Super 8 (2011)
Directed by J.J. Abrams
In late 1970s Ohio, a group of friends filming a homemade zombie movie witness a devastating train derailment. Soon after, their quiet town is gripped by unexplained disappearances, strange phenomena, and a growing sense of fear, as they uncover that something terrifying has been set loose.
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Like a conjurer who can technically copy his hero's trick but fails to find the "magic," Abrams objectively understands and gathers many of the narrative elements that make Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. memorable, but puts his heart more into the references to Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook than into telling a story that, like those of Spielberg, feel real.
Sure, by technicality, the story is original, but when the entire picture is an homage to ’80s Spielberg and borrows heavily from Steven’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., and more than a share from Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me, it’s hard to really call it original.
"Super 8" not only pays homage to pictures like "E.T.," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "The Goonies," it acts as a tribute to a time when all you needed to make a movie was passion and ingenuity, rather than $200 million and the rights to a hip comic book.
The effect of such a modus operandi is initial coziness quickly giving way to disheartening familiarity, with Abrams’s own preoccupations (if he had any to begin with) becoming subsumed beneath the root themes, dynamics, and imagery of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and, more fundamental still, E.T. Set in a small Ohio town in 1979, this is a trial-by-fire tale of middle school kids falling in love, strengthening relationships, and reconciling with distant parents that’s so clearly modeled after the work of its spiritual godfather (and producer) that, though Abrams’s comprehension of his chosen genre tropes is exhaustive and his technical skill is impressive enough to create stirring atmospheric déjà vu, there’s little genuine heart to his drama.
Though you could also detect echoes of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and even The Goonies in Super 8.
Produced by Spielberg and reminiscent of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even War of the Worlds, it also has some of the coming-of-age quality of Rob Reiner's Stand By Me.
What they're trying to do is evoke the innocence of an “E.T.” while introducing a more recent level of special effects.
And if you grew up watching E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you’ll appreciate the references, but a flat-out nostalgia-fest isn’t really enough.
You only have to compare “Super 8" (unfairly perhaps, but inevitably) to the Spielberg film it most resembles, the impeccably entertaining “E.T.,” to see the ways the earlier movie felt fresh and inventive while the new one has the aura of stuff we’ve already seen.
The movie is a touchingly self-conscious homage to early Spielberg, to Jaws and Close Encounters and E.T., and if it's not at the level of those films, neither does it embarrass itself with the comparison.
Without giving too much away, let's just say there's a lot of "ET." here (albeit in a fairly modified form), along with obvious material related to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and even some bits of inspiration from "Jaws" as well as the boy group dynamic from "The Goonies" (that Spielberg didn't direct, but did produce and obviously similarly inspired way back when).
From its mysterious otherworldly presence with unknown motives to the late ’70s suburban kids whose vast imaginations are swept up in its path, “Super 8” contains echoes of “E.T.,” “Close Encounters,” “Jurassic Park” and even less essential entries in the Spielberg canon, like “War of the Worlds.”
From familial discord, the death of a parent, and the like “Super 8” channels these themes from classic Spielberg fare like “Close Encounters,” and “Jaws” with a sprinkle of “Stand By Me” and “The Goonies” for good measure.
There are also elements of his "darker" efforts - Jaws , Jurassic Park , War of the Worlds - and nods to some of the titles Spielberg leant his name to in a production capacity - Poltergeist, Gremlins, The Goonies.
“Jaws,” that other touchstone of Spielberg-directed summertime thrills, no doubt taught Abrams the importance of nothing giving us a good look at the Something until the time is right.
The movie is a touchingly self-conscious homage to early Spielberg, to Jaws and Close Encounters and E.T., and if it's not at the level of those films, neither does it embarrass itself with the comparison.
Without giving too much away, let's just say there's a lot of "ET." here (albeit in a fairly modified form), along with obvious material related to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and even some bits of inspiration from "Jaws" as well as the boy group dynamic from "The Goonies" (that Spielberg didn't direct, but did produce and obviously similarly inspired way back when).
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.
There are also elements of his "darker" efforts - Jaws , Jurassic Park , War of the Worlds - and nods to some of the titles Spielberg leant his name to in a production capacity - Poltergeist, Gremlins, The Goonies.
From its mysterious otherworldly presence with unknown motives to the late ’70s suburban kids whose vast imaginations are swept up in its path, “Super 8” contains echoes of “E.T.,” “Close Encounters,” “Jurassic Park” and even less essential entries in the Spielberg canon, like “War of the Worlds.”
