Do you ever wonder what happened to blockbusters nowadays? That mystery, that magic. It's pretty much gone. We know every film that is coming out and when it's coming out. Hell, we know when they are filming, when they are working on effects and how long it takes for one of these projects to come into existence. We can figure out entire plots just from a brief description, a title, and the trailer. We see so much footage that we can piece together the movie into a cohesive adventure without much effort. The magic of wonder, the mystery of having no idea what a movie is about except a title and brief teaser trailer is gone. Now we have interviews upon interviews, clips everywhere, stills, leaked scripts, early screenings. All of our progress in communication has destroyed the mystery of movies. Super 8 tries to recapture that magic.
Super 8 is, for all intents and purposes, J.J. Abrabs homage to Spielberg films. Hell, Spielberg even produced it so it is a Spielberg film. This movie represents a step towards a different era in film making. And that era is personafied by our protaganists,a group of kids trying to make a Zombie movie. They are interupted by a deadly train crash and then weird things start happening. But in an effort to preserve the magic of this film, I implore you to not spoil the monster(s) for anyone, or the plot even if they say they don't want to see it. Let there be some mystery. Let the experience of going into the theater and enjoying a big production be worth something.
So on a techanical level this movie isn't perfect. The script needed some polishing, and some of J.J.'s camera techniques need some work. None of the performances are spectacular, they are servicable but here's the deal. The pieces as a whole are greater than their parts. Everything individually would be a okay movie, and instead this is a great movie. This is one of those rare exceptions where everything together forms an amazing whole.
One last note, I wasn't disapointed by the reveal. It is better than cloverfield in terms of getting to see the monster(s), but it still is minimal to maintain a sense of wonder.
This movie is a union between Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park. If you miss being a kid, miss having a movie that kids would really love, this is that movie.
I give this movie a B. It isn't perfect, but this movie has that power to just click in all the right ways to keep you excited.
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