A fun homage

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2013)

I have no idea what director JJ Abrams style is. Why not? Because "Super 8" might very well have been directed by its producer, Steven Spielberg. This IS a Spielberg-style film - and that ain't bad.
Hectic family life; dysfunctional family life; families in crisis, Spielberg trademarks one and all are all here.
Overall, the film is an wonderful homage to 50s B movie drive-in "classics" albeit with $50 million worth of today's finest effects.
As others have written, it's "The Goonies"-meet-"ET"-meet-"Close Encounters." And let's not forget "Alien." Heck, there's even a fun tribute: an electric company guy doing his best "Close Encounters" Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, complete with identical yellow truck, yellow hardhat and sideburns.
But there's also touches of Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." Young heroes working to solve a mystery, a la the four 1939 Warner Bros. Nancy Drew mysteries with Bonita Granville & Frankie Thomas, as well as Disney's 1964 "Emil & The Detectives" have been around for decades and this is yet another fun addition.
The CG crashes are, as expected, too over-the-top (as they are in most blockbusters today), and the ending just doesn't come together in anything close to a satisfying fashion. And to be honest, there is a slight tendency to get frustrated waiting & waiting to finally see the mysterious "whatever." Face it, there are a lot of unanswered questions or unsatisfactory plot stuff, like the upside down folks, the cubes, the missing pooches, the tower and how it all comes together at the end (what was that?).
But it's still one hell of an entertaining old-style Spielberg popcorn flick! But the young cast is terrific, especially Riley Griffiths as amateur film director Charles. Riley made his film debut here, and as I type this it's the only film or TV work listed his his IMDb bio page. That should change.
Other young actors Joel Courtney (also making his film debut), Ryan Lee and Elle Fanning are each terrific! All the kids in the film are terrific.
I know that as soon as I complete this and send it on for approval I'll think of another dozen films that possibly/probably intentionally influenced portions of this highly entertaining movie.
A fun homage, 9 June 2011 Author: estabansmythe from Azusa, CA