewers are if that many like a movie there HAS to be something wrong with it. : >
Super 8 is a decent movie. Maybe with producer Steven Spielberg and directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Lost, ect) I was expecting more. Also being released in the Summer along with Xmen, Thor and Fast Five I was expecting something a little more fast paced? This movie is based back in 1979. What a great year that was. A tall pasty slightly overweight movie critic graduated high school that year!
In 1979 before HD video cameras were the size of a pack of cigarettes (people smoked indoors back then too!) and we could take quality videos from our cell phones (had no clue what a cell phone was) if you wanted home movies you had to film it on a very expensive and choppy Super 8 movie camera. Yes kids. Besides riding our dinosaurs we had to wait 3-4 days for film to be developed in a far off land before we could watch it (or see the pictures we took with our crappy little cameras).
Back to the movie. In a small Ohio town a group of kids are making their own zombie movie at a train station late at night when a pickup truck jumps on the tracks and causes a horrific crash. The kids run but the camera keeps rolling. The next day the evil military show up pushing around all the local police and offering no excuses when people and pets turn up missing. When they finally get the movie back they see what escaped from the wrecked train. It's big, ugly and likes to eat people.
This is a very slow paced movie. You are well over an hour into the film before you see what escaped. You get to meet the local kids and find the little boy has a crush on the blonde girl. There is a bit of a showdown at the end of the movie and we find out the thing only eats people that do not have their name in the credits.
The effects are slightly above average mostly due to the very cool train wreck. The actors are dotted with faces you mostly kinda remember from tv shows. The dad guy from Friday Night Lights tv show no one watched is in it as is Dakota Fanning's sister.
Some people will like this movie more than I did. I did think it was okay, but wish I had rented it. I'd recommend the same to you.
I just saw this on vacation. Good vacation movie, but nothing remarkable. Not showing the monster is kind of a classic technique, similar to Jaws, Alien, and others. Not necessarily a bad thing. The movie was just kind of paint-by-numbers. 6 out of 10 isn't far off. If you watch it, stay for the credits to see the movie they were making.
ReplyDeleteI have heard people call this movie a mix between ET and Stand By Me. Maybe if ET were killing people. : > It captures the 70s feel pretty well. After seeing the movie my kids said they now understood why I dress so bad.
ReplyDeleteWish I had stayed for the credits.
There were moments of charm, but overall it felt like a Disney movie. The highlight for me was Elle Fanning, man that girl can act. Sadly for me, the most entertaining part of the film was the final Super 8 project they showed at the end with the credits.
ReplyDelete