SUPER 8

The making of J. J. Abrams “Super 8” was shrouded in secrecy.  No-one knew what it was or what it was about.  This was a spot of marketing genius because suddenly the buzz on the film was enormous without anyone seeing a frame of the film.  Speculation was high as to just what it was about, with a lot of people convinced that it was going to be a prequel to “Cloverfield” (which Abrams produced).  Eventually Abrams dropped a little tidbit by explaining the film was going to be a tribute to those early “Spielberg” films, or more accurately “Amblin” films, like “E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial” , “The Goonies” and “Explorers”.  I must say that I have never been a massive Abrams fan, and although I wasn’t really anticipating “Super 8”, this new piece of information had piqued my interest.  It wasn’t until the first trailer for the film came out, that “Super 8” really hit my radar, but after I saw that, it went straight to the top of my “must-see” list.  From the trailer it seemed as if Abrams had got both the look and tone absolutely spot-on to those old Spielberg films, however would it be able to live up to the greatness of those classics.

Set in 1979, the film opens in the small industrial town of Lillian, Ohio, where one of its beloved residents has just been a victim of a horrible workplace accident, costing the woman her life.  At the wake of the woman we find out that she was actually the mother of our main character, Joe (Joel Courtney).  Joe is sitting outside in the front yard of his house, away from everyone else who are all inside reminiscing about his mother.  Soon enough a very drunk Louis (Ron Eldard) stumbles into the wake crying about being “sorry” until he is forcibly removed by Jackson (Kyle Chandler), Joe’s father and one of the local policemen.

After the wake, the film skips ahead a couple of months and when we re-enter the story we see that Joe and the rest of his teenage friends are helping Charles (Riley Griffiths) in the making of his zombie film, which he is trying to complete in time to enter into a local competition.  Besides Joe and Charles, the rest of the group consist of Cary (Ryan Lee), who has a bad habit of blowing things up, Preston (Zach Mills) and Martin (Gabriel Basso).  Charles is constantly changing and revising his script always in an attempt to make his film better, and his most recent change is to make his main character a married man, in an attempt to give the film more heart.  However by making this change he now needs to find someone to play the wife, and he asks his schoolmate Alice (the always great Elle Fanning) if she would be interested.  When Joe hears that Alice has said “yes” he is beside himself because he has had a massive crush on her for ages (but never had the courage to even speak to her).  The first scene Charles decides to shoot with Alice is a scene at a train station where she is saying goodbye to her husband.  Joe is performing make-up duties on the film and is in heaven when applying it to Alice’s face, where the two of them have the briefest of conversations.  While blocking and rehearsing the scene, Charles suddenly notices that a freight train is about to pass through the station, and in an attempt to get some free production value, starts the camera rolling and begins to film the scene.  While holding the boom-mike Joe’s attention is diverted to a pick-up truck that is driving erratically on a nearby road.  The truck is moving at an incredible speed, when it suddenly turns directly into the path of the train.  Joe yells to his friends to “watch out” (and in the process destroys the take).  The truck and train collide with such an impact that it causes the latter to derail in what is a spectacular sequence.  The kids run for their lives while mayhem is all around them.  Amazingly they all survive the destruction, but Charles realizes that he has left his camera back at the now destroyed station.  Charles and Joe go back to retrieve it, only to discover that the lens has been cracked.  It is then that they notice all the locals rushing to the accident site.  All of the kids decide to make a pact to never mention to anyone that they were at the scene of the accident when it took place, and once they all agree, they flee the scene unnoticed.

A couple of days pass and Charles goes to get his camera fixed, however he is told that it is so damaged that it would be cheaper to buy a new one rather than get this one fixed.  Charles is shattered but asks if he could at least get the film inside it developed.  The film appears intact but will take a few days to be developed.  During this time, the locals notice the huge military presence around the crash site and the small town in general.  Just what exactly was on that train?  The military are not answering that question but they assure the locals that there was nothing dangerous on board, and that they have nothing to worry about.  This doesn’t ring true with the locals because since the accident a lot of strange things have occurred such as all of the dogs of the town have disappeared, and a large number of electrical goods such as fridges and washing machines have been stolen.  Not only that but the local sheriff has disappeared and a petrol station has been destroyed.  What is going on and what is causing these strange disappearances?  It turns out that Joe and Charles may unexpectedly have the answer to that question, because after they finally get back their developed film and look at what they have shot, they are stunned to see that they have accidently captured on film the secret cargo the military is so intent on hiding from the public.  As is usual in these kinds of films, the kids band together to work out exactly what is going on, while trying to save their little town.

