The Super 8 Effect

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2011)

I will be honest. First time I saw this, I absolutely LOVED the movie up until the conclusion. It was an awesome movie, complete with jump-out-of-your seats moment and suspense, coupled with a good dose of nostalgia and comic relief. I have nothing to complain about this part of the movie. It is flawless. The first part is good enough to earn a rating of 8 from me, which seems appropriate enough... I will not talk about it, lest I ruin the amazingness for someone.
And now comes the ending...
Now, I appreciate an action movie ending on a softer note...it can be very refreshing and original, unlike the heart-stopping action packed conclusion one finds (though, I am not opposed to them...I just like a little calm now and then.) I was pleased when it became apparent that there would be no mass shoot out between the alien and soldiers. Such a ending was appropriate for this film. Yet...there came the unexpected...which I should had expected coming from the duo of Abrams and Spielberg...
We were suppose to feel sorry for the alien.
I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to do so. Even after buying this movie and viewing it again, I cannot. As the kids come to the realization that it is "sad" and "only wants to go home," all I can picture in my brain is the shot where it's chowing down on that person's leg, or the multiple scenes it ate innocent civilians. Whoa...did I miss something? Did being sad and homesick make up for the crime of killing God knows how many people?
Is it likely that kids, in real life, would come to this conclusion? I believe not. This is not the cutsie E.T. with his glowing finger. This is a giant alien with a taste for human flesh. I would accept a simple ending with the alien escaping, perhaps looking dramatically down at the world as it take off into the sky, vowing revenge or some other nonsense as the kids look on with relief, glad to have escaped the man-eating alien.
The messages Abrams intended are clear. Not everyone is as they seem, everyone deserves to be treated good, and so on. Yet these messages just don't click when the subject of these themes eats half the town.
Overall, this ending is a perfect reminder of why I made that promise to hate all of J.J. Abrams work since he destroyed my favorite TV show as a child (a certain TV show about trekking about the stars...) Super 8 had an amazing beginning, and my expectations were raised tremendously, yet they fell with the concluding scenes.
Oh...on a side note rant...why the heck would the teacher release the alien so near to his town???? He obviously new the alien was dangerous and hated people, as revealed by his tapes...did he really not think that the alien would destroy his home town and eat everyone? Perhaps even his own students? Personally, if I were in this situation, I might perhaps, oh, I don't know...crash my car into the train in a more isolated location. It's not like roads only cross train tracks at train stations. But, who knows! Perhaps he was sick of his town and wanted this to happen. Heck he probably gave the alien a list of names for him to take out...but, in all seriousness, this strange plot twist really confuses me...
*a minute after writing this review, I changed my rating to a 7, which is much more accurate depiction of my view of the movie as a whole