Echoes of the 80's

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2011)

When I was kid growing up in the 80's, I loved American cinema. They offered a promise of how life could be to kid growing up in a grim and ordinary Yorkshire town. The kids in the films where all confident and sassy, with access to technology you could only dream of. They talked to each other on walkie talkies and made movies on their own hand held cameras. The walkie talkies i had lost range at the end the end of the drive, and no one i knew had there own super 8 camera. Later on I discovered that some people did, but they used them for things less salubrious. As I grew older, and the world became smaller. The America of my childhood became less foreign, more ordinary, and often, quite grotesque. But anyway, for an awkward child, living through what was, this side of the pond at least, and unimpressive decade. Films like The Explorers, The Goonies, Back to the future, The Navigator, E.T. and the like offered the kind of escapism that I was looking for. And I feel that this is what Abrams was looking for. When I watched Super 8 I was whisked back to 9 year old self. Suddenly America was awesome once more. The town, the cars, the BMX's all had sheen of some new and exciting. The kids, so ineffable cool and self assured. I wanted to there, I wanted to be those kids. I wanted to be sat in my room surrounded toys I never knew existed, with posters on the wall of cars and half naked ladies. The room much messier than my parents would have ever allowed, and talking to my friend on a walkie talkie about some major event that will change our lives forever. Dodging bullets and missiles in town that is being raised to the ground, to save a friend, and in our own meek way, save everyone else. Abrams, at heart, is a movie geek. What he gives here is a glimpse of his own childhood memories of film geekery, and a an unabashed nod to Spielberg. The film is littered with references to his films, from E.T. to Raiders of the Lost Ark. I had much fun spotting those as I did the story. He also knows how to give a story heart. The film isn't really about an alien, it's about a bunch of people overcoming their own failings and personal tragedies, to learn to forgive, forget and love... and even, you know, hug. from the previous reviews, I can see that this film is not everyone. Though I honestly believe that if you are over 30 or under 13 this film is as good as it gets. I loved it, and I am sure, when I take the kids with me to watch again this weekend, they will too.