Super 8

Yestderday Kim and I had the pleasure of going to see Super 8. It is directed by JJ Abrams of Lost fame and it shows. It was produced by Steven Spielberg and you can see that as well.

Super 8 is a Sci Fi movie... I would go so far to say that it is a B Science Fiction because it brings back the memory of movies such as Goonies and Gremlins. It takes place in the fictional town of Lillian Ohio and the story is centered around a group of middle schoolers shooting a horror move. While they are shooting they witness a horrific train crash that was caused by a person in a pick up truck driving onto the tracks and colliding with it head on. The train crash is quite impressive and even though kids are the stars of movie you are not sure they are going to survive. They do. And as they are rummaging the sight they find the man responsible who is miraculously still alive; they find that out when in horror movie fashion he pops his head up off the steering wheel and scares them. He manages to tell the kids to basically forget what they saw at the sight. However it is hard for the kids to walk away and one kid walks away with a mysterious cube like object. After of which the military shows up and the kids get away just in time. We then start to surmise there is a very sinister cargo aboard the train. The rest of the movie then deals with the town reconciling with the train crash and the mysterious cargo aboard which starts to affect the town adversly, for example, dogs start disappearing. Cars won't start and some have their engines mangled. We learn that what was on the train is an extra terrestrial being... and as I said before one of the trademarks of JJ Abrams is that you don't see the monster like in Lost and the black smoke.

Super 8 is an entertaining movie and what I especially liked about the movie was the accurate depiction of 1979-80. It put me right back in that period and I remembered wanting to make my own movie back then. They also did a good job of making the military sinister but not in a stereotypical way. If I had to nit pick i thought the kids dialogue was a little wooden. Kyle Chandler who plays the sheriff's deputy was good and this was despite the fact he is fresh from playing Coach Taylor from Friday Night lights. Other actors turned in good performances too. I don't think the movie will when any academy awards but it is entertaining. Super 8 opened this weekend and is playing at theater near you.