Abrams' homage to Spielberg

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2011)

"The Goonies" (1985) meets both "Close Encounters .." (1977) and "E.T." (1982) in this retro movie set in the summer of 1979, a simpler time for kids when there were no personal computers or Internet but a fun way for five young Americans to pass the time in a quiet mid-western town was to shoot their own Super 8 movie. The three aforementioned films were all created in some way by Steven Spielberg (now 63) who is here executive producer and his ardent fan is the 45 year old J.J. Abrams who is both the writer and director, most men having cut their film-making teeth on the eponymous piece of technical equipment.
The narrative is soon enlivened by a spectacular train crash and nothing which follows quite compares to this terrific scene but it's all very entertaining if (deliberately) derivative. I don't think it is spoiling things too much to reveal that an alien is involved. Of course, in the world of Spielberg, aliens are basically benevolent; however, this is 2011 so we can't have a cute E.T. but his more aggressive features are explained by abusive treatment from the US military (not unknown around the world). As in "Alien", we gradually we more of the creature as the story unfolds but we never really understand the role of those white cube things.
A recurrent theme of Spielberg movies is the absent parent and here two of the leading child characters have missing mothers. In fact, this is a very male film with the female of the species being mysterious either by not being around or, in the case of the one girl in the group of movie makers Alice (Elle Fanning), by being able to drive, to act, and to empathise. It's no wonder that the pre-pubescent rivals for her affection - 'director' Charles (Riley Griffiths) and 'hero' Joe (Joel Courtney) - have their film in a twist over her.
This movie within a movie ends neatly when, during the credits, we seen the finished Super 8 movie with clever connections with the real/reel movie.