Reviewing “Super 8” is actually a hard thing to do because the entire marketing campaign of the film was centered on not revealing too much, and because the film is still a relatively new release, I am a little uncomfortable about revealing the secrets of the film.  Let’s just say that my description of the film runs up to around the halfway mark, so there is a lot of the film that I have left out, plus I have also deliberately left out plot points from the first half also, just so I do not ruin the experience for everyone.  So is the film any good or not?  I certainly enjoyed “Super 8” but there are elements to it that are stronger than others.  The film excels and is at its best when it deals with the kids.  They are all fantastic and are superbly cast.  The chemistry they have together is amazing and they truly come across as a group of friends that have known each other all of their lives.  With the exception of Elle Fanning, I do not think I have seen these kids in anything else, which is great because they come with no baggage, they don’t feel like a bunch of actors playing their roles they actually just come across as a bunch of teenage kids.  They all impress, but most importantly they all feel so natural, and this is where “Super 8” gets its biggest strength from.

Once the “secret” is revealed and the film starts to introduce the presence of both the military and adults, it sadly becomes less interesting.  The “secret” itself is actually quite disappointing but I do not think it could have ever lived up to the anticipation that had been created through the marketing campaign and from within the film itself.  Also disappointing is the fact that it is rendered entirely by CGI.  I do not want you to think of me as someone who hates CGI, if it is used properly and in a way that doesn’t draw attention to itself, I think it is an important filmmaking tool.  The only problem I have with the CGI in “Super 8”is that the film is a throwback to an era which didn’t have CGI at its disposal.  It would have been nice to see it all performed via practical effects because the CGI doesn’t fit with the style of the rest of the film.  Also J. J. Abrams falls into the trap of showing the “secret” far too often and as a result, it loses its effectiveness after a while.

Behind the camera, Abrams and his cinematographer Larry Fong have done a stellar job at recreating the “Spielbergian” images.  It really does look and feel like those old classics.  My only negative in regards to the look of the film is the overuse of the lens flare.  A lens flare is when the lens catches a light at a certain angle and it creates a blue line across the screen, which often looks quite artistic.  “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” has a number of them, and because of this I just assumed that Abrams was emulating that look, but I’ve since read that Abrams has made the lens flare a bit of a trademark for himself, with him even creating digital lens flares for his recent “Star Trek” film (the sheer number of lens flares in “Super 8” has me convinced that a lot of them could be digital here as well).  Again, I personally like the look of the lens flare, if used in moderation (Paul Thomas Anderson uses it brilliantly in his superb “Punch-Drunk Love”), but Abrams has gone over the top with the effect here, and it actually becomes a distraction.

The script is actually quite strong in terms of dialogue, especially in the exchanges between the kids, they just sound so real and natural with all the casual insults that they throw at each other.  Narratively though, the script doesn’t come together as strongly, especially in the second half of the film.  It is hard to explain without revealing too much, but sometimes our suspension of disbelief is stretched too far simply because the story hasn’t being layered thoroughly.  For example, after derailing the train in his pick-up truck, we are then expected to believe that the driver miraculously survived the crash, at least long enough to spill some plot points.  It is disappointing because certain things feel like they are there just to service the plot and to move it forward, rather than it being organic to the story being told.

Overall though, Abrams has done a lot right with “Super 8” and for me the positives outweigh the negatives, which made it a fun cinema experience.  While this has been a hard review to write without spoiling too much, I will say that the film is an exciting adventure story, filled with teen romance (and perhaps more importantly, friendship), as well as tackling deeper subjects like grief and how we deal with loss and trying to reconnect with our loved ones after facing a terrible personal tragedy.  Again, the film is at its best when the focus is centered on our teenage characters.  Let’s hope this is the shot in the arm cinema needs, so we see kids represented intelligently on screen again like we once did.  Make sure you stick around for the end credits because Charles’s zombie film plays over them, which is both brilliant and hilarious.  As a tribute to the Amblin films of the 80’s, “Super 8” is definitely a success (I didn’t mention the score by Michael Giacchino, who apes John Williams brilliantly), and while the film isn’t perfect, I certainly think it is worthy of your time and I recommend it to all.

3 ½ Stars.

I must say I got a good laugh out of my wife who knew nothing about 8mm film, and thought the film was a superhero movie akin to “The Fantastic 4” – “ The Super 8”.  My wife is hilarious, god bless her!!