Day 26 - Super 8 (2011)

So I just saw this for the second time in theaters yesterday, and while I know it isn't, strictly speaking, a horror movie, it seems to have one foot far enough across the genre line that I decided to count it. Super 8 is the combined effort of writer/director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg - for whose work it's intended to be a kind of tribute - and this movie is certainly a credit to both their names.

Super 8 is the story of young Joe Lamb who, after recently having lost his mother, is helping his friends make a zombie movie for a film contest. After sneaking out one night to film a scene, the group of friends witnesses a horrific train crash caused intentionally by one of their teachers. Now, as the kids continue to make their movie and the military is stepping in to take over, something that escaped from the crash is working its way through the town snatching people, stealing odds and ends, and generally causing mayhem. Things really come to a head however, when Joe's crush is taken by the alien creature leaving he and the others to sneak back into the now evacuated town to rescue her.

This is an unbelievably beautiful movie, and it does just as it intended, recalling us to those great 80's classics such as The Goonies (from which its group of young protagonists is clearly based) and E.T. (the visual style of which is almost identical). Aside from Elle Fanning, I had never heard of any of these kids before, and yet I hope we see them again in the near future because the acting here was great. Between the story and the cinematography I was completely sucked in through both viewings, and I have the feeling that this is one of those films that can do that every time.

There are a few glitches here however, but they're fairly easy to overcome. The first time I saw Super 8, Abrams' overuse of the blue camera flare was driving me up the walls. This time, not so much. Yes, in small doses it adds to the tone and visual effect of the film, but in the quantities it's used here . . . that's just overkill. The only other real flaw here is in the story. Throughout the film we witness the creature terrorizing innocent people in a few frightening scenes, presumably killing at least a couple, but come the end of the movie, after all the devastation we've seen him cause, we're then supposed to feel bad for the alien. So long as you don't think about it, this works fine. But once the credits roll and you pull back from the story you're then going to realize that, however you might feel about the alien at the end, you still just watched him horrify a whole town (though the military did their fair share too). But like I said, these issues are fairly easy to get over in the big picture.

This is maybe one of my favorite movies of recent years, so, needless to say, I highly recommend it. Super 8 will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 22, but it's in dollar theaters now, and this is really one of those films that needs to be seen on the big screen.

For Day 27 I'll be watching The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2009).