Could've been VERY good... but wasn't.

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2011)

The majority of this movie was very good. The whole idea of the kids making the movie, the fat kid thinking he's a movie director, the blonde kid with the worrying number of explosives and everyone's obsession with "production value" was really clever. The majority of the movie rather focuses on the kids then the monster, and these bits are the best bits of the movie, especially Joe's relationship with Alice, and the majority of the let- downs of the movie are cause by the monster.
My thoughts of the movie started to go downhill when Joe's dad knocks out the military officer, steals his uniform and blows up the tanker, "Mission Impossible" style. It didn't really have the same feel as the rest of the movie and felt like it had just been thrown in to give the movie some action and explosions, and it just wasn't necessary.
The next bit that was ruined was when operation "Walking Distance" was in action and everyone was being evacuated. The military had set the grass on fire, but then that just dissolved into nothing as it was never brought up again, and you almost forgot why the evacuation was in place.
Then there was the characters. A lot of people had no feel or depth and felt like the had been thrown in for an easier story line. I felt that they shouldn't have been in the movie in the first place.
The main major downside of this movie was - as always - the ending. To be honest, they way the whole movie had been one big build up to when the kids meet the monster, made the ending really difficult to handle. But it was handled VERY badly. The group of kids shouldn't have split up. The monster shouldn't have been eating the people it was abducting. Everything about the bit when Joe, Alice and the blonde kid were cornered and the monster picks up Joe and he convinces the monster to stop was wrong. The last scene was very poor. Too many questions were left unanswered. I could go on and on and on, but I will say that it was a very difficult story to end, and how it should've ended is beyond me, just not as cheesy and predictable as it did.
One thing that made this movie good was the way the kids were - well, just kids and were wound up in the midst of everything, and the instant Joe convinces the monster to stop destroying everything, that whole theme was crushed and the corny "kids save the world" theme took over and ruined everything.
However, the development and relationships in the main characters, the suspense and build up in the first three-quarters of the movie were VERY good and are what made up for the bad ending, and what made "Super 8" an overall good film.