Move over Super heroes, Super 8 has arrived from director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg. And like Close Encounters or E.T. before it, this story is about an alien taking over a small town in suburban America. The beauty of the movie is in its unraveling, in its twisting, its old-fashioned awe-struck factor, something we don’t see in today’s films. Super 8 feels like our own childhood memories of when something bigger-than-us left us thunderstruck. Undoubtedly based on Spielberg’s own childhood dreams of being a director, the story takes place in 1979 when four adolescent boys decide to make a zombie film. There’s something odd and all at once nostalgic about being seated in a large Imax theatre watching these boys make a film using their hand-splicing homemade equipment. Not to mention our director focuses on every detail of that era from cassettes to large-cushioned headsets to Walkmans to the term “Maybe it’s the Soviets?” when “things” start to make the town go awry.
For an hour you’re in complete awe of these four boys and the one girl able to break into their wolf pack, (Elle Fanning). Her father (Ron Eldard) is a hardened jerk and had something to do with the death of the mother of one of those boys. His name is Joe (Joel Courtney) a bright-eyed beautiful child who possesses all the wonderment and fearlessness one should possess when coming face to face with an alien. Joe’s father is the definition of small town sheriff (Kyle Chandler). He should kiss the casting director. But the film belongs to Charles (Riley Griffiths) the chubby-mouthy auteur director boy (Francis Ford Coppola in the making perhaps) who keeps tossing around words like “Production value.” The beauty of these characters is that we care about them. They deliver their performances with a calculation that typically dominates young boys. Their fearlessness and their awkwardness allow us to become them as an audience. And that’s due to seamlessly exquisite direction by Abrams “Lost,” Mission Impossible and Star Trek. But the movie isn’t flawless by any means. Unlike the cute and inquisitive long-necked creature E.T., this alien is a downright creep. And once exposed, he thrives on eating humans and destroying an entire town. One could compare the alien to an unnecessary ice storm. Pellets hit, accidents happen, people die in collisions, and the next day it seems all for nothing because the sun is shining innocently.
That said, there’s something missing in today’s cinema where Marvel characters are taking over the box office. If you’re tired of sequels and prequels, this is your film. And while it’s not perfect, it’s got the boy on a bicycle tearing through town. So it’s as close to ET as you’re going to get. And is that such a bad thing? Three tiaras