Good But Not in the Way You'd Expect

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2012)

Super 8 (2011)
*** (out of 4)
A cross between THE GOONIES and a 50s sci-fi movie, SUPER 8 tells the story of a group of kids in 1979 who are making their own zombie movie via a super 8 camera. Everything is going fine until one night they capture a train derailment and soon the military moves into their town and starts to take things over. No one can get any answers but it appears one of the school teachers knows a secret that the government wants to keep from everyone. With a director like J.J. Abrams and a producer like Steven Spielberg you know there would be something good and that's exactly what we're given, although I think the film falls well short of being a great picture. I'm shocked to say this but I think the movie works best as a character development more than a monster or action movie. I think the best thing going for the film is the relationship between our main hero Joe (Joel Courtney) and Alice (Elle Fanning). The two of them are connected through a tragedy and the way this place out was quite touching and the minor romance between the two was a lot better than some of the big-budget romantic comedies that get released each year. The way both characters and their fathers develop made for a very interesting movie and it's not something you typical see in a film like this. It also doesn't hurt that the performances are so strong. The kid actors all do a very good job in their parts as does Kyle Chandler and Ron Eldard as the parents. Another strong thing is that they capture the 1970s very well and I'd almost say this film feels exactly like a movie from that period and especially some of the made-for-TV movies that were scaring kids at the time. There are a few problems with the film and one of them is that there's really no suspense or drama. The film plays everything very safe and I'd say it plays things way too safe because you never feel as if any of our main characters are in trouble. Another problem is that the film runs about ten-minutes too long and when you consider how the movie ends you can't help but think some of the stuff leading up to it could have been cut. Finally, the monster in the movie really doesn't work and when the big reveal happens I must say that I was letdown. With that said, SUPER 8 is still worth viewing for fans of the genre but I think what really makes the film work are the characters.