There was a time when Super 8 would have been the movie of the summer, and if you’re nostalgic for those times, Super 8 is indeed the summer movie for you. It’s the story of some suburban kids in the late 1970s, trying to figure out an alien secret, sharing an adventure and a friendship, working out problems with their parents, hiding a secret from the government, using bikes as their primary method of transportation – and starring in a film with Steven Spielberg’s name in the credits as a producer. Director/writer J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Lost) has created a wonderful homage to the man who produced his film.
Super 8 does indeed feel like it fits right in with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., The Goonies or even Jaws. But it’s made by a modern filmmaker at the top of his game with special effects worthy of the best 2011 films.
A group of kids are making an amateur horror movie, and while shooting near the train tracks, they catch a horrific train wreck on their 8 mm camera. They also catch something else – which horrifies them and intrigues the US Air Force. What do they find? That would be telling.
Super 8 did decent box office its first week out, but $37 million isn’t going to set any records in a summer with the fourth Pirates of The Caribbean, the fifth X-Men and the eighth Harry Potter. If this was the 1979 featured in Super 8, the Spielberg name could have made it #1 week after week, but no one was fooled into thinking this was the sequel to Super 7.
Mr. Spielberg is also an executive producer of the upcoming Transformers 3, the follow-up to the overly loud and mindless Transformers 2, the worst movie of its year. So while he’s poised to be part of a huge movie again soon, one senses he’s about to take some critical lumps. For this little window of time, let’s marvel in his talents and be glad he was able to inspire Abrams as he obviously did.
Oh, and Rochester – the film won’t just make you nostalgic for when they made good films; you’ll also get nostalgic about when they made good film. The kids shoot everything on Kodak 8 mm film, and the yellow box is featured prominently.
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