There is only one J.J. Abrams!

Rating: 9/10 (10 August 2011)

Super 8 was one of the most anticipated films of 2011 but like with any film with high exception there is the risk becoming a major disappointment. Luckily it delivered and is both a highly entertaining film and has a heart.
Set in the late 1970s in the town of a Lillian, Ohio, Joe Lamb (Joel Courntney) is a 13-year-old boy whom mother dies in a work place accident. His father (Kyle Chandler) is the Deputy Sheriff of the town and obviously struggling with the lost of his wife and having to care for his son. Joe's friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) is directing a zombie film, wanting to ever it into a film festival. Joe helps his friend and one night they film at a train station with Alice Dainard (Elle Franning) and the rest of their crew when a truck drives into a train and derails it. Quickly strange things happens in the town; dogs runaway, people disappear and there are power cuts. The military rolls into town. But whilst all this goes on the teens attempt to complete their film and Joe and Alice become closer.
J.J. Abrams is a highly skilled writer and director and modelled his career on Steven Spielberg, not a bad model. But unlike say M. Night Shyamalan who did the same thing Abrams is able to vary his style. Whilst Super 8 is an entertaining, first pace film, Abrams made sure that the family and human drama was central to his film. We got to know his characters and their issues. We basically see the mystery and the events through the eyes of children and original people some unusual is happening. Some critics have compared Super 8 to Spielberg's early films, which makes sense because of his influence on the director and produced it, but I personally was reminded by of Stephen King stories, a group of original kids who get cause in some extraordinary event. There was fast paced action, the train clash was a really well made sequence, but the social drama was also interesting, whether it was Joe and his father having to face up to their relationship, the investigation by the police or Joe and Alice's budding relationship.
Abrams was able to make his film a success without the need to cast big name actors. His young cast were skilled and natural, they actually felt like they were ordinary kids, not what some Hollywood hack thinks what they are like. They are made out to be individuals, they are slightly nerdy but Abrams avoided the clichés of cliques and bullies. The adults too are made out to be normal, ordinary people trying to cope with their domestic issues and affects on their communities.
Super 8 is not perfect, there is a bit too much comic relief involving the characters for its own good and there are a few clichés: but it still a whether movie.