Spielberg himself might have been able to weave this into something coherent (indeed, strong elements of Close Enounters�, The Goonies, Jurassic Park, E.T., Jaws, and Poltergeist can be detected here), but the combination never gels.
The thing is, J.J. Abrams adored the same Steven Spielberg classics that we all did, and if youâ??ve seen E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park and Jaws, then you have a rough idea of whatâ??s in store.
The train scene is one for the ages, and the bit in the bus is this generation’s “Jurassic Park” moment.
It’s like Abrams wanted to make Jaws (or Jurassic Park) and E.T. at the same time.
But Spielberg, when he did his homage to those films, brought his own almost preternatural sense of innocence, his unparalleled ability to entertain, and he made "Raiders of the Lost Ark." J.J. Abrams, a far more self-aware citizen of the movie jungle, isn't Steven Spielberg, no matter how much he wants to be.
Abrams’s now-standard pre-release veil of secrecy does the movie a massive service, and going in cold gives you the chance to experience a movie as pre-internet audiences would have seen Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Jaws, ET, Close Encounters and all those other Spielberg gems – in blissful ignorance, ready to be amazed.
So when contemporary filmmakers who were raised on Raiders and other films in the Spielberg/Lucas ‘70s/’80s blockbuster canon attempt homage of their own – even in generally good films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Super 8 and Midnight Special, or promising efforts like the forthcoming Stranger Things – they’re in a much trickier position.
The kiddie-filmmaker stuff in Super 8 feels like the stuff Abrams was most interested in � the kids, particularly the flick�s director (Riley Griffiths), are passionate about what they�re doing, and it reminded me of the real-life teens who spent most of the �80s making a shot-for-shot remake of Spielberg�s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anyone who�s seen the results of that seven-year experiment has found it completely charming.
Whether it's fair to Abrams or not, we've come to expect a little more from him, and as likeable as both the movie and the characters were, the film still failed to connect for me on the gut emotional level of a Close Encounters or a Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Maybe that’s why I spent much of the film thinking of movies that depicted the clash between human and alien civilizations more convincingly: Spielberg’s own War of the Worlds, Bong Joon-ho’s The Host , Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, or, in a far more humorous vein, Greg Mottola’s Paul , which is too recent to have been an influence on Super 8 but which has a plotline that almost exactly matches the one here.
Produced by Spielberg and reminiscent of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even War of the Worlds, it also has some of the coming-of-age quality of Rob Reiner's Stand By Me.
From its mysterious otherworldly presence with unknown motives to the late ’70s suburban kids whose vast imaginations are swept up in its path, “Super 8” contains echoes of “E.T.,” “Close Encounters,” “Jurassic Park” and even less essential entries in the Spielberg canon, like “War of the Worlds.”
Part “The Goonies” part “War of the Worlds,” J. J. Abrams’ Steven Spielberg produced monster movie, “Super 8,” is entertaining stuff.
In fact, if there’s any Spielberg film that we should really be likening Super 8 to, it’s War of the Worlds , which was as dark and ruthless a family genre film as he ever made (and also similarly employed a Fanning to maximum effect).
Just about every scene is a conscious and loving 'steal’ from another movie, usually something directed by Spielberg – quotes from E.T. and especially Close Encounters abound, but there’s also riffs on Jaws, Duel, The Sugarland Express and even 1941!
Capturing that magic is something that has eluded even Spielberg himself on certain occasions (“1941,” “Always,” Indy 4), it’s not a fun lesson to learn but it’s one all filmmakers experience.
But it's essentially the kids movie Spielberg himself would have directed between Close Encounters and E.T. if he hadn't fucked up and made 1941 instead.
Toss in a healthy measure of Rob Reiner's bonding classic "Stand by Me" and passing winks at "WarGames," "Independence Day," "Gremlins" and even "Duel," and you've got one grand mash of a movie that's trying to capture the innocence and energy of an earlier time while bringing it into the right here and now.
Just about every scene is a conscious and loving 'steal’ from another movie, usually something directed by Spielberg – quotes from E.T. and especially Close Encounters abound, but there’s also riffs on Jaws, Duel, The Sugarland Express and even 1941!
Once Mr. Spielberg became a cottage industry of his very own, his "Amblin'" stamp appeared on all sorts of colorful genre movies...
Capturing that magic is something that has eluded even Spielberg himself on certain occasions (“1941,” “Always,” Indy 4), it’s not a fun lesson to learn but it’s one all filmmakers experience.
“Super 8” is definitely a throwback, but unlike “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” it knows what time it is, and delivers an experience that combines the refined nature of the golden age blockbusters with the visceral punch of modern-day action films.
