Super 8

[Amaron]

The negative review I heard said it was old and boring and reminded you of 80's movies because it WAS an 80's movie.  The reviewer said something like, "all I got out of it was a lot of nostalgia and a sense that I'd seen it before."   On the other hand he's in the minority.

That's why it's good.

[UnSub]

I'm guessing post modern superheroes, but we'll see.

I like my idea better, but I was horribly wrong on this. 

Reviews I've heard are that its solid all the way up to its ending section.

[Abagadro]

Saw it yesterday. Thought it was meh and pretty cornball.

[SurfD]

He's apparently changed his mind on that and been giving interviews that at least tell you the outline now.  It actually IS E.T. meets Cloverfield.  He wanted to capture the charm & characterization of the old Spielberg movies while using "The monster" to provide some action and represent the boy & his dad's life or some crap like that.

Heh, I TOTALLY called it.

[murdoc]

This would be 15 year old me's favourite movie and I loved it because of that. It was like a bit of Goonies mixed with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, totally a love letter to old school Spielberg.

Enjoyed the Hell out of it.

[WindupAtheist]

I'm guessing post modern superheroes, but we'll see.

I like my idea better, but I was horribly wrong on this. 

Reviews I've heard are that its solid all the way up to its ending section.

Really? When it comes to "______ superheroes" there's ANYTHING that could go in the blank that isn't beyond fucking played-out for you?

[WindupAtheist]

Opened to like $38 million, which I didn't think was that great until I saw that it was made for a measly $50 million. Yeah this is gonna do fine, especially if word of mouth is decent.

[tazelbain]

I would love to see a modern golden-age superhero movie.  I thought opening to Watchmen was the best part of the movie.

[Ghambit]

And Elle Fanning kicks her sister's arse.

[Draegan]

Saw this with my dad over the weekend.  Thought it was a really nice movie.  I enjoyed it.

[SurfD]

I am still amused by the chubby kid's movie contest entry.  I mean, who could POSSIBLY imagine that a company called Romero Chemical would be responsible for a zombie plague?!?  The mind boggles. 

[Khaldun]

Stand By Me + E.T. + Jaws + Cloverfield have sex and the result is actually pretty handsome, if familiar.

[Mrbloodworth]

Just watched it, Awesome flick!

[Sand]

Saw this last night on PPV. Absolutely fucking awesome!

Its a Goonies+ET+Close Encounters of the Third Kind+Predator love child!

Give this 4.5 out of 5 stars!

[Surlyboi]

Just finished watching this.

Other than "fuck you, J.J. Abrams and your goddamn lens flares," I'd say this movie was fucking awesome.

[Tannhauser]

Just watched this.  Honestly I was bored for most of the movie, but the last 45 minutes was good.  It was "ET with an attitude".
Felt like a vanity project, like Abrams was getting some personal homage of ET out of his system.  I did like how the camera lingered in a couple of scenes and the nice little touches of 80's culture.  The CB radio made me smile as did the pot head.  Very well directed anyway.

[DraconianOne]

Watched this a week ago then watched ET with the kids the day after. It was a homage to Spielberg in about as much as it was about a kid with daddy issues having to deal with an alien but it lacked anything like the heart, soul or cinematic prowess of Spielberg's earlier films. In that sense, it entirely missed the point. Despite the stories, Spielberg's films were always grounded in a semblance of reality. Super 8 didn't.

The whole "we're in the 70s" schtick got old too - it was all so fucking knowing and smug (and wrong).

So yeah, at the time I just thought that I just thought the film wasn't all that but writing this, I realise I really didn't like it much at all. 

[stu]

I watched Attack the Block last week and that felt more effective as a bitchin' old school movie than Super 8 as a family-friendly old school movie.

Super 8 looks pretty (especially most of the train scene) but is kinda lame.

[Ratman_tf]

a kid with daddy issues

Fuck JJ Abrams sideways with a corn cob. That shit is getting worn out.

[Surlyboi]

What daddy issues?

[DraconianOne]

What daddy issues?

Distance between kid and policeman-dad who a) doesn't like kids friends b) can't cope with raising kid c) is pretty much an absent father (so kid spends all his time around his friends house) and d) wants to send his kid away.

Like I said, it's a homage to Spielberg's films:

Close Encounters (Roy Neary alienates his family through his obssession)
Jaws (Chief Brody alienates his family through his obssession)
E.T. (Elliots absent father)
Indy Jones & Last Crusade (Young Indy alienated by his obssessed father)
Hook (Obssessed father alienates his kids before becoming Peter Pan)
Jurassic Park (Dedicated scientist cum father-figure alienates can't stand the two kids he's saddled with - and where are their parents anyway?)
Jurassic Park 2 (Divorced father doesn't want to look after his kid)
A.I. (Annoying kid robot unsurprisingly abandoned by both creator and purchaser)
War of the Worlds (Divorced father doesn't want to look after his kids even though its the end of the world)
Indy Jones & Crystal Skull (Indy Jones is an absent father)

[Ironwood]

How many kids were abandoned in Saving Private Ryan ?

 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Wear berets less...

It's just a convenient plot device and yes spielburg goes back to that well a little too much but it's not because he has a thing for daddy issue characters.

