Super 8- Its Totally Mint

Super 8 is Steven Spielberg's latest extraterrestrial movie, but it has a unique feel that isn't necessarily in other movies he's done in the genre, a definite cudos to JJ Abrams for that. The film follows a group of middle school kids during the summer of 1979 who are making a zombie movie on their super 8 cameras for a local film contest. Filming one of their big "production value" scenes at a train station at midnight the kids witness a horrific train crash and swear to keep mum on the whole thing. The train crash is followed up by an increase in military presence in the town near the station and a series of strange occurrences followed by even more military presence all for this creature that was being transported on the train. As the movie progresses you get a better understanding of the alien's origin and why the government is in such a haste to get it back. There are also several sub plots that don't really contribute to the overall story but make it far more dramatic than without.

I found this movie to be very entertaining, starting with the group of kids. This group is the essence of everyone's friends at some point in life. You've got the chubby kid who, despite being the brunt of everybody's jokes comes up with all the ideas, you've got the tall kinda dumb kid who takes the deflections of the chubby jokes, you've got that weird friend who is obsessed with destroying things and you've got the one friend who kinda acts as the glue in the group. The kids are always cracking jokes, swearing randomly because there's no parents around, the actors they have filling these rolls did a fantastic job of being kids, not acting like ones.
Also Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning's little sister) plays a roll in the film, and might i say thank God for not following in her sisters footsteps and making an early living on high pitch screams.


Its just the end of the world...


Moving on, the story up to the end is pretty good, I think its hard to fail an alien government cover up story. Super 8 had a very intriguing plot, it keeps you guessing, it reveals bits and pieces here and there forcing you to pay attention but making it quite enjoyable throughout. The visuals and sound in the film are excellent; from every explosion to the train crash, it gives you a sense of actually being there. My one gripe with the film is how they ended the movie. I wont give any spoilers, but take ET and replace it with a much more vicious alien that does not ride a bike and eat reeses pieces just does not sit well with me.

Over all Super 8 is a solid, and fun movie that can connect to all demographics. I do wish the ending would have gone in a different direction, but it does not hurt the movie that much. I give this film a B

                                                                    B

 Side note-- I'd like to here advocate to everyone to stay during the credits, a lot of movies nowadays put tidbits of things after or during the credits that shed light on things in the movie, or are just plain old fun. In this, half way through the credits you get to see the kids final product they had been working on all summer... and its worth the extra 5 minutes of sitting.