Super 8 Review: Not Quite a Classic

Let’s face it, the trailer for Super 8 gave you shudders the first time you saw; as well as the second time; and the third time. The overall feel of the preview planted the hope in people like me that the magic of E.T. or even Close Encounters of the Third Kind could be captured again. With many critics hailing Super 8 as a new “classic,” I went to the theater fully ready to be blown away by this Abrams/Spielberg masterpiece. Unfortunately, Super 8 does not live up to the hype of being an instant classic, but it does prevail in being entertaining cinema for a wide variety of audiences.

I’m not much for “summing” up a plot, but I will tell you this: the story of Super 8 does not bring a whole ton of originality to the table. Rather, the arch of most of the characters is very cliché and predictable. Along with cookie cutter characters comes a cookie cutter plot. A group of children need to solve the mystery of exactly who or what is terrorizing their town, and when one of their own disappears, the stakes are raised. Eventually, after outwitting the military presence in town, discovering a human-hating alien is on the rampage and finding its secret lair under a graveyard, our young hero Joe (Joel Courtney) makes peace with this life form and all is well. While this human/alien relationship may sound E.T.-esque, it comes nowhere close to the emotional highs and lows you had as an audience member when viewing the Spielberg classic. And that is really the root of the problem of Super 8. The acting is outstanding, the plot and characters, while nothing too unique, suffice for this type of story, but the relationships built between protagonists, antagonists, and alien are not touched upon enough.

The most important aspect of a movie like Super 8 is this: the audience needs care about the characters so much that they become emotionally invested in them. The only relationship that was formed in Super 8, to this degree, was the one between aforementioned Joe and his love interest Alice, portrayed brilliantly by Elle Fanning. These two had potential for some real heart gripping conflict between themselves and their fathers, but aside from one or two scenes, the audience is left unfulfilled. So, when these parent-child relationships are patched up at the end, we aren’t left with the emotional climax that we need. ***SPOILERS***Aside from the human relations, the children have exactly one scene in which they interact with the alien. Over the course of these 3 minutes, Joe and alien are able to completely understand each other and then the movie essentially ends. Kind of disappointing. ***End of Spoilers***

Like I said, it’s not all bad. The acting was outstanding from beginning to end. The first half of the film, especially the scenes where the children are making their movie, and as they witness the train wreck that is the catalyst for the whole plot, is much better than the second half. I just really feel like Abrams only scratched the surface of what was there and let’s face it, how the alien-creature looks is very important to how we sympathize with him, and for my money, his appearance could have been done a lot better. Overall Super 8 is definitely a movie you should go see, but go check it out to be entertained, not to see a new classic. Abrams creates a story with characters in it that is akin to a hit in baseball that looks like a homerun off the bat, but just ends up being a long out.

Images courtesy of IMdBPro, Francois Duhamel and © 2011 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.