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It’s damn hard to capture the spirit of adolescence on film. An incredibly important time in all of our lives, it’s an easy thing to botch, whether it’s the child actors who stumble over complicated dialogue or a filmmaker who looks back on the past with rose colored glasses. But when a writer and/or director is able to capture the incredible mix of emotions that come with the experience of youth, it can be beautiful. While J.J. Abrams hasn’t created a perfect film in Super 8, he has captured the essence of growing up and blended it with a compelling, action-packed, science-fiction tale that pays homage to genre classics without ever losing its spark of originality.
Set in 1979, the film begins with Joe (Joel Courtney) in mourning-- his mother was killed in an accident at the steel mill, and his relationship with his equally shellshocked father (Kyle Chandler) has only grown more distant and broken in the months since He spends most of his time with his friends (Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Basso, Zach Mills, Elle Fanning) as they shoot a low-budget zombie movie to enter in a local festival. After sneaking out at night to shoot a scene at the nearby train station, the kids witness the derailing of an Air Force train carrying precious and mysterious cargo. They are warned by a survivor of the crash to tell no one of what they have seen, only to find their town suddenly plagued by inexplicable occurrences, a heavy military presence and, worst of all, disappearing people.
Conquering the risks that come with a largely teenage cast, Abrams has assembled a group of actors who are nothing short of outstanding. While Courtney is obviously the band leader, and puts on an impressive and mature show for such a young actor, every member of the group is a joy to watch and has their own little quirk that prevents them from simply being part of an amorphous cluster. Lee – who plays an explosion-loving firebug – is a great source of comic relief and delivers some of the film’s best lines, while Griffiths, as the troupe’s director and Joe’s best friend, is charming in his portrayal of the motivated Charles, whose bravado gives way to an affecting vulnerability later on. These personalities all come together brilliantly when grouped together, each one’s best qualities being heightened in interaction with the others. Though the film is purposefully an homage to the early work of Steven Spielberg and films like Stand By Me and The Goonies, the young ensemble cast helps it stand on its own.
The ever-present lens flares threaten to get in the way, but Super 8 sports some truly stunning photography. While action movies in recent years have developed this awful habit of filming everything too closely, letting details and comprehension fall by the wayside, Abrams always has the camera impeccably placed, allowing the audience to fully take in the film’s scope. The train crash alone is a sequence that will keep your mouth agape five minutes after the fall of the last car. The quality extends to the quieter moments as well. In scenes between Joe and his father or with Alice (Fanning), Joe’s crush, Abrams and his camera draw out the tension, awkwardness or distance between the characters so that you understand them before a word is spoken. After tackling two all-out action films as his first two features, Abrams challenges himself with this project and handles the dramatic scenes with just as much skill as those loaded with explosions and crunching metal.
But while the performances and direction are stellar, the film does have some pretty substantial gaps in the storytelling. Super 8 is in every way a tribute to classic Spielberg, but where Abrams digs deep for the same emotional resonance we find in Jaws or E.T., he and the audience discover too late that it doesn't exist here. While we follow the disconnected relationship between Joe and his father from the first scene, the audience is never actually given any closure, the audience left to assume beyond the end of the film that everything has been patched up. The opposite goes for the conflict between Joe and Charles, which creates an interesting arc for their relationship but then solves it too quickly and without enough reason. The movie’s greatest mistake, however, comes during a sentimental moment at the end where Abrams betrays established elements of a central character's personality in an attempt to evoke emotion that instead falls flat. Super 8 is fueled by ambition and for the most part it’s an asset, but Abrams does bite off more than he can chew in some crucial areas.
While the ending is flawed, Super 8 is a chiefly a wonderful cinematic experience that mixes terrific performances, edge-of-your-seat thrills and excellent camerawork. Despite being in his mid-40s, J.J. Abrams has successfully honed in on the universal feelings of youth and captures the spirit of an era in a way that makes the audience feel nostalgic but never emotionally manipulated. For a film that doesn’t live up to its own ridiculously high expectations, it’s still very much a triumph.
Reviewed by: Matt Reviews Every king has a successor, and in the lineage of sci-fi action adventure movie making, it is clear to J.J Abrams with eventually wear the crown slowly slipping from the head of Mr. Spielberg. It would be deserving. As TV producer and filmmaker, Abrams has already created an industry unto himself, and Super 8 is set to state his case further, with is mix of domestic drama and action spectacle a prefect concoction for blockbuster season. Set in the late 1970s, the film focuses on young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney),who along with his police deputy father (Kyle Chandler) is reeling from the sudden death of his mom. Although a small town American kid, Joe is not into the small town American pastimes of baseball or football. He’d rather play with monster make up and construct models with his close group of friends, led by inspiring filmmaker Charles (Riley Griffiths) whose film project takes up their spare time and introduces Joe to young wild child Alice (Elle Fanning). With super 8 camera in tow, the group head to the train station for a night shoot full of “production value”. What follows is the money shot featured so heavily in the promo ads, as a cargo train derails and sends carriages into the air, dropping like bombs on our young heroes as they scramble for safety. Out of the wreckage escapes something strange and powerful. Soon it rampages through their little town, causing panic and drawing the military whose intentions are suspect. Abrams wisely evokes Jaws and refuses to reveal his creature too early, leaving the fierce brutality and strength of his monster to speak for itself. Yet this is not a monster movie. Rather it is a “human” movie, which happens to have a monster in it. Relationship’s is its forte. There is that between Joe and his dad, both unable to communicate without his mum as a buffer. There is the young love between Joe and Alice, which is sweet and convincing. Then there is that between Joe and his friends, the outsider kids who each bring their own eccentricities to the mix. Don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a kid’s film. It’s much too violent and mature to be described in that way. What Super 8 represents is a time when films were full of spirit, adventure and classy novelty, that was only worth seeing in the cinema, with family and friends for company. A lot of cinema purists look down upon the golden age of the summer blockbuster (1975-1985). But what many forget is that was a time when the spectacle of the movies was at its most ripe, with the films of Steven Spielberg a special treat (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial). There is no doubt that Abrams was a keen observer. Super 8 proves that, with every beat and moment born from the influence of his cinematic hero, yet made fresh through Abrams own visual gifts and solid story telling chops. Super 8 is not ground breaking cinema. Its influences are worn to loudly to be labelled that. But Super 8 is fun, thrilling and moving movie making, from a filmmaker who delights in entertaining his audience, just as Spielberg once entertained him. 4/5 |
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