In this drama-meets-sci-fi flick, J.J. Abrams carefully recreates the summer of 1979 when kids played with walkie-talkies, cassette tape Walkmans wowed everyone and video editing involved cutting strips of film with a blade. In this atmosphere, Super 8 combines family drama, lighthearted romance, friendship saga and a violently homesick alien in a film that’s ultimately unoriginal but still a pleasant experience.
Newcomer Joel Courtney plays a motherless Joe Lamb who teams up with his bossy friend Charles, and a slightly older Alice Dannard, along with a few other middle-schoolers to make a zombie film for a local super 8 film contest. During filming, they accidentally record a catastrophic train derailment whose unearthly passenger changes their lives and the lives of the inhabitants of tiny Lillain, Ohio. Besides all the picturesque CGI, Abrams also knows how to keep the audience alert and build up suspense by feeding information slowly. It’s a whole hour of noises and strange occurrences before the mysterious spider-like figure even makes a physical appearance.
Still, for all the squeals and fun, what Super 8 lacks is originality. Like most Spielberg-produced movies, the ingredients here don’t veer from the usual formula of suburban lives, a teaspoon of drama, a half-tablespoon of romance, and a mystery that will easily be solved at the end of the movie.
Still, this E.T.-meets-War of the Worlds film is certainly full of frightening, soul-stirring moments contrasted by the warmth among the characters. Super 8 also works thanks to resonant, at times amusing characters—Joe dealing with his mother’s death, Charles’s disappointment in love, Cary’s pyromania, not to mention the larger conflict between the powerful and the powerless. But we can’t say too much about that last one without giving away major spoilers. We will say, though: don’t leave your seats early. Ubonwan Kerdtongtawee