Super 8 - Is it going to be 'Magical'?

I think your assessment of how the reviews have gone is a bit slanted. The reviews are good but hardly "the greatest movie of the past decade."

I would say most reviews pin it as a fun night at the movies, with more chills/thrills than a typical movie, and more heart than a lot of popcorn movies try to stuff. That's what I got out of it. It didn't leave me much to talk about afterwards, but I knew what I felt when I left...and it was a smile.

It helped remind me why I love going to the movies, and why I love to make movies. That's enough for me...and what I think JJ was aiming for. Mission accomplished, even with it's flaws.
 
Sorry I meant the shear volume of positive reviews make it seem like it has to be one of the best movies of our time,
not that they literally said that.
 
Well, JJ didn't do himself any favors by declaring his aspirations so vociferously in the media. He set himself up to fall short of movies widely considered to be masterpieces. It's an okay b monster movie that never reaches the heights it was going for.
 
After thinking on it some more I realized the most glaring storytelling flaw is that that kids have no bearing on the outcome of the movie.

SPOILERS

The train still would have crashed without them, the alien still would have escaped, he still would have gotten all his cubes back, and he still would have gone home. All the lead kid does is make a speech to the alien to stop him from killing anyone else, but the alien was already getting to leave anyway. JJ had set-up a few great opportunities for the kid to be crucial to the alien's storyline, especially being in possession of the cube, but he does nothing with them. This exacerbates the feeling that the film is two different movies that don't really mesh.
 
I was going to say this earlier as well but wasn't sure about posting spoilers.

*** SPOILERS ***

absolutely nothing other than the truck had any effect/impact on the storyline
The kids did nothing to help the alien. Did nothing to help the military.
The military, except for that lame tank fight at the end had barely any impact on the story.
The cube which the boy makes a point to take, he barely even acknowledged he had it and when he finally did
30 seconds later it flew away. That cube could have been a decent plot point but was barely even discussed.

The 8mm film (WHICH IS THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE) played no role in the movie...
the list goes on. Nothing other than that truck mattered in the entire film.


I do love the fact that the camera stopped rolling the moment the train stopped derailing, yet somehow captured the alien moving around which
happened mins later.

Also the biggest blunder of modern cinema in my opinion (ok maybe im exaggerating)
was the fact that a pick up truck can hit a speeding train head on which causes the train to go "hollywood derailment"
ends up with just the front end of the truck pushed in. The driver not only alive but still sitting in the drivers seat.

Hilariously bad.

Not to mention bad alien will eat people and wreck a town but 3 mins later everyone smiles like it's ET as it leaves.
 
And the film fades out leaving just an anamorphic lens flare.

But seriously, I really enjoyed the film. It's definitely flawed, but I thought it was solid entertainment. And I'm glad it's not a remake, sequel, rehash, reboot or Disneyland-Ride-Based-Movie. It's definitely a throwback, and the train wreck was over the top, but I loved and cared about the characters, and I was never bored. And I thought it definitely captured the child interaction and humor of those '80s Spielberg movies (my favorite part was the kid in the background mime-talking like a dead fish).
 
Saw this last night, and my eyes have just now returned to normal after all the lens flares... :D

One more lens flare joke, and then I'll stop: when I saw "Bad Robot Optical" in the credits, all I could think was, "Oh great, JJ has his own FX outfit just for lens flares now!" :)

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't call it magical. The ending was close, though. But I'm a jaded 40-year-old; me at the age I was when I saw, say, "ET" would probably be raving about "best... movie... EVER!" :)

With regards to SPOILERS:

While I agree with what's been said that the derailment was both A) over-the-top and B) completely unsurvivable... I personally do not have a problem with the kids not having more influence on the plot. I dunno, maybe I've seen too many movies where the kids outwit their parents, and the military, and pretty much the whole damn planet, but whatever the reason, I'm OK with this being a story about these kids caught up in events beyond their control and doing their best to deal with it.

I was glad that they didn't have this be the Roswell alien. When the teacher's tape started getting near a date, I was thinking, "Please don't be 1947, please don't be 1947..."

