A green movie - completely recycled

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2011)

WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED BELOW. DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DO NOT WANT KNOW CERTAIN PLOT ELEMENTS OR SPECIFIC SCENES!
Imagine if ET didn't meet Elliot but instead was captured by the government and tortured for decades. You would end up with a less than cute, very misunderstood homicidal maniac as the lead alien. There's no connection between the alien and the audience in this movie. He doesn't help or bond with the lead actor (Joe) and the only benefit of their brief encounter is that the alien decides he might be a nice person and therefore doesn't eat him. Oh lucky Joe!
The real problem with the is movie its too much. There were a lot of great names listed in the writing credits but with all the ideas floating around, no one took charge and said no, let's stick to one character and their situation. Here's a rundown of just a few drama points:
Joe: Mother dies in horrible accident. He is closely bonded with her and is lost. Father is town deputy and is mostly absent both emotionally and physically. He is a bright kid but a poor student (C- on his papers). He also likes the girl (Alice) whose father (Louis) is the nemesis of his father thus creating more conflict. He has a major show down with his father as he is forbidden to see Alice again (think Romeo and Juliet). He and his best friend (Charles) both like the same girl (Alice) setting off more tension. His desire to make a movie runs against his father's idea of going to summer baseball camp. Also, his dog (Lucy) runs away. As if this wasn't enough, he carries around the necklace that belonged to his dead mother. Apparently his father gave it to her when Joe was born and they somehow recovered it after a several ton steel beam crushed her. He eventually surrenders it to the alien as the last piece needed to power his new spaceship.
Charles: Dysfunctional family of pure chaos. Nice, clueless parents with a teenage daughter wanting to be a slut and group of minor siblings that scream and beat on the table during mealtime for no apparent reason. Obsessed with making his movie, he is overweight and lonely for a girlfriend. Tension between Joe and Charles mount over Alice. Tension rises because Alice doesn't want to do anymore movie scenes; Joe isn't allowed to make any move movie scenes; Cary keeps blowing things up during the movie scenes; the store film tech is a dope fiend who wants to date his sister; etc.
Alice: Sweet but poor girl next door (actually across the tracks). Her mother has abandoned her and her father (Louis). Her father is the town drunk, often arrested, forbids her from seeing Joe. She lives in a dirty, unkempt house. She steals her dad's car, drives without a license, and is eventually captured by the alien as her father tries to run her over with the family car. She somehow survives despite being hung upside down for days.
I could keep going on and on with the various characters as some of them are far more complex and have more drama than those I listed. However, I think the point is made and this is why this movie is no ET. With ET, you had Elliot and ET. The father is MIA and you really know very little about Elliot's family outside of their physical scenes. Same for the NASA alien chaser, Elliot's friends, and classmates. Close Encounters was similar in that you know the lead scientist, Roy and his family, and the woman and her child, Barry. In Super 8, the writing team casts so many nets in the hope that the audience will somehow connect to the character but instead leaves us hoping the alien eats them all and ends their miserable suffering.
You are also left with so many questions. Why was the alien being transported? Why would they transport the alien and the parts needed to rebuild his ship on the same train? How did a biology teacher who was dishonorably discharged in 1963 still have access to the alien's whereabouts and the train schedule 16 years later? How is the same officer is still in charge of the program 21 years later but was never promoted? It just endless plot holes which doesn't make this a bad movie, actually very average, but it never rises to the level of what we have come to expect from this group of writers and producers.