It’s like what we wanted to happen when George Lucas re-teamed with Spielberg for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Just about every scene is a conscious and loving 'steal’ from another movie, usually something directed by Spielberg – quotes from E.T. and especially Close Encounters abound, but there’s also riffs on Jaws, Duel, The Sugarland Express and even 1941!
The clichéd shot of children staring skyward in wonder should have died with 1991's Hook .
Inevitably, the havoc unleashed by the military and an alien that escaped in the crash reaches digital overkill, familiar from technically amazing but aesthetically cluttered Spielberg films such as "War of the Worlds," "Minority Report" and "A.I.
Spielberg, another movie-reared child, made his name with fare comparable with Super 8 ( Close Encounters , ET , Poltergeist , for instance) before moving on to Schindler's List and more serious SF activities such as AI and Minority Report .
Destined to be debated right alongside the final scenes of Minority Report and AI: Artificial Intelligence.
In fact, it’s difficult to imagine even present-day Spielberg – the man who’s become part of the Tinseltown establishment with the less popcorny likes of Munich and Saving Private Ryan – directing a film so quintessentially, well, Spielbergian.
Spielberg, another movie-reared child, made his name with fare comparable with Super 8 ( Close Encounters , ET , Poltergeist , for instance) before moving on to Schindler's List and more serious SF activities such as AI and Minority Report .
If it deliberately recalls films from the 1970s and '80s -- "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "The Goonies" especially -- then it also powerfully evokes its own distinct sense of time and place.
From familial discord, the death of a parent, and the like “Super 8” channels these themes from classic Spielberg fare like “Close Encounters,” and “Jaws” with a sprinkle of “Stand By Me” and “The Goonies” for good measure.
In a way, Super 8 is as derivative and familiar as anything in theaters today, only the movies it’s copying are all over a quarter of a century old: Spielbergian fare like The Goonies, E.T., Gremlins and Close Encounters, with echoes of earlier and later films.
The Bigger Picture: We hate to say it, but while Abrams was trying to channel E.T. , The Goonies , and The Monster Club , he accidentally ended up reminding us of M. Night Shyamalan instead.
Less obviously, the rowdy and uncool boys who accompany Joe and Charles through much of this adventure recall Spielberg’s The Goonies, not a comparison you generally want to inspire.
It's clear right from the get-go that Abrams is looking to evoke the feel and tone of such similarly-themed fare as The Goonies , Poltergeist , and, especially, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial , as Super 8 hits on many of the touchstones that one has come to associate with the youth-oriented blockbusters of the 1980s - with the scrappy kids at the narrative's core certainly standing as the most obvious example of this.
From familial discord, the death of a parent, and the like “Super 8” channels these themes from classic Spielberg fare like “Close Encounters,” and “Jaws” with a sprinkle of “Stand By Me” and “The Goonies” for good measure.
Sure, by technicality, the story is original, but when the entire picture is an homage to ’80s Spielberg and borrows heavily from Steven’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., and more than a share from Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me, it’s hard to really call it original.
Besides Richard Donner’s Spielberg-produced “The Goonies,” the scenes with the kids most directly recall Rob Reiner’s “Stand by Me.”
Produced by Spielberg and reminiscent of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even War of the Worlds, it also has some of the coming-of-age quality of Rob Reiner's Stand By Me.
That starts with the central characters, a group of young teenage misfits who may remind you of the kids from The Goonies or Stand by Me .
It definitely feels like an homage to great movies past, particularly E.T. , Stand by Me , and Close Encounters of the Third Kind .
In a way, Super 8 is as derivative and familiar as anything in theaters today, only the movies it’s copying are all over a quarter of a century old: Spielbergian fare like The Goonies, E.T., Gremlins and Close Encounters, with echoes of earlier and later films.
Yes, many classic Spielberg-produced kids’ action adventures also had domestic drama (The Goonies, E.T., and Gremlins come to mind), but it somehow never detracted from the awe and wonder that got you into your seat to begin with.
Toss in a healthy measure of Rob Reiner's bonding classic "Stand by Me" and passing winks at "WarGames," "Independence Day," "Gremlins" and even "Duel," and you've got one grand mash of a movie that's trying to capture the innocence and energy of an earlier time while bringing it into the right here and now.
While cast in the mold of late-Seventies/early Eighties films such as , E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Gremlins, and The Goonies, Super 8 has a sense of being the most personal of all Abrams’ projects (which include his creation of the popular TV shows Felicity, Alias, Lost, and Fringe).
Going back to the style and structure of films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Gremlins and The Goonies to create engaging narratives that rely on a developed build-up rather than a series of quick gratifications is an outstanding way of making engaging mainstream family entertainment.
