Super 8 Review

• 2nd Aug 2011

Super 8, JJ Abram’s love letter to his childhood and a certain Mr Spielberg, is an entertaining and charming little blockbuster (how often do those words go together?) but I couldn’t help but feel a tad underwhelmed by the experience and I think I know why. Simply, I don’t really like ET. Now I’m aware that puts me firmly in a minority, but I only saw it as an adult and I found it annoying and simpering. I’m not saying Super 8 suffers from the same, I just feel that ET lovers will ‘get’ this movie more than I could. I’m a monster movie fan. I want monsters.

The movie set up is simple: In 1979 small town America, whilst clandestinely making a zombie movie on an 8mm camera, a group of early-teen friends witness a huge train crash and are immediately thrown up against military conspiracies and secrets as they try to protect themselves from an alien destructive force. As an homage to the intrepid kid movies of the 1980s Super 8 works well, it has certainly has the intrepid kids, it also has the hugely weighted odds as said children battle forces much bigger and more adult than themselves. The thing is, the first teaser for the film promised a film much more similar to Abrams’ first, Cloverfield, a movie more horror than anything else. When the full trailers of Super 8 became available, I was slightly disappointed at the ET-like flavour. I wanted another grown-up horror, I didn’t want The Goonies with the giant octopus left in. Don’t get me wrong – I love the Goonies, it’s just that clever monster movies are so few and far between and Cloverfield left me desperate for more.

The film itself is full of charm: the town of Lillian, with its clapboard houses and summer haze is full of it. Easily the best thing about the film is the child cast; without any sign of annoying precociousness, they have a wonderful boisterous chemistry, shouting over one another like real children, rather than waiting their turn to talk (I’m looking at you Harry, Ron etc…). Abrams has endowed them with real personalities, each as distinct and hilarious as the next. Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb, son of the taciturn deputy, and Elle Fanning as Alice, his crush, are great and have a wonderful connection never verging on irritating. And my favourite, Ryan Lee’s Cary, a walking firework, who made me giggle with his constant desire to blow things up.

The train crash itself, portions of which are seen in the trailer, is an absolute marvel. Far more impressive than any firey scene Michael Bay has rammed down our throats, we get a real sense of danger. The ‘visiting’ entity is likewise very well done, with the perfect proportion of fleeting glimpses to full revelation, something JJ is obviously now adept at after Cloverfield. There is a nice interplay and competition between the military forces and Lillian’s police force, in the shape of Deputy Lamb, which neatly mirrors the power struggle between the rather neglected Joe and his bereaved father.

For me, the biggest problem is that the film tilts towards the fact that it is somehow more important that Joe’s father has given him the attention he needs than the fact a 13 year old has come into contact with and withstood an alien creature. Really JJ? Really? Cloverfield, with its ‘knight in shining armour’ narrative, didn’t downplay the destruction of New York as merely a crumbling backdrop. I think the slight lack of awe engendered by the creature’s existence and the emphasis placed on the final drippy moments are really where Super 8 loses me. However, it is truly funny, and I say it again, genuinely charming. It is a true blockbuster that has a golden heart, even if the sappiness got a little too much for me. Not as good as Jurassic Park, but in my opinion, better than ET.

Hannah Turner