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marinessI had two main thoughts after watching Super-8: one, that this was so far the best movie of the summer (not that the competition has been stellar, I admit; the runner up is Thor, followed by X-Men), and two: Abrams. Cut down on the lens flares. Trust me, you do not want this to be your directorial signature.
Super-8 works on a number of different levels: as a story of young teenagers trying to come to terms with life while making a film; a homage to Spielberg and Stephen King, to the point of flat out stealing scenes and concepts from both; and a fairly effective monster tale, with Abrams seemingly saying, Finally, finally, I CAN USE ALL OF THOSE SOUND EFFECTS that would just FLOP in Lost and Fringe (and to a lesser extent, Star Trek).
And on all of those levels, it works quite well, even if at points I found myself playing the "guess the Spielberg film here" game. Goonies is obvious, as are the military dudes from E.T. and the attack on the bus straight out of Jurassic Park. (The train wreck sequence, though, seems to be a nice little nod to the world's Best Bad Movie Ever, The Greatest Show on Earth, which Spielberg and I can't help adoring despite its sheer awfulness) The monster is….not overly effective once we finally see it, and that bit and the spaceship sequence strongly suggest that Abrams should have taken another look at Close Encounters with the Third Kind, but the parts where the monster is largely unseen work quite well.
But I had some quibbles.
The biggest problem is the seeming shift of the relationship of Alice and her father. He's initially portrayed as an alcoholic, abusive jerk...and then, suddenly we find out that he really loves her all the time and happy hugs all around. Ok, yes, she was snatched up by an alien and he was put on a lot of drugs in the meantime, but...this is the same guy that earlier told her she could never see Joe again and told Joe's father to keep the kids apart, because, well, the drunk guy missed a shift and so Joe's mother took over the shift and died and Joe's father is upset so…Let's just say it was inadequate, suggesting, with the alcohol, some very, very deep issues all around, all saved by yay, alien kidnappings. I realize this is a cliché, and I realize that kids can and do love alcoholic parents, but something felt overlooked here.
Talking about missing scenes – I'm assuming that the scene explaining just why the fifth kid didn't come monster hunting, especially given that he was not the kid throwing up during the train crash and seemed pretty interested in the whole deal, will be forthcoming in the DVD. I mean, yes, I got for plot purposes it was great to have him around to hand over the film to Joe's father was nice, but that room was filled with various minor characters capable of handing over films to Joe's father. Speaking of dropped plot lines, since at least some of the dogs were found elsewhere, did we have any doggy/people reunions?
Meanwhile, my father and I had the identical problem with the train sequence, which was, no way would a pickup truck cause ANY freight train to derail THAT much, awesome though the resulting train crash was. Ok, yes, the train had an alien able to toss metal around and all kinds of little cube things doing weird things to metal not to mention explosives, but, still. (And that the train just HAPPENED to be going near the town where one of the chief scientists studying the alien just HAPPENED to be teaching biology, which, wait, what, you're really going to let the scientist who has mentally linked with the alien go teach junior high biology? Seriously? But, moving on.)
On the other hand, AWESOME train wreck sequence – easily the highlight of the film.
And one more quibble, one that was probably just me:
I kept hoping that the kid director would get the girl.
Ok, sure, he was bossy and filled with self-doubt and had a possibly unhealthy interest in zombies (not that I'm in any position to talk.) Ok, yes, Joe and the girl had more to bond over (I'm assuming since her mother was never in the film...then again, that applies to women in general, except for the girl, adding to that Stephen King/IT feeling).
And yet. He was the one with the courage to approach the girl, to offer her something she really wanted, but didn't know she wanted – to act. He was the one to help unleash a talent she never knew she had: that first astonishing acting sequence from her came before she had done any bonding with Joe, before Joe gave her any guidance about how zombies act. He was the one putting together the film, the one desperate to figure out how a story worked.
And not only did he not get to head down into the pit to help save the girl, he had to admit, to his clueless friend, that the girl really liked the clueless friend – not him. He was angry – and yet he set off to rescue her anyway. Oh, sure, I can see the other argument – do we want Joe to lose his mother AND the girl in the same flick? But Joe regains his father. Charles stays lost in his overlarge family.