Hopefully you recognize him from Gremlins.
American directors are constantly paying tribute to the fertile ground that inspired their own careers (Woody Allen had "Radio Days," Joe Dante made "Matinee"), but Abrams' attempt is different in that he allows an ear-splitting, server-straining CG train crash to derail his rose-colored reverie, emerging with a relatively standard monster movie instead.
The thing about those movies is that even though they were all produced under Spielberg's watchful eye, the best of them were those done by directors who possessed enough of a distinctive cinematic style to keep their films from simply coming across as Spielberg clones--people like Robert Zemeckis or Joe Dante, whose lovely and underrated "Explorers" feels like more of an influence on the tone of "Super 8" than the likes of the oft-mentioned "The Goonies."
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When he notices a train unexpectedly approaching, the excitable Charles yells "Production value!" and sets the camera to include it, little knowing that a pickup truck will pull onto the tracks and be deliberately positioned to create a collision that will far exceed the spectacle of the train wreck in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, Abrams' and Spielberg's acknowledged inspiration for the sequence.
After a while, the film references – Goonies, E.T., Close Encounters, Cloverfield, Aliens, Poltergeist, and The Greatest Show On Earth - seem to be more important than the story fused together from all these various parts.
Our young, undersupervised heroes are filming a cheesy zombie movie one night at a closed Ohio train station when they are nearly flattened by a train wreck straight out of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
What we have here is a clichéd combination of just about every hulking, goopy, multi-tentacled creature seen prior, made even more disappointing by how similaryet inferiorit is to the alien in 2008's " Cloverfield ."
Abrams adepts will recall a similar story, of young people banding together to face a ravenous monster, from Cloverfield, the 2008 alien-invasion film he produced.
But I didn’t like Cloverfield and unfortunately, Super 8, your period piece tribute to the Spielbergian era of sci-fi optimism feels at times like it has more of the Cloverfield emptiness, action for action’s sake, than Spielberg’s patented emotional connection with his protagonists.
Abrams also includes offhand references to Alien, Transformers and his own Cloverfield.
As written and directed by J. J. Abrams ( Star Trek ), Super 8 comes across more like a creative combination of Goonies and Cloverfield .
This being 1979, their movie—about a zombie cover-up—is being filmed on a Super 8 film camera, with the intention of entering a Super 8 film festival (hey, just like J.J. Abrams did with Cloverfield director Matt Reeves, in their early teens!).
(Ironically, Abrams' childhood pal Matt Reeves is better at the '80s childhood innocence thing too, as witnessed in his far superior "Let Me In.")
When Abrams and his close childhood friend Matt Reeves (who’d go on to direct first the Abrams-produced Cloverfield and then Let Me In) were teenagers, they entered films they’d made in a Super 8 competition, and were later approached by Spielberg’s office to restore the 8mm films the director himself had made as a youth.
In fact, as teenagers Abrams and Matt Reeves (who directed "Cloverfield" and "Let Me In") were hired to restore some of Spielberg's home movies that were shot on 8 mm.
Abramsâ?? Cloverfield cohort, Matt Reeves, already did a damn fine job remaking E.T. last year with his Let Me In.
Spielberg himself might have been able to weave this into something coherent (indeed, strong elements of Close Enounters�, The Goonies, Jurassic Park, E.T., Jaws, and Poltergeist can be detected here), but the combination never gels.
"Super 8" is set in the working-class community of Lillian, Ohio, the kind of average but still quaintly picturesque suburban location where one imagines the Freeling family might have lived in 1982's "Poltergeist" had they been one salary bracket lower on the annual wage scale.
Better to trot out the movie's obvious influences, which include about every decent thing Spielberg himself presided over in the '70s and '80s — "E.T.," "Close Encounters," even "Poltergeist" and "Goonies."
Alas, it's in Super 8's meticulous attempts to recreate that magic (think E.T. + Close Encounters x Poltergeist) that it ultimately comes up short, fizzling at the moment is should detonate and instead revealing a Frankenstein soul grafted together from predecessors to the point of overdependence, rather than finding its own, one organic to the proceedings at hand.
In the late 70s and early 80s, with movies like "Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Poltergeist" (which he co-produced) and "E.T."…
Spielberg, another movie-reared child, made his name with fare comparable with Super 8 ( Close Encounters , ET , Poltergeist , for instance) before moving on to Schindler's List and more serious SF activities such as AI and Minority Report .
Abrams also includes offhand references to Alien, Transformers and his own Cloverfield.
