Super 8 (2011)

I had a tiny realization tonight. I haven't done anything on the films of this summer. That's amazing to me because this season is like a four-month-long Christmas thanks to all of the movies I see in theaters every year. The last thing I saw in theaters is Super 8, and it was actually the second time I've seen it. It's still great. 

Super 8 tells the story of a group of young teens making a movie, using an old"Super 8" camera, to compete in a local film festival. While filming, these kids witness a devastating, and amazingly shot, train crash. Less than a day after the crash, weird things start happening in the town (Lillian, Ohio). Dogs are escaping in every direction, cars are being salvaged for parts, and the electricity is going out every once in a while. What unfolds is a mystery until the very end. 

To some viewers, all of this, at times, is just the background to the character-driven story of two of the kids. Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) has recently lost his mother. He, and his father, Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler), are still coping. They have lost any real connection they may have had with each other.   While filming the movie, Joe meets Alice Dainard, who is not so different from himself. The cast is filled out with Alice and Joe's friends and fellow filmmakers. All of these kids are given at least one major moment, but even when they're not doing anything important, they are still enjoyable to watch with the rest of the cast. 

 

A little lens flare never hurt anyone | Copyright 2011 Paramount Pictures

This film's viral campaign is dependent on not revealing much more of what happens. The trailers for this film were amazing; they gave away nothing and kept me very interested, months before the movie's release. J.J Abrams and Spielberg work great together, and it makes me wish I saw Star Trek, Close Encounters, and other features by each of them. To some, that's the problem. The bare-bones plot of this movie is like E.T, and a lot of people say this movie is too much like it and other Spielberg movies I actually haven't seen. But, I still wouldn't have cared about that, even if I saw the other Spielberg films. This film is just great, it has great acting, directing, writing. It has tension, mystery, suspense, romance, humor.