Average to the extreme

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2011)

I was really looking forward to watching this movie. It looked like a fun, sci-fi flick with some cool action and decent characters.
Well, it kind of was... but not really.
First of all, the story was very predictable. I more or less had it figured out in the first 20 minutes or so. And it was really cheesy- all the creepy monster attack scenes were at night, when the victims were alone and helpless. I mean, seriously?
I can't tell if this movie was supposed to be primarily about the alien or about the death of the boy's mother. It started off with the kids filming their zombie movie and focusing on the boy (I already forgot the character's names, which tells you how connected I was to them) dealing with the death of his mom... but after maybe half an hour it was all about the alien. Also, the ending was really anti-climactic and cheesy.
I know these types of movies aren't supposed to be realistic at all, but some of the situations in this movie were so ridiculous that I couldn't help laughing during the "serious" parts.
I will say that the acting was very solid, and was the score, editing, cinematography (for the most part), and effects.
But there's more to a movie that the appearances. A good movie needs a strong plot and three-dimensional characters. This movie has an average plot with too many subplots that get mentioned and dropped. I really didn't care about any of the characters in general. There are some emotional scenes between two of the kids, but the rest is very average and I found myself frequently getting bored and staring at my watch.
Super 8 could have been so much better... but, alas, it was just average and very forgettable.