(Let’s just say Ridley Scott’s 1979 “Alien” eventually comes to mind.)
But even though Abrams leans heavily on many of his mentor's stylistic signatures -- lingering on the faces of awestruck kids, withholding the monster for as long as possible and transforming an all-American neighborhood through Klieg lights and crane shots, to name but a few -- "Super 8" owes at least as much to another picture hitting theaters that summer: Ridley Scott's "Alien."
True to the spirit of "Jaws" and "Alien," we don't see this entity until late in the film, just getting fleeting glimpses of it from time to time and, thus, helping to build the mystery.
Overall, though, “Super 8” works smoothly in the pattern of a picture like “WarGames,” and can be enjoyed as a high-tech updating of fifties schlock like “The Blob” or “Invasion of the Saucer Men” in much the same manner that “Alien” treated “It!
In Scott’s “Alien” you had proper flashes of the creature.
Then a long-haired blond guy (Ron Eldard, "Black Hawk Down," looking like Gerard Depardieu's younger brother) drives up in a yellow Challenger only to be thrown out of the house and driven away in a squad car by Joe's dad, Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler, TV's 'Friday Night Lights,' in a perfectly understated performance).
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Abrams (Star Trek & TVs Lost creator) casts unknown but talented teen actors including Issaquahs Riley Griffiths and Elle Fanning -- Dakotas sister.
But Abrams, as he did with “Star Trek,”makes this a movie that never lets us forget that it’s a movie.
One supposes that J.J. Abrams noticed all the hubbub about the wall-to-wall lens flares in his 2009 Star Trek reboot, and thought to hisself, "Well, heck, if they noticed it, they must have liked it", and decided that would be his directorial signature from here on out, even if it doesn't make sense and doesn't work.
With this sci-fi fantasy/adventure, writer/director J.J. Abrams (“Mission Impossible III,” “Star Trek,” TV’s “Lost”) has created a charming homage to the innocence and wonder epitomized by his mentor/producer Steven Spielberg, cleverly incorporating nods to “E.T.,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “The Goonies,” even the “Walking Distance” episode of “Twilight Zone.”
No doubt, J.J. Abram's expertise is as apparent here as it was in the immensely enjoyable popcorn actioner Mission: Impossible III and 2009's spunky Star Trek sequel/prequel/reboot, and similarly unmistakable is his knowledge of and appreciation for the romantic wonder of the early films of Steven Spielberg (whose serves as producer here).
While the previous two films directed by JJ Abrams were contemporary updates to already established franchises (Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek ), Super 8 is more of a general homage to the type of children’s adventure films that were popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Director J.J. Abrams — who amped up television with “Alias” and “ Lost ” and then segued into movies with “Mission: Impossible III” and the “ Star Trek ” reboot — has kept this film under wraps as long as possible.
No doubt, J.J. Abram's expertise is as apparent here as it was in the immensely enjoyable popcorn actioner Mission: Impossible III and 2009's spunky Star Trek sequel/prequel/reboot, and similarly unmistakable is his knowledge of and appreciation for the romantic wonder of the early films of Steven Spielberg (whose serves as producer here).
One of them was J.J. Abrams (who co-created TV's "Lost," but also helmed "Mission: Impossible III" and the "Star Trek" reboot a few years back) who's now come full circle.
Not a badly-done chase scene, mind you: Abrams has improved as a filmmaker to such a ridiculous degree that the fingerprints of the man who made Mission: Impossible III and Star Trek look like shiny, overpriced TV movies cannot be detected at all.
After successfully piloting two big-screen franchises, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek, toward creative revivification in recent years, writer/director J.J. Abrams in his new film Super 8 pays tribute to the early work of Steven Spielberg and that filmmaker’s production company Amblin Entertainment (which also produced Super 8).
Following on from a decent but problematic “Mission: Impossible” sequel and a muscularly inventive albeit shallow reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise, the third directorial effort from J.J. Abrams starts out as a nostalgia-fuelled homage to the early days Amblin Entertainment and Steven Spielberg’s oeuvre.
J.J. Abrams, who directed the best entries in the "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Trek" franchises, delivers a phenomenal pop-art experience, dazzling the senses while aiming straight for the heart.
It’s the quick editing and camera sweeps of a Mission Impossible where quiet suspense is called for instead.
The kids’ charming movie scenes are interrupted by a train wreck that leads to an explosion gigantic even by action-movie standards —flaming railroad cars are tossed through the air - staged by Abrams with a brio that is more Mission Impossible than Spielberg.
The first was the third film in the Mission: Impossible series and his second was the not-quite-Star Trek reboot.