Close, but no cigar.
You'd be forgiven for thinking I was referring to E.T. - particularly because Spielberg produced Super 8, and was clearly the puppet master of the entire project. However, this film has just enough of Abrams fascination/obsession with unseen mystery and rad aliens to (literally) derail it before Super 8 follows E.T. down the tunnel of American cliches. ALTHOUGH, there's a brazen homage/copy/unimaginative use of the phone home pose..
You can send emails now.
What you cannot see on the end of the lead little kid's arm is that he's holding onto his dead mother's locket, a supposed metaphor that he has to let his mother go. However, throughout the film the kid seems completely well adjusted with this sub plot of his mother's passing (more so than the Dad anyway), and seems to only use the locket as a comfort thing every now and again. The lead little kid seems far more concerned with saving and then holding hands the lead little girl (Dakota Fanning Jr.).
Kinky little bastard.
There was lots of talk about the train crash being the best ever on film. And it is fucking sweet, with lots of BOOMs, etc. It lasts about two minutes and is well worth watching, as the production value and continuity of the sequence was absolutely wicked. Although it is slightly reminiscent of something Michael Bay would do on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Save y'all the entrance fee.
The narrative of Super 8 runs parallel to the development of the halfling's own film: The Case. Their project starts off as a summer activity to enter into a film competition, but finds extra meaning when they coincidentally happen to be filming when the above train crash happens. Their film focuses on an outbreak of a chemical that turns everyone into Zombies - a clever homage to George Romero, King of Flesh Eaters. The audience gets to see it as the end credits roll, and in my opinion, it's easily the most enjoyable part of the whole film:
Haven't seen acting this good since 'nam.
As hard as Abrams tried to include mystery and create suspense, Spielberg was just too dominant of a force on this project - so the shape shifting cubes, the alien's ability to communicate and the military's involvement was skimmed over in favour of themes of family forgiveness and understanding and other soppy crap that sells to the American public and wins Spielberg Oscars. As such, it ends up like a mix of E.T. and Cloverfield, leaning heavily towards the former - so unfortunately I didn't enjoy it too much. Also, I pretty much spent the whole 2 hours trying to figure out where I recognised the Dr. Woodward character from..
THE WIRE! HE'S IN THE WIRE!
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