Awesome film with a few loose ends

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2011)

When JJ Abrams (Star Trek, MI-3), was making Super 8 he reportedly had an idea for two separate movies: one about what might be hiding in Area 51, the other about kids making a movie with those old Super 8 cameras. The two completely separate ideas mesh rather well.
The kids are filming a zombie movie at a train station in the middle of the night. It's a love scene interrupted when the kids' science teacher steers his car right onto an incoming and train, and in a magnificent crash scene, the train derails and "something" escapes.
I'll try not to ruin the rest of the story, as it involves "the something" terrorizing the town, while Abrams frames the entire story in the context of the main character Joe's relationship with his father and the cute, but older, girl (Elle Fanning) they've hired as the zombie movie's love interest.
The child acting here is outstanding, on par with the few adult characters. Fanning especially stands out, being the eldest and the love interest for two of the other boys. Abrams makes the right choice in framing the story around these kids and their camera, relying more on emotion and laughs than thrills and horror (which are certainly here).
There's Abrams' ever-present lens flare, and Spielberg's influence as a producer is obvious: the entire thing plays like the Goonies and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and in doing so, sends you back to the movies that inspired it. It's nothing new, rather it's a reminder of how awesome those movies were.
The film isn't without its flaws: there's a cheesy sentimental and disappointing ending, some plot threads go unresolved or unexplained, but it won't stop you from enjoying every minute of the movie. The best summer movie of '11 so far.
8/10