Super 8 (2011) Review

I'm a very big fan of Steven Spielberg as well as Roger Corman, George A. Romero and those old 1950s sci-fi cheese fests. Super 8 plays like a tribute to all of that with even a little bit of The Goonies thrown in.

The year is 1979 and a group of junior high age kids are making a movie about zombies using a Super 8 camera and their own homemade makeup and production value. One night while filming a scene by a railroad track they witness a pickup truck crash into a train. The train derails nearly killing all of the kids and allows something to escape from one of the cars. The kids start to notice strange things happening in their hometown. Dogs and people disappear, the government takes over patrolling the town, there is several occurrences of unexplained destruction. They start investigating the circumstances and they discover a large government conspiracy and the strong possibility of an extra-terrestrial life.

When you have a film like this there is one thing required of the parents. That's for them to fade into the background. In this film the focus is mostly on the kids as it should be because they are by far the most interesting characters. The whole picture is an example of a great film being made without overloading the audience with CGI effects or loud noises. I suggest Michael Bay takes some notes on this picture.

There are a lot of unrealistic scenes and aspects in the film. During one scene the kids are filming part of their movie outside a teacher's house. All the military personnel either don't notice them or don't care that they might end up filming sensitive material. Additionally I have been told that the backpacks that the kids carry in the film were not actually. Don't know if that's true since I wasn't alive at that time. Despite those unrealistic components I don't really care. I was interested enough in what was happening in the film to let it go and believe me those criticisms are minor compared to the praise I have for the film.

This is the first real good film of the summer. To use a frequent phrase in the film it's mint.

★★★1/2