[Ironwood]

Oh come on to fuck, of course it is.  It's also all about The Nazis with him too.  Man hates him some Nazis.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Yeah, it's really hard to understand that one. 

[Ironwood]

I understand there was some altercation in the past, yes.

[DraconianOne]

How many kids were abandoned in Saving Private Ryan ?

 

Watched this again the other night. Thing about the film is that it's full of references to "mothers" but not to fathers. Ryan was the only one of his brothers left and they wanted to get him home to his mum. Not his dad, or his parents, his mum. The soldiers sent to rescue him all bitch about the fact they've all got mothers. One of them tells a story about how his mother was a nurse, another a story about his mum's shop (not his dad's shop - his mum's).  Tom Sizemore teases Tom Hanks about doing something dangerous that his mother wouldn't approve of. Loads of references throughout the film.

Aside from Cpt Miller being a father figure, the only father we see or that gets referenced is Ryan and the closing scene is him looking for affirmation that he's been a good man and a good life - including being a good dad (as he makes a point that his family wanted to be with him).

Oh yeah, and when Vin Diesel gets shot, it's because he's trying to save a kid from a building and Miller says afterwards something like "This is why we don't save children!" Bad, abandoning, mission-focussed daddy figure!

 

[Ratman_tf]

Got around to seeing Super 8 yesterday. It was fine. I wouldn't call it great, except in comparison to the shit that gets shoveled around hollywood nowadays.

Amusingly, since having teal and orange pointed out to me, I can't unsee it now. And the lens flares weren't as bad as Trek, but they were still there, and still hella annoying. I think JJ Abram's next movie is just going to be an LED flashlight with daddy issues pointed into the camera.

[Chimpy]

Got around to seeing Super 8 yesterday. It was fine. I wouldn't call it great, except in comparison to the shit that gets shoveled around hollywood nowadays.

Amusingly, since having teal and orange pointed out to me, I can't unsee it now. And the lens flares weren't as bad as Trek, but they were still there, and still hella annoying. I think JJ Abram's next movie is just going to be an LED flashlight with daddy issues pointed into the camera.

I just saw it (bluray rentals from the library for a dollar a week) and it was ok but ridiculously formulaic and the teal was overdone (the lady in the opening scene has eyes that are creepily bright blue).

[Venkman]

Watched this a week ago then watched ET with the kids the day after. It was a homage to Spielberg in about as much as it was about a kid with daddy issues having to deal with an alien but it lacked anything like the heart, soul or cinematic prowess of Spielberg's earlier films. In that sense, it entirely missed the point. Despite the stories, Spielberg's films were always grounded in a semblance of reality. Super 8 didn't.

Oddly, this was the reason I liked it. It was E.T. if done with 2010 sensibilities. The 1980s were an optimistic time for America. That shit don't fly 30 years later. Super 8 couldn't really be the optimistic pap of one dimensional good guys doing antisocial things for the greater good against misunderstood bad guys that ultimately ends with smiles all around.

• The alien wasn't cute and cuddly. That wouldn't work here. Aliens are scary because they're the ultimate unknown. That it had a specific motivation and only killed the bad guys felt like an appropriate throwback to happier (or to some: niave) times.
• The military were not a bunch of goody-two-shoe scientists just trying to help. They were today's cynical outlook on anything the guv'mint does. Appropriate for the 1970s setting too.
• The overworking perceptually-narcissistic rudderless father nobody liked was appropriate for the period. It was an interesting critique of role model vs hero in how he could step up for the town only at the expense of further distancing himself from his son.
• The kids were sorta timeless. They had tween issues and did all the what-me-worry stuff any little narcissist would do. But they were also Goonies without some of the slapstick. Kids are resilient and adaptable by nature (they gotta be), but I'm glad they did show some of them getting deeply impacted by what they saw.

The whole movie was put together very well. I don't think it has the same broad appeal that the 80s ones did though.[/list]

[HaemishM]

Oddly, this was the reason I liked it. It was E.T. if done with 2010 sensibilities.

This. I finally watched it and it really was an E.T. homage from start to finish only with the Cloverfield monster's baby in place of cuddily phone homer. I liked it though the end was a little schmaltzy. No great cinematic achievement, really really self-indulgent fan wank, but fun for what it was.

[Hawkbit]

Like most movies these days, I watched it on Netflix a few months ago and totally forgot that I even watched it until I saw this thread pop up.  Movies caught my imagination so much more in my youth.

[pxib]

As with everything else JJ has made, I was more impressed with the pieces than the whole.

What Spielberg does, and does well, is the sprinkling of a bunch of well-observed human moments into fantasy backgrounds... while maintaining the same sense of reality in the fantasy they season. Rather than simply having a human story run parallel to an alien one, he specifically focuses on how bizzare events would make real people behave, and then gives them room to behave that way. Hook, for example, is about the way that rediscovering Neverland helps Peter reconnect with his kids... not about how a man reconnecting with his kids happens to be Peter Pan. As easy as it is to say that, we can see from the dozens who have failed to become Spielberg that it isn't easy to do.

When JJ too often cannot maintain that balance he fails on both sides: His reality based plots look schmaltzy or preachy, and his fantasy elements feel two-dimensional or forced. I hope he improves because I love the sort of director he's trying to be.

...and as fond as I've been of some of his historical epics, I wish Spielberg would go back to fantasy himself.