Great film for kids but sadly pulls its punches a little too much for older folk

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2011)

For most of the way through Super 8 kept reminding myself to advise my 12-year-old son to watch it. Adults, too, will like it up to a point, and that point comes when the film's resolution is no resolution at all. When my children were younger, and sometimes still today, we watch Doctor Who together and the notably thing was that all-too-often I would get hopelessly lost and confused. Why? Because I was watching it through and adult's eyes. My two youngsters had no such problem. 'How come he was able simply to get up and walk out,' I would ask. 'Because,' they would reply, with all the scorn a child reserves for a dimwit adult, 'he used his sonic screwdriver!' This is that kind of film. Great story, but when it comes to getting an explanation for what turns out to be a truly fantastical tale, we are left begging. Super 8 involves a group of five young lads of about that age and a slightly older girl who are making a film on a super 8 camera, and its portrayal of those six is honest and truthful. While out filming, they witness a truly horrific train crash, and one of them realises that it was no accident. Cue heavy-handed air force serviceman, led by a particularly nasty type, to descend on the crash. They realise that someone has witnessed the crash and also start hunting whoever it was. Meanwhile, all kinds of weird goings on afflict the town nearby - all the dogs run off, the metal parts of everything goes missing, the electricity supply is continually disrupted, people are attacked by a 'thing' and finally the nasty air force men create a brushfire which threatens the town as a pretext for clearing the town in their hunt for the thing. So far, so good and so engrossing. But when it comes to these plot strands being resolved, I'm afraid writer/director/producer J J Abrams imagination seems to desert him. Worse, he pulls his punches badly: where we are led to believe that the 'thing' attacks people in order to kill them, they are, in fact, simply held captive in his lair (eventually to be rescued unharmed naturally - this is, after all, a certificate 13 film). But crucially no explanation is given whatsoever why the 'thing' should even bother to kidnap people as they neither threaten it and are of no use to it, either. Sadly, the attacks and the kidnaps are just a plot device. Oh, well. That's why this film - well-made, well-directed and well-acted by everyone, especially the youngsters - is more suited to uninquiring young minds who will not in the at all be disturbed by glaring holes in the plot. Given that the Steven Spielberg co-produces, the production values are high. I was especially gratified that the youngsters were not the nauseating cutey-sweet or all-knowing and cynical quasi-adults Hollywood likes to present us with, but ordinary straight-down-the-line 12 and 14-year-olds. That was one of the film's strengths. But all means go and take your youngsters to see a half-decent film, but for yourself be prepared for a little disappointment.