SUPER 8 (Rated PG-13 for hyped violence, some drugs & profanity - parents strongly cautioned): It doesn't take long for two things to become evident: producer Steven Spielberg had a strong hand in shaping the details in this film, and the technical filming process went overboard to recreate the feel & look of a 70s movie right down to the use of grainy, off-color film stock.
It's a monster movie about five 14-year-old boys and a girl out to make a horror movie, shooting with super 8 film and working with exaggerated make-up, phony sets, and all the kinds of things kids used to do back in those days to wile away the free time with a pleasurable hobby.
Camera owner Charles (Riley Griffiths) and make-up man Joe (Joel Courtney) both have a crush on alluring Alice (Elle Fanning) and lure her into playing a part in their film; but that romantic triangle is soon dispelled when the trio with a couple other kids go to a train station to film a passing freight train that, shockingly, blows up - I mean really blows up, with car after car exploding, shooting into the air, wrecking everything within sight, all to overwhelmingly deafening, volatile smash-bang-crash noise - all accidentally captured on their left-behind camera.
Joe's father, a cop, drops his plans to send Joe to a baseball camp, and becomes embroiled in the effects of the explosion and the following military take-over of the formerly peaceful Ohio town. Some citizens blame Russians for the explosion and the series of strange events that follow: dogs & some people vanish; car engines, electrical wire, microwaves vanish; and more. While the adults are busy coping with the military and so many unexplainable incidents, the kids are off on their own, searching for a solution - which turns out to be - well, that's where all the fun about kid-life in the 70s ends and a modern sci-fi flick begins.
For about an hour this look-back, sentimental movie is great fun. J.J. Abrams, who wrote & directed, like Spielberg, lived for their childhood pleasures in amateur movie-making, and now, lovingly, present kids from an innocent pre-adolescent age engaged in just the kind of fantasy world they once created - no looking down on them, no stereotypes of other Hollywood kid flicks, just 70s kids, lovingly portrayed. And the kids themselves are obviously enjoying their roles, reveling in the excitement generated around them.
Larry Fong's photography is remarkable - though shot in wide screen, it could have been any spectacular movie made on the Technicolor film of the 70s - sometimes a little too pink, rarely in deep focus, but always telling you, "Hey, look - color!"
Maryann Brandon & Mary Jo Markey's editing is a wonder of rapid cuts, creating a zinger of speed & disorder, never staying very long on any one scene, and busy enough to ratchet up the suspense.
Michael Giacchino's music that bounces appropriately from swing pop to rich, fully orchestrated atmospheric stuff - sometimes period oriented, often loud & emphatically mood setting - maintains the spirit of the film. And a whole passel of people worked on recreating the times, from make-up to costumes to set design - all with the intent to make this a delightful tribute to the times, to movie-making, and, for the most part, to the making of a crazy, likable Stephen King-type ambiance of a cockeyed, lovable suspense film - 115-minutes of just right fun for summer viewing. (Grade: A-)
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