SUPER 8

Super 8 stars Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard, Ryan Lee and Zack Mills. Directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Mr. Steven Spielberg. Rated PG-13 with a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes.

Plot: In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth – something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.

Super 8 is directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. So it can't be bad right? Don't worry it isn't bad and could very well be one of the best movies of the summer....and year. J.J. Abrams already had a promising directing career since he directed the third Mission Impossible movie and the fantastic Star Trek reboot. Super 8 is pretty much the icing on the cake for his career and is clearly his most ambitious film to date. The film had humor, drama and some great action scenes. To me you can't get a better summer movie than Super 8. Since the film revolved around a group of kids who liked to make movies, I could very easily see Abrams being one of these kids and it makes me wonder that some of the events in the movie were based on his own childhood, except the parts about the alien monster of course.

The cast Abrams rounded up for this film is simply phenomenal. I was very impressed by most of the young actors because for many of them Super 8 was their first acting gig ever! Joel Courtney was very good as Joe Lamb. He recently lost his mother in a work related accident and is left in care with his dad Jack who is played by Kyle Chandler. While Jack is a great deputy he is very distant with his son and doesn't really have the slightest idea on how to be a father. Joe is helping his best friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) finish up a low budget zombie film for a local film festival. Griffiths was very good as well as the demanding, bossy friend who has a passion for directing movies. Elle Fanning, who is a revelation in this movie, plays Alice who is Joe's school crush and they begin to bond while making the movie. That very same bond though is tested by both of their fathers. Alice's father may of had something to do with Joe's mother's death and his dad wants him to have nothing to do with Alice and her father.

One night while shooting at a nearby train station the kids witness a horrific train crash that may or may not have been an accident. The train crash scene was simply amazing and it is one of the best action scenes I have seen in some time. And of course as seen in the trailers something is released from the wreckage of the train. To me the brilliance of this movie is that it doesn't really focus on the alien. The movie is about these kids and what they are going through in their lives. The alien is simply a backdrop to the story and yet is still involved in the plot in a very cool way. The rest of the movie deals with the kids discovering the alien and finding out what it wants and why it is here. That's all I will say about the story since I don't want to give too much away. Trust me it will be very worth your while. This movie is obviously inspired by classic movies like E.T., The Goonies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even Cloverfield. While having elements from all of those movies, Super 8 is still it's own movie and a decent one at that.

I did have a few problems with Super 8 though. Kyle Chandler who plays Joe's father is simply not involved in the final act enough. Especially since he is a cop in the town. I feel like his character was cheated. That being said I'm glad to see Chandler in a big movie for once since he does great work on the T.V. show Friday Night Lights. I also think the final confrontation between Joe's father and Alice's father was a little cheesy. It also seemed that the monster was dealt with rather easily near the end and if you see the movie I think you will know what I am talking about.

Problems aside Super 8 is as good as summer movies can get. It had adventure, humor, action, drama and a nostalgia factor that reminds you of older Spielberg movies like E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That's the beauty of Super 8 because it reminds you of those classic films but still has it's own story to tell. At it's a pretty damn good story too.

B+