Time: 112 Minutes
Age Rating: M – contains violence and fantasy horror
Cast:
Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb
Elle Fanning as Alice Dainard
Riley Griffiths as Charles Kaznyk
Ryan Lee as Cary McCarthy
Gabriel Basso as Martin Read
Zach Mills as Preston Scott
Kyle Chandler as Deputy Jack Lamb
Director: J.J. Abrams

In 1979 Ohio, several youngsters (Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Gabriel Basso) are making a zombie movie with a Super-8 camera. In the midst of filming, the friends witness a horrifying train derailment and are lucky to escape with their lives. They soon discover that the catastrophe was no accident, as a series of unexplained events and disappearances soon follows. Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler), the father of one of the kids, searches for the terrifying truth behind the crash.

Amongst Star Trek, Star Wars and even Mission Impossible, Super 8 is director J.J. Abrams’s only movie not based on an existing IP, and is one of his more forgotten movies. It’s a shame because it’s really good.

Super 8 is a blending of a sci-fi thriller with a heartfelt coming of age drama following a boy forced to leave his childhood too early. From the beginning, its very clear that it is a homage and tribute to adventure movies from the 70s and 80s, especially those helmed by Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner and Robert Zemeckis. There’s definitely nostalgia throughout, and you can tell that JJ is clearly passionate about this story. This is especially seen in the subplot of the main group of kids looking to make their own movie