I’m watching either: the life J.J. Abrams dreamt about, or I’m watching his autobiography. Either way, I like it.
Oh, and the signature lens flares were nice to look at, too.
So let’s get to what I really liked about this film-the children. For quite a few of them, including the lead, Jo Lamb (Courtney), this was their first time gracing the silver screen. And how awesome is it to be in a J.J. Abrams film? I can only imagine it would be pretty damn awesome. While I never finished watching the show Lost (I gave up on it for not providing me with any answers whatsoever in season five), there’s a reason why networks continue to scramble to find ‘the next Lost’ and promote a variety of shows as such. Not everything he touches turns to gold, but provided the right people are there to nurture his little nuggets of ideas, they inevitably turn out to be diamonds in the rough.
Uh, yeah-back to the children, eh? Right. So glossing over the fact that Alice Dainard (Fanning) ended up being the Pretty Girl du Jour, the characterisations of the main group of boys was fan-freakin’-tastic. First of all, yes, they are all young-very young-teenagers, and they all look the part. Braces, baby fat, awkward hair cuts, and various stages of nerdness were great to watch because it was just so...real. And I hate to use that word in this case, but it’s true. Alice, the beautiful girl at their school, was miles taller than them all, and acted as such-she’s the girl in the boy’s club for the first time ever, she’s bound to be a bit awkward and giggle-ready (despite her lack of presence).
...if it weren't for you pesky kids!
The boys, on the other hand, were perfection. Their conversations revolved around food, how stupid/fat the other was, and this collective obsession with war movies. In a scene where they observe a crashed train the day after, who else but a young boy who’s hobby was train models would be able to confidently declare that the aforementioned crash was from the Air Force? And in another scene where they observe soldiers loading a rifle, again, who else but an adolescent boy would be able to look at it, and calm his friends, telling them that it was a tranquiliser dart, for “whatever’s out there”?
Basically, a massive thumbs up to Abrams and his childhood friends for creating such memorable, fun characters.
Surely the police force deserves inspiring locker room speeches, don't they?
Ok, so what else about this film...well, there was the standard Jurassic Park story arc which was to be expected between father (Chandler) and son, and yeah. I really enjoy Abrams, but frankly, Super 8 just didn’t really do much for me. The boys were a joy to watch interact (“we’re breaking into a SCHOOL-who even does that?!”), and yet it just felt lacking elsewhere. We all know by now that it’s a film about a monster, but I just wasn’t very interested in it. At all. In fact, if it had been a film more about the toils of making a zombie movie during summer break, with all this malarky going on in the background, I probably would have enjoyed it more.
I want to know what happened to the film-I want to know if it got into the festival, and if Charles (Riley Griffiths) deemed it all enough for the production value, and frankly, I want to know how the zombies came about in the first place. It’s always interesting to hear a new take on the zombie genre, and frankly, it feels like Abrams just shot the wrong film.
J.J. Abrams (not pictured)
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