And it was funny to see the people walking out of the theater when the credits started stop and watch the "kids' movie." :D
 
Captain Pierce said:
I personally do not have a problem with the kids not having more influence on the plot. I dunno, maybe I've seen too many movies where the kids outwit their parents, and the military, and pretty much the whole damn planet,
Click to expand...

I can understand that, but they didn't have to go that far with their involvement. JJ could have told any story he wanted and changed it any which way to make it work and be more original. He chose to make a story based off a well worn model, but instead of following the blueprint, he instead made his own inferior version. I don't see the point.
 
Brandon Rice said:
Loved it
Click to expand...

I don't know about you but I see a resemblance--
Riley-Griffiths.jpg
Brandon_Rice_Headshot_Interview.jpg
 
haha maybe that's why I loved it so much... me and my friends in high school and jr high were just like these kids!
 
I thought this was a really fun summer "event" movie in the spirit of the ones I grew up on. Took the kids (9, 9, 12 and 12) to see it and they loved it. I could tell they connected with the characters in the movie - even though they are drawn from my generation. Put my old Super8 camera in the kids hands when we got back from seeing it and they're already working up a script to shoot this summer.
 
Batutta said:
After thinking on it some more I realized the most glaring storytelling flaw is that that kids have no bearing on the outcome of the movie.

SPOILERS

The train still would have crashed without them, the alien still would have escaped, he still would have gotten all his cubes back, and he still would have gone home. All the lead kid does is make a speech to the alien to stop him from killing anyone else, but the alien was already getting to leave anyway. JJ had set-up a few great opportunities for the kid to be crucial to the alien's storyline, especially being in possession of the cube, but he does nothing with them. This exacerbates the feeling that the film is two different movies that don't really mesh.
Click to expand...

I really like the movie. That useless bit of information withstanding, I agree with you. And, strangely enough, it is two different movies.

JJ wanted to make a movie about kids making a Super 8 movie, and he also wanted to make a monster movie. Apparently he was convinced to smash the two together instead of doing two separate pieces.

I liked it, still, and will watch it again within the next few days. I think it mostly appealed to me because of the relationships of the kids. Felt so very authentic and reminded me of how much I miss having a bunch of friends around back home.
 
Took my 15 year old daughter and she liked it. She has seen Close Encounters and ET, liked those as well but liked this movie better, but puts Goonies as the best of all of them. I would have to agree with her. She has not seen Cloverfield, I have (motion sickness, raises hand to mouth). SPOILER:

To me it seemed like it was two movies also. Goonies on one hand and a Baby Cloverfield on the other. I mean that damn thing was snacking on people 10 minutes before it took off and had everyone in awe, incluidng the girl that was literally in its mouth. Like they where sad to see it go. That would be like ET un-hinging his jaw and chomping Eliots head off right before HE took off. My guess? The thing flew home and right this minute there is an armada of war ships bearing down on us.

Steve
 
I remember reading somewhere that JJ Abrams had meetings with Spielberg with the idea for 2 separate films, a monster movie and a coming of age movie involving kids filming a movie, but he wasn't able to make either of them work. They came up with the idea to combine the 2 ideas into 1 film and it basically solved all the problems he was having.
 
I more or less loved this movie... even though I give it a B+... not an A... and I'd have to say there's almost no story.

SPOILERS IN GRAY

The final movie that plays during the credits... that the kids made... has a way more complete story then the movie itself. Why was the alien being moved, why did the teacher have to crash the train that way... and why the hell have all the "he's just scared and wants to go home" mixed with horrifying murders and people eating (not that *I* thought it looked horrifying... I mean from the kid's perspective)... and then of course not just one of the kids, but ALL of them... got pretty darn calm in the climactic moment they should have all died from heart-attacks... *ahem*... I also felt like the story arc had the cart before the horse... like simple things had to happen or else the story was going nowhere... ironically. Girl snatched... boy goes after her... warring dads must join forces... yadda' yadda' yadda'... very elementary motivations from the very start of the movie.

Still yes... I loved it (if a B+ can = love)... and I will see it again at the theater... I also love how freakin' brilliant the movie poster became after seeing the film.
 
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