Part “The Goonies” part “War of the Worlds,” J. J. Abrams’ Steven Spielberg produced monster movie, “Super 8,” is entertaining stuff. However, it can’t live up to its wonderful set-up. And given the colorful adult skewing language and intense and sometimes violent scenes, it might be too much for the littlest viewers.
“Super 8” opens with an ominous sign, literally, a sign in a factory designating the number of days since the last plant accident. From somewhere over 700 days, the sign is changed to 1. We learn that Joe Lamb’s (Joel Courtney) mother has been killed while working on the assembly line. Joe’s father, Jackson (Kyle Chandler), a sheriff’s deputy, doesn’t cope very well with the loss. Months pass and Joe and his best friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) have bonded around their love of movies. Charles is a budding Spielberg and Joe is his talented make-up and special effects assistant. Along with their enthusiastic friends, they being the process of making a movie. It’s a zombie detective film and Charles isn’t pleased with what he calls the “production value” that they’ve been getting. He also wants to add a love interest to the story. And just by luck a pretty girl named Alice (Elle Fanning) volunteers to appear in the movie.
The story unfolds very much like a film made in the late 1970s or early 1980s with a particular nod to “ET” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Writer/director J. J. Abrams had to have worked closely with his producer Spielberg because the touch of the great master director is felt throughout.
The moment that the kids in “Super 8” sneak out at night to shoot a scene for their movie, the action really takes off. It helps that every character is so finely cut and developed. Led by a terrific performance by Elle Fanning (Dakota’s very talented younger sister), the script makes us care about everyone. Like “ET,” “Super 8” perfectly captures the speech patterns of youngsters in the 1980s–the kids clumsily use expletives in innocent tones. The setting feels very authentic and real.
It against this backdrop that a fantastic monster movie is placed. While shooting that scene at night, the kids get caught up in an enormous train derailment. After the smoke clears, something scary escapes from a damaged railroad car. And, as luck would have it, the Super 8 film camera they’re using captures the whole thing. In a matter of hours, their little town is overrun by the military mysteriously searching for something. The Air Force officer in charge is the vicious Nelec (Noah Emmerich from “The Truman Show”). And when the town’s sheriff disappears, Joe’s father takes over.
What happens next will remind viewers of “ET” and scenes from “Close Encounters.” And the homage paid to those films really works. Of course, having Spielberg on as a producer can’t hurt, but J. J. Abrams demonstrates a very steady hand, especially early on when the dramatic portions of the story are developed. And it is because the pathos is so thick and credible that the fantastic elements become so intense and scary. This makes “Super 8” very entertaining for teen and older viewers but young ones will be frightened. The monster in this movie isn’t ET or something friendly and merchandisable as a cuddly stuffed animal. And while this edge will somewhat limit the potential breadth of the audience, it demonstrates the main difference between the then and the now.
In the 1980s, science fiction films seeking to attract a wide audience tended to stay away from graphic depictions of realistic violence. There was more going in inside the characters heads in films like “ET” and “Close Encounters” than action and violence shown on screen. And these days given the evolution of special effects and computer generated animation, as well as audience tastes crafted by realistic video games, the approach is to show more and to use all the wonderful toys that are available to filmmakers. This means that instead of intellectual action, we’re treated to explosions and graphic violence. Of course, this can be smart as “Super 8” shows us. But the film’s big action conclusion can’t hold a candle to the explosive and gripping emotions that mark the movie’s excellent first half. And that’s okay, “Super 8” isn’t “ET,” it doesn’t aspire to be the next classic.
“Super 8” may fall short of the films that inspired it, but it’s still one of the more entertaining monster movies of recent vintage.