Super 8 (2011) - Film Review

I'd like to begin by dubbing Super 8 as "J.J. Abram's Cloverfield done right." Ironically, this film was also written and directed by J.J. Abrams who created Cloverfield back in 2008. However, with an artistic mastermind like Steven Spielberg on deck as producer, one can only imagine how well-done the final product of this science fiction flick was.

Where Cloverfield falls short, Super 8 delivers. With a cast that features no big name actors, Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney and Kyle Chandler headline the Summer Blockbuster flick about a group of avid filmmaking teenagers who while filming a segment of their zombie flick out by the train station one night, witnesses an explosive collision and the unleashing of an extra-terrestrial alien. Set in 1979, the cinematography, costumes and setting of the film was very period appropriate and also added an artistic flare which Cloverfield lacked. Further, the opening train collision was one of the most epic explosions I have witnessed on the big screen to date.

Taking the generic, been-there-done-that concept of an alien terrorizing a small town of innocent people, J.J. Abrams manages to make the story engaging, and the characters within it people with whom the audience can root for. However, despite the authentic flare and impeccable cinematography, it still at the end of the day is just another alien invasion movie. What the movie had going for it prior to its opening weekend was that the alien's identity is concealed in all of the promotional material released for the film. But maybe keeping the creature's appearance a secret made for an overhype in which when it finally is revealed in the movie, falls short of one's expectations. In the final confrontation between the group of children and the extra-terrestrial creature, what ends up coming out is an E.T.-like creature whose looks and shape were underwhelming on many levels.

Despite the let-down of the big reveal in the movie, it is not the extra-terrestrial that helps this movie take flight, but rather the artistic beauty Spielberg and Abrams have crafted in the setting, story, and cinematography of this film.