While not the most original plot, Super 8 offers a lot!

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2014)

I'd give anything to have grown up in the Seventies! The 21st century is the lazy generation, where cell phone junkies, couch potatoes and internet-addicted soccer moms thrive, where traditional film is being replaced with digital just because it's cheaper and kids can swear constantly in class and have teachers turn a blind eye. I'm not saying the seventies sounds perfect, but from where I'm standing, it had better music, better people, and there wasn't a cellular phone in sight. So, when I heard of Super 8, I couldn't wait to see it. Granted I've never really been a fan of Elle Fanning (I think she's extremely overused in movies), but all the same I was excited to see it.
Well, Super 8 is lacking a little on the originality side, that is to say, there are very many other movies and books that follow quite a similar plot. But I've gotta say, it's great to see a movie for kids (adults, teens?) that brings back the nostalgia of the times and shows kids that life is better when you make your own fun and adventures instead of just going online and playing video games 24/7. There were many references to past movies and it was cool to count 'em all, the soundtrack included popular (and better) music from the year the movie took place, and the cast was excellent. Like I said, I've never been a fan of Elle Fanning but she was amazing in this movie, and some of my favorite actors as well were Ryan Lee as Cary, Zach Mills as Preston and Ron Eldard as Louis Dainard.
Super 8 is one of those movies that, like The Ice Storm (1997), The Lovely Bones (2009) and Silkwood (1983), ends up being so much more than a blast from the past. Super 8 has everything from aliens to industrial small towns to a pyromaniac to a harsh reality in life - sometimes things just have to end, and sometimes we just have to move on with our own lives - but it's also a movie about friends sticking together in hard times and trying to have fun in a place where nothing seems to happen, until one day everything begins.