After witnessing a mysterious train crash, a group of friends in the summer of 1979 begin noticing strange happenings going around in their small town, and begin to investigate into the creepy phenomenon.
A monster mash-up of '50s sci-fi, late-'70s / early '80s event movie and autobiography, Super 8 doesn’t possess the top-to-bottom greatness of the films it’s modelled on but, in shooting for the stars, leaves 90% of modern blockbusters in the gutter. Mint.
Super 8 is a loving homage to the way blockbusters used to be, which carries its own lessons for Abrams’ contemporaries today.
It’s nowhere close to E. T. — what is? — but amongst the hullabaloo of summer, Super 8 is something to cherish: a beautifully made homage to better times, and better movies.
It’s very E.T., very Goonies and very Close Encounters — wonderful fun.
The best blockbuster of its kind since the Spielberg era.
It really is a terrific first act: witty, smart, exciting...but then what?
It is old fashioned and without flash, built on people and relationships, more of a slow-burn mystery than an action fest, but no less compelling for it.
It has been said that, in terms of themes, narrative arc and even visual motifs, Super 8 is too much like a Spielberg film. Well, better that than being like a Michael Bay film. Abrams has created a clever, enjoyably reverential, and very entertaining update of an old-fashioned boy’s-own caper.
A bravura exercise in being bravura.
Super Indeed.
The film's charm doesn't last the distance. You can virtually pinpoint the scene from which it starts to decline into formulaic, FX-driven setpieces. Abrams has nerve as well as talent, but not enough of either to resist the gravitational pull of box-office numbers.
What follows is a fun, suspenseful and heartfelt adventure as the kids gradually cotton on to the presence of an alien being in the town whose fate ultimately rests in their hands.
Old school or new school, it works.
Super 8 is not so much a pastiche of Spielberg's films as a note-perfect impersonation. It's so entertaining, that only in the closing stretch do you notice that the young heroes haven't actually done very much.
Nothing in the latter part of Super 8 matches the first 40 minutes, but the suspense is well sustained and the performances are attractive.
The family blockbuster returns
JJ Abrams: 'I called Spielberg and he said yes'
Super 8--World of Wonder
The story of Super 8: how every man, woman and child became a film-maker.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews