Finally got out to see Super 8 last night. This was a movie, when first announced, I had no interest in seeing. But then came the Super Bowl and the first real footage I saw of the movie and I was sold from then on. Even before seeing online all the "early Spielberg vibe" reaction to the trailer, this was exactly how I felt as I watched it. This was a type of movie I'd not seen in a loooong time. A Stand By Me, Goonies, ET, kids on adventure movie the likes of which I had grown up with and loved as a youngun. I freely admit that the Nostalgia factor played a big part in drawing me in. Whatever the case, the preview worked. I would see this movie.
So, going in, I knew only what the previews had shown. I didn't have much in the way of preconceptions of what the movie was really all about. The only thing I was hoping for was a fun little kids on adventure movie, and the movie delivered that. The kids were all great. The way they talked, busted each others chops, and in general related to each other was very nicely handled. There was an emotional core to this story that I felt was very strong. This was a movie about a kid, his struggle with his relationship with his newly widowed father and the fun he has making a Super 8 movie with his group of friends to counteract that. It's about the fact that sometimes your situation in life changes and you need to accept that and move on with the people who are still there.
These are strong coming of age type of themes most associated with drama, but here they are set against the backdrop of something weird going on in the neighborhood. I've seen that some think this part of the story feels tacked on, rushed and doesn't gel with the kids' part of the story. For me, the sci-fi element, while cool, is not the focus of the story. Rather it is the effect that part of the story has on the kids' and their relationships and life struggles that's important. It's the complimentary piece to the main meat of the story and I think it works just fine like that.
Obviously, I can never say this movie is better than E.T., The Goonies and their ilk and that's because I saw those movies when I was a kid. And movies like that affect you more when you see them as a kid than an adult. Super 8, had I seen it when I was 10 around the time those movies came out would probably today be one of my more favorite movies of all time. Seeing it as a dude in his early 30s without the rose colored vision that comes with being a 10 year old, I can say that I enjoyed the heck out of it for what it was and it'll have to settle for being one of my more favorite movies of the year instead.
