How much you like Super 8 (2011) will be dictated by your expectations. If you know it is directed and written by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg and you compare it to movies like E.T. and Stand By Me, you will be disappointed and disgruntled. But if you are looking for a decent summer action movie that is a fun ride, and you do not care that you might forget about it the next day, then you will enjoy Super 8.
The film follows a group of kids in a small town in Ohio in 1979 who are making a movie about zombies on a super 8 home movie camera. While they are shooting one scene, they see a train crash that creates a dark mystery. As the story progresses, the town is thrown into chaos, and the adventurous kids try to put together the pieces of the puzzle. The young actors, including Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney in his first feature, are excellent. Courtney’s performance has to work for the film to work, and it does.
I will not ruin the story, but the film features themes of parent-child relationships, issues about losing a loved one, an apparent supernatural mystery, and a bad guy military officer. One might argue that the movie tries to do so much that it does not do any one thing exceptionally well, but the sum of the parts make for a fun light-hearted ride.
If you do go see the movie, make sure to hang around after the credits start to see the film the kids were making throughout Super 8.
What did you think of Super 8? Leave a comment.
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