A beautiful and nostalgic movie!

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2015)

J.J Abrams and Steven Spielberg together – the director and the producer on the same project. What kind of film can be made with this join? Just one of the most beautiful and nostalgic movies of 2011. To be honest, the year of 2011 was the time when directors and producers looked back, to your career and have decided to make a movie about the past, about the childhood or about the magic of theater (Martin Scorsese for example). J.J. Abrams followed the same thought with his "Super 8", at start with the title of the movie. A typical camera of 1970's and early of 1980's, the super 8 camera have a very recognized sound that characterize it. With this sound, the movie begins and goes on, with the sound as a guide for what is coming. I really liked "Super 8", especially for the theme of 1980's. It's a movie about the decade that made us. It's not a thriller film, it's not an action film it's a new kind of "E.T." more mature and surrounded by a darkness feeling, but just with the desire to go home. It's summer on the small town of Lillian, on schools it's the time to recess and kids are very excited. But for the friends Joe, Martin, Cary and Charles, the summer is for other thing. They are recording a movie for the Festival of Super 8 Movies of Lillian, a typical movie about zombies. With them is Alice (or Allie) the girl that every boy wants to walk hand in hand. During the record, a violent train accident interrupts the "emotional scene". The accident releases a "thing" on the small town and suddenly, persons begin to disappear when others strange things begin to happen. The story turn around this "thing" and the problems it brings. We, bit by bit, know the creature released by the train. This is one of the most interesting things on this film, a recognized style of J.J. Abrams – he shows small parts of the "thing", creating a thriller around it. But other thing very interesting and important is the connection created between the characters and the public. I said many times the importance about this: this connection is the way of director recognizes his public. In "Super 8", the characters created by J.J. Abrams have story of life, they are not just stereotyped persons of the final 1970's. No, even the smallest thing has a link on the story, especially the main character Joe that lost his mother and now he have to live with this pain. The difference between "Super 8" for the other movies of the genre is the center of the story. The "thing" (at the end we know what it is) is just one part of this role, the screenplay have others priorities like develop the characters: the friendship between Joe and his boys, the hard relation of Joe and his father, and especially the love that, bit by bit begins to rise between Joe and Allie. Then, almost at the end, the screenplay centers on the creature and all mystery is solved. A movie with a very simple story, it's true, and at the first view, we make a mistake to think that is a thriller film. Nostalgia, it's what better describes this movie: a wonderful view about the 1980's, with characters that, even with stereotyped features, have their own world and their own story to show. Right, we can see "The Fat", "The Nerd", and "The Popular", but this is not the most important thing, it's just the starting line. The final is one of the most wonderful things on this film and others points stand out in "Super 8". The way that was recorded is a difference point. Lights on the camera focus on the face a movie about the 1980, with techniques of that time, but produced with a high technology. I love it!