Summer's best movie is a throwback to old

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2012)

Super 8 is an action mystery that takes place during the summer of 1979 in the small town of Lillian, Ohio. It's been four months since the accidental death of Joe Lamb's (Joel Courtney) mother. He and a group of friends are making a movie, "The Case", to submit to a local film contest. Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the director; Joe handles the makeup; Cary (Ryan Lee) plays the zombie; Martin (Gabriel Basso) is the lead actor; Alice (Elle Fanning) is the lead actress; and Preston (Zach Mills) is a supporting actor. One evening the group sneaks out to film a pivotal scene at a nearby train station. While there, Joe spots a speeding truck and watches as it turns on the railroad tracks and collides head on into the passing locomotive. The ensuing accident is horrific, and chaos ensues all around our young filmmakers. As the unknown contents of the train are released, the group narrowly escapes being caught when the Air-Force arrives to contain the crash site. Soon, strange occurrences begin happening in and around town. The Sheriff vanishes, and then Jackson begins questioning Colonel Nelec (Noah Emmerich) about the contents of the train. As the teens discover what was on the train one of their group goes missing; while separately Jackson pieces together parts of the puzzle. It's a race against the clock. For the teens to save their friend and Jackson to save his town, they're going to have to find what's out there and stop both it and Nelec from destroying everything important to them.
When viewing a movie, escaping into what you see is likely. It could be the storyline, the performance, or just the vision on the screen. We sit in our seat watching the previews, anxiously waiting for the movie to begin, and once the movie starts, the viewer is transported into the filmmaker's vision. Super 8 is J.J. Abrams' (Star Trek, Mission Impossible III) homage to Steven Spielberg, also a producer on the film. Super 8 stands alongside Spielberg's greats, E.T., The Goonies, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as a superbly made beautiful picture. One of the keys to separating a good movie from being either bad or borderline great is in the casting. J.J. Abrams' casting of mostly unknowns as the young teens was perfect. How a movie is marketed is equally important. There is nothing worse than seeing a movie only to find that all the best scenes were in the trailers or previews. Abrams artfully creates interest without ruining the plot or the mystery, and the audience is never cheated. In this cleverly crafted production, we experience suspense and receive entertainment. As much as I enjoyed Star Trek and Mission Impossible, along with TV shows Alias and Lost, I look forward to Abrams making more films that go against the grain.
I tried not to spoil much, but I must say.the train accident is one of the most intense scenes I've ever viewed on the big screen. It was on par with the airplane crash in Castaway, and better than the train crash in The Fugitive. Also, be sure to stay for the creditsyou won't be disappointed.
Summer Movie Grade: A
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