Super 8 (2011)

3/5

*spoilers*

ok, i really liked the first half of this movie... and if the second part of the film had kept me as interested as the first, i would have rated this movie higher. the kids are awesome, and i loved watching them put together that zombie movie. HOLY SH-T was that a good movie! the kids are cool, and sweet, and low key. they didn't annoy me or make me want to punch myself in the face or cut out my ovaries. 

it's 1979 and a group of young teen friends (great performances), are working on a super 8 movie. one of the kids, Alice (played amazingly by Elle Fanning), steals her dad's car to drive out of town in the middle of the night to shoot a scene in an open field. as they're filming, one of the other kids, Joe (played wonderfully by Joel Courtney), sees a pick-up truck deliberately drive onto the railroad tracks into the path of a passing train. uh oh.

the train then derails next to them, causing a terrible wreck. the kids all go running and stuff. the cargo on the crashed train is totally destroyed and scattered all over the open field, and something f-cked up takes off running (which the kids catch on their rolling camera).

i liked watching the kids' reaction the following days after the crash. i liked it when they were using the accident as a backdrop to their movie. up until then, it was all good stuff. but then, when the strange and wonky things start happening in the town...that's when the movie went from a 4/4.5 to a 3 for me. 

overall the premise is excellent. teens will love it. and it's really kinda fun for a summer blockbuster flick. in fact, Super 8 feels a lot like The Goonies (1985),  E.T. (1982), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and District 9 (2009), rolled into one. and (apart from E.T. - that's a whole other traumatizing review), i really like those movies. but a number of things really bothered me about Super 8...

like during the train derailment, Dr. Woodward (Glynn Turman), the kids' biology teacher, SURVIVES. 

really? because his head-on collision just derailed a TRAIN. and his truck still looked like a truck. and his face still looked like a face. with lips and a tongue that were attached which were able to move and speak.

so, that, for me, was a major problem.

i also found the reasoning behind the conflict between Joe's father, Deputy Jackson Lamb, and Alice's dad, Dainard, to be a bit lame. 

listen, i don't wanna say how grown-ups are allowed to deal with their grief, but when the kids weren't allowed to be friends, FORBIDDEN to be friends, i had imagined a couple of really great theories as to why (all involved sex) - so when the real reason was finally explained, i felt disappointed, if not cheated, and i furrowed my brow. 

so, booo there.

i'm also booing because i didn't like how everything comes together and is resolved so perfectly in the end. of course! it's a Spielberg production! whether the town gets eaten by a shark or a dinosaur, don't worry kids, daddy's coming home... PLUS, i was totally annoyed that the one last, missing piece to make that creature get back to its planet was the kid's f-cking locket.

LAME-O!

AND... 

what a jerk alien!

because, i'm sorry, but if in fact the alien was able to read the kid's mind (and recognized the suffering Joe had endured with the death of his mother, thus feeling empathy for him, and ergo not ripping the kids in two) why the F-CK would it want/need the ONE THING that Joe holds so dear to his heart?

that for me was SO stupid.

also stupid?

that the audience doesn't get to know the alien OR see the terrible treatment (was it terrible treatment?) it endured while in captivity to really care if it dies or survives. in fact, unlike District 9, i didn't give a flying sh-it if that alien got home or not. *shurg* we don't even get a bloody good look at the thing until the end, so what is there to feel sorry for? a big jerk that rips up a peaceful town? 

nope! don't give a shit! it's a jerk!

especially, ESPECIALLY when it's killing off helpless victims, like the woman with the rollers. 

what was the point of that killing? was that supposed to make me feel sorry for it?

anyway. lemme stop here because i'm getting annoyed. ok, so the first part of the movie was really great (note: and stay until the end of the credits!) - i LOVED the passion that the kids have for making that movie - that made me really, really happy. i also really loved the child actors - they were wonderful (and so not annoying!) especially Fanning, Courtney, and Charles, the kid who plays the director (Riley Griffiths). the nostalgic FEEL of the movie was also really great. the actual film felt a little retro - it felt 70's, and wasn't very sharp. it was a bit soft, which was a nice authentic touch that i appreciated. so all that, for me, was top notch, but once that f-cking alien shows up, it was all downhill - if i had a boner, i would have lost it there.

but it's fun. so, i'd give it a go. especially if you're 13.