Super.

Rating: 9/10 (21 June 2012)

Writer/director J.J. Abrams knows, if anything, to keep the pace up, sometimes even hitting 11. His monumental STAR TREK reboot played testament to this as characters, settings, intrigue, cosmic play and even the death of Winona Ryder came flying at warp factor 9 when, at times, it can be argued, a slower pace would be welcome to provide more character development. So too happens here with Abrams' latest, SUPER 8, but instead of playing with Gene Roddenberry's creations, an even higher-power is being paid homage to as this film feels as it could be set in Producer Steven Spielberg's backyard.
The film itself pays homage to the days of super-8 mm recordings and times when young boys made movies before becoming the next generation of Hollywood. So too here, a group of teenage friends plan to make a monster movie and instead end up as stars of the film itself. However, unlike in the aforementioned STAR TREK, where the characters, if anything their names, are already known, Abrams' fast pace prevents the viewer from getting any deeper into the lives and characters of these kids who are already deep into their long-term existing friendships. Outside of Joel Courtney's Joe and Elle Fanning's Alice, the other friends all kind of blend into the Goonies, Elliott's bicycle gang and Biff Tannen's nameless thugs.
Abrams does get a huge piece of the puzzle correct, and that is the everyday boy getting involved in the spectacular extraordinary all wrapped in a coming of age tale – the perfect Spielbergian formula. Courtney and Fanning are believable – enjoyable – teens and their fathers – Kyle Chandler for Joe, Ron Eldard for Alice – are both dramatic and fantastic. As the tale rockets by a little too quickly, their characters make for a great focal point of the story, even if Joe's bedroom, perhaps a little unbelievably, houses every bit of late 70s and early 80s toy collector nostalgia possible.
SUPER 8, like Joe's bedroom, is a wonderful vision of nostalgia. A bit derivative at times, a little glossed over at others. However, it would be hard to come by a finer example of a modern-day look at a time of fun films.