Director J.J. Abrams has a secret. But he doesn’t really need one.
The gifted pop auteur’s latest film, “Super 8,” arrives in theaters with a shroud of secrecy enveloping it. Other filmmakers might need gimmicks to lure people into the theater. But Abrams’ track record on screens both small (“Lost”) and large (“Star Trek”) makes such stunts superfluous.
The director can flat-out entertain. And that’s precisely what he does with “Super 8,” until the weight of the film’s mystery crushes the finale.
The year is 1979, and a group of precocious kids is trying to shoot a zombie movie with their Super 8 camera. They’ve got the undead makeup down cold and a leading lady has entered the picture – the sweet-faced Alice (Elle Fanning). They set up their camera one night near a local rail yard, a move the film’s director (Riley Griffiths) hopes will up the “production values” on his indie vision. But in the middle of the shoot a train derails, sending the kids scrambling for shelter.
The crash seems to go on forever, a dramatic overreach at odds with Abrams’ assured direction.
But was this merely a terrible accident, or did someone – or something – cause the train to derail in such spectacular fashion?
Soon, unexplained events start happening in the kids’ town. Dogs disappear. So do car batteries. And the secret might just be on the Super 8 film. The boys’ camera kept on rolling while they rushed for cover.
The coming of age elements click into place early and provide the necessary structure, including a bout of young love handled so delicately it almost evaporates upon closer inspection.
Kyle Chandler anchors the adult cast as the local deputy trying to solve the increasingly bizarre riddle roiling his town. But his character seems superfluous by the final reel. The kids are the main attraction here, and their “Goonies” sized antics get the most attention.
Young Fanning already showed she could hold the screen in “Somewhere,” but co-stars Joel Courtney, Griffiths and Ryan Lee similarly shine here.
“Super 8″ is the kind of nostalgia ride offering more than just an era-appropriate soundtrack. The period details pop without interrupting the fun, save a wink-wink sequence involving a Sony Walkman that’s more precious than funny. Add a perpetually stoned photo employee and a kid obsessed with explosions, and you’re in for a treat.
And then the big reveal happens.
You won’t find spoilers here, but it’s safe to say audiences won’t be shocked by what they see. Nor will they find the answers stand up to the hype. Could even Abrams deliver on his own promises? And those last 10 minutes. Whoa, what a letdown.
(Photo: Gabriel Basso plays Martin, Ryan Lee plays Cary, Joel Courtney plays Joe Lamb, and Riley Griffiths plays Charles in SUPER 8, from Paramount Pictures. Photo credit: François Duhamel. © 2011 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.)
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess this movie wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I expected a movie with innocent kids, something I could take my 9 year old too and just see a really good movie targeted at kids. Then I found out about the language. So my options are kids fare that is purely childlike with no emotional strains involved or take him to Super 8 and cover up his ears for all the cuss words. Guess I’ll have him wait 3 to 4 years before he sees this one. I just don’t understand why every movie has to be targeted to the tweens who think it’s a laugh riot every time they hear the f-word or the s-word on the big screen. I don’t want my youngest hearing that language and it’s not much of a gutbuster to us adults.
Not going to waste my money on anything Abrahms or Speilberg put out. I was very disappointed in Star Trek and this sounded so much like ET meets Cloverfield and that secured it in the No Watch catagory.
Aleric – surprised to hear you say that. I really dug “Star Trek,” although I agree Spielberg’s career really needs a boost right about now.
Shinsnake – yeah, I found the few moments of R-rated type content disturbing. It seemed like young-ish kids would LOVE watching their peers save the day. But it’s a mite too dark/scary/adult for them. Not smart.
PS … There were typos in an early version of this review. Apologies … all should be fixed now.
Christian,
I really appreciate your review. We CLEARLY saw the same movie. I liked “Super 8″ but agree that the ending was a disaster and that too many plot holes and poor decisions made the climax a rushed, clunky botch. It seems only a few film goers and critics are bothered by how little sense the ending makes or that a big climactic light show over shadows a beautiful film about growing up. I actually liked “The Case”, the film-within-a-film that plays over the end credits, better than the rest of “Super 8″!
-Barry Wurst
I don’t think the kids were pre-teen, early teens, junior high age. The VAST majority of the film is wonderful and they’d have been better to focus the advertising on that with the sci-fi elements secondary.
The ending wasn’t bad merely unsatisfying and predictable when one specific plot point is learned.
As someone who was just a little older than the characters, Abrams did a great job of capturing the time period.
Abrams remembers the simple rule that a majority of his contemporaries have forgotten: action and mayhem have meaning only when an audience cares about the people trapped within the maelstrom. And I cared for all of these characters, even that drunk dad that gets arrested in the beginning. Nice Review! Check out mine when you get a chance!
I thought this was going to be a kid movie and wasn’t planning to see it, but Ryan really, really wanted to see it. It was a total throwback to Goonies and Stand By Me. Even had the same ensemble of characters and older siblings, etc.
Ryan’s a total child of the 80s, so he really enjoyed this movie. We both thought the end was weak, but Ryan was more ready to forgive than I was.
By setting it in the 70s, Abrams was able to pull in an older audience. I heard that over 75% of the people who saw it this past weekend were over the age of 25.
Setting it in the 70s was sort of cheating, because you couldn’t make the same movie in modern day with cell phones, the Internet and digital cameras. It would have had to been written very differently if it had been set in 2011.
Great review!
We’ll disagree on this one, Christian. I had a big grin throughout this movie and while the ending monster looked a bit too much like a mud Transformer, I accepted it because the rest was such a nostalgic trip to when films were built around a story, not a special effects house. Now, about that early Spielberg marathon…
The Goonies is cool again.