Our Take on "Super 8"

If Steven Spielberg married Steven Spielberg and had a baby and the baby was caught in an h-bomb test and mutated into a Frankenstein's monster mash of popular science fiction movies of the last 40 years, its name would be the J.J. Abrams directed "Super 8." This enjoyable dumb summer movie at times reminded me of E.T., Alien, Predator, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, Transformers, and for those of you who saw it, the delightful B-movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Starring Elle Fanning as one of a group of kids using a now-defunct type of camera called a Super-8 (the movie is set in 1979) to make a zombie movie when they inadvertently film a train crash. The crash has some odd things going on - strange cubes in the cargo, and possibly an escaped "something" of unknown origin and purpose, unraveling the mystery of which drives the rest of the plot. If you've ever seen any Steven Spielberg movies before, you know the rest of the story: Evil army guys move in to cover up every trace of the crash, and the little kids proceed to try to unravel the mystery and stay one step ahead of said evil army guys. This film requires more than the normal suspension of disbelief. No, you need to remove your belief and leave it in a jar at home. There are so many plot holes and contrivances that the film barely makes sense, hanging together only by the Stand-By-Me-like kids who grow as human beings (another Spielbergianism) as they work to discover the secret at the center of the story. Should you go? Well, if you like turn-off-your-brain type of movies, you can enjoy this. Just don't ask too many questions. One other thing: remember Tanner, the foul-mouthed kid from the first Bad News Bears movie? I swear there's a kid in this movie that he is the inspiration for. See if you can spot him!

Posted by: GMan