"Super 8"

Okay... after the incredibly profound Tree of Life, it's tough to think about a movie in quite the same way. So today, we're doing something completely different.

Now... we're going over to the Steven Spielberg asthetic. Why? Because everyone remembers E.T. fondly. Well, most of you do anyway. Right?

Either way, we have an homage to early Spielberg on our hands. So what's the story with that?

Let's get to today's movie...

Super 8

Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) has just lost his mother, and is helping his friends make a zombie movie. While they are making the movie, however, a mysterious train accident occurs at the station they are filming at, and soon after a slew of strange events begin occurring around their town, along with a nice helping of military dudes showing up. Joe and his friends then decide to look into it, while the government does its best to cover stuff up and Joe finds himself trying to mend his relationship with his father (Kyle Chandler).

And so on and so forth. Let's get started.

This film has the 80's feel down perfectly. It feels almost exactly like the early works of Stephen Spielberg, which can only be a good thing. The aesthetic matches, the storyline matches... everything matches, and it works quite well as an homage.

But on its own merits, it also works really well. This is one of those movies (again) in which the one thing they have to get right will help the rest of the movie click into place. And this is in watching what the kids in this movie do. And they get it really well. All of the child actors in this movie are incredible, and they give some incredible performances, especially from Elle Fanning. That helps many of the movie's elements click together, as we can empathize with them and that only makes the action scenes that come up in the third act more intense.

Some of the elements don't always seem to gel, though: the government conspiracy bits and the parts with Joe's father all feel like afterthoughts, not like things that would have worked in the actual movie. Still, they work pretty well with what they are, and even if they are afterthoughts they still feel like they add up to something.

So yeah. That's Super 8, being an incredibly entertaining film. I for one think it's a vast improvement over J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot (which I found to be heavily overrated), and I enjoyed it a lot. So... yeah.

Go check it out.

3.5/4

Most definitely worth checking out.

This is Herr Wozzeck Reviews. I'll see you guys next time.