Well. At least he finished up his film.
Super-8 works on a number of different levels: as a story of young teenagers trying to come to terms with life while making a film; a homage to Spielberg and Stephen King, to the point of flat out stealing scenes and concepts from both; and a fairly effective monster tale, with Abrams seemingly saying, Finally, finally, I CAN USE ALL OF THOSE SOUND EFFECTS that would just FLOP in Lost and Fringe (and to a lesser extent, Star Trek).
And on all of those levels, it works quite well, even if at points I found myself playing the "guess the Spielberg film here" game. Goonies is obvious, as are the military dudes from E.T. and the attack on the bus straight out of Jurassic Park. (The train wreck sequence, though, seems to be a nice little nod to the world's Best Bad Movie Ever, The Greatest Show on Earth, which Spielberg and I can't help adoring despite its sheer awfulness) The monster is….not overly effective once we finally see it, and that bit and the spaceship sequence strongly suggest that Abrams should have taken another look at Close Encounters with the Third Kind, but the parts where the monster is largely unseen work quite well.
But I had some quibbles.
The biggest problem is the seeming shift of the relationship of Alice and her father. He's initially portrayed as an alcoholic, abusive jerk...and then, suddenly we find out that he really loves her all the time and happy hugs all around. Ok, yes, she was snatched up by an alien and he was put on a lot of drugs in the meantime, but...this is the same guy that earlier told her she could never see Joe again and told Joe's father to keep the kids apart, because, well, the drunk guy missed a shift and so Joe's mother took over the shift and died and Joe's father is upset so…Let's just say it was inadequate, suggesting, with the alcohol, some very, very deep issues all around, all saved by yay, alien kidnappings. I realize this is a cliché, and I realize that kids can and do love alcoholic parents, but something felt overlooked here.
Talking about missing scenes – I'm assuming that the scene explaining just why the fifth kid didn't come monster hunting, especially given that he was not the kid throwing up during the train crash and seemed pretty interested in the whole deal, will be forthcoming in the DVD. I mean, yes, I got for plot purposes it was great to have him around to hand over the film to Joe's father was nice, but that room was filled with various minor characters capable of handing over films to Joe's father. Speaking of dropped plot lines, since at least some of the dogs were found elsewhere, did we have any doggy/people reunions?
Meanwhile, my father and I had the identical problem with the train sequence, which was, no way would a pickup truck cause ANY freight train to derail THAT much, awesome though the resulting train crash was. Ok, yes, the train had an alien able to toss metal around and all kinds of little cube things doing weird things to metal not to mention explosives, but, still. (And that the train just HAPPENED to be going near the town where one of the chief scientists studying the alien just HAPPENED to be teaching biology, which, wait, what, you're really going to let the scientist who has mentally linked with the alien go teach junior high biology? Seriously? But, moving on.)
On the other hand, AWESOME train wreck sequence – easily the highlight of the film.
And one more quibble, one that was probably just me:
I kept hoping that the kid director would get the girl.
Ok, sure, he was bossy and filled with self-doubt and had a possibly unhealthy interest in zombies (not that I'm in any position to talk.) Ok, yes, Joe and the girl had more to bond over (I'm assuming since her mother was never in the film...then again, that applies to women in general, except for the girl, adding to that Stephen King/IT feeling).
And yet. He was the one with the courage to approach the girl, to offer her something she really wanted, but didn't know she wanted – to act. He was the one to help unleash a talent she never knew she had: that first astonishing acting sequence from her came before she had done any bonding with Joe, before Joe gave her any guidance about how zombies act. He was the one putting together the film, the one desperate to figure out how a story worked.
And not only did he not get to head down into the pit to help save the girl, he had to admit, to his clueless friend, that the girl really liked the clueless friend – not him. He was angry – and yet he set off to rescue her anyway. Oh, sure, I can see the other argument – do we want Joe to lose his mother AND the girl in the same flick? But Joe regains his father. Charles stays lost in his overlarge family.
Well. At least he finished up his film.