Movie plots should never be fully divulged before a viewer sees a movie. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever. (The only exception obviously being adaptations.) The best movie experiences are the unexpected ones, when the audience has no clue what to expect and their illusions and preconceived notions are completely shattered. Filmmakers and studios should really work harder to keep more plots and twists and things of the like secretive, and they should take lessons from JJ Abrams and Super 8.
In nearly every way, Super 8 is a classic Steven Spielberg film that wasn’t written or directed by Spielberg himself. Instead, JJ Abrams took the best elements from Spielberg films: children as lead characters, mysterious non-human beings with questionable intentions, clueless adults that have lost their ability to see things as clearly as their children, the power of unique (and sometimes forbidden) friendships, and the reconciliation of loved ones torn apart. Separately, these elements are not exclusively Spielberg’s, but he combines them in ways unlike any other filmmaker… except now for Abrams. Super 8 seems to be a film homage to the great sci-fi works by Spielberg: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park, and Minority Report. Abrams took the great elements from this movie, added his own talent for plot twists, flips, and movie monsters, and made a new sci-fi classic out of Super 8.
The film is set in the late 1970’s and is told through the eyes of Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a 12 year old boy dealing with the devastating loss of his mother in a small town in Ohio. Joe decides to distract himself by helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) finish his movie so he can send it off to a film festival in Ohio state. Charles enlists the help of Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning) to fill a romantic roll in the film, and together along with the rest of their friends, they set off to make a film on Charles’ super 8 camera. During a night of filming at a train station, the kids witness a horrific, but planned, train accident that sets the movie in motion.
The filmmakers succeeded in finding tremendous child actors to take on roles with emotional depth and great professional quality. Each child in this film acted just like a child on film, and were all extremely natural actors. Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney were both exceptionally good, and will definitely find long careers as actors, because they are both immensely talented. Elle Fanning’s career is blooming, and she’s doing a great job building a name for herself aside from just being Dakota Fanning‘s younger sister. The acting in this movie was top notch, and it was made possible because of the richness and depth of the story they were acting. Great acting is nearly always accompanied by great storytelling, and great storytelling needs great acting; this film had both and it shows.
Usually in huge summer action blockbusters, the special effects take center stage in the film, but I’m happy to report that all of the special effects in this film were in their place and didn’t overwhelm the integrity of the story.
Prediction for Oscar Season: Best Picture Nominee, Best Director Nominee, Best Special Effects Nominee, and Best Supporting Actress for Elle Fanning.
Super 8 is the greatest example of a great summer film, and its probably one of the greatest summer films to be made in the past decade. JJ Abrams is setting an example for all filmmakers: write a good story, write good characters, make the chaos of the movie great, and make the audience care about those in the middle of the chaos.
Extremely Behind the Camera 