A nostalgic monster movie for (almost) all the family

Rating: 9/10 (6 April 2012)

Having heard positive reviews of this film I was keen to see it and wasn't disappointed; its 1979 setting and young cast brought to mind films like 'Stand By Me' and 'ET: The Extraterrestrial'. The protagonists are a group of school children who are making a movie for an upcoming competition and one of their locations is a nearby railway station. When a train approaches they start filming thinking that having a real train in their movie will make it look more professional; what they did not expect was for that train to crash. There is something odd about the crash though; the area is littered with small grey objects and was caused by one of their teachers parking his pick-up on the tracks; miraculously he survived and warned then that they must never speak of what they saw or their lives will be in danger. It soon becomes apparent that something dangerous was on the train and the Air Force is determined to keep that quiet. Since this is the '70s they can't look at what they filmed immediately but have to wait three days for the film to be developed so don't find out just what was on the train for some time! In the days that follow the crash they must determine just hat they are up against and find out why the military want it covered up.
While this film was written and directed by J. J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg there were no well known people among the cast; that isn't to say they did a poor job though; in fact the opposite is true; I often find an unknown actor more convincing as I just see them as the character they are portraying rather than as an actor I know from various other performances. That said I'm sure they won't remain unknown; in particular Elle Fanning who was great as Alice. As one would expect from a twelve certificate film it isn't too scary but there are a few frights; I suspect most parents will be more concerned by the swearing than by the scariness. The actual violence is fairly minimal with the camera cutting away before we see anything too bad. The special effects look good; especially the spectacular train crash, which is even more dramatic than a real crash would have been! I watched it with several family members including my ten year old nephew and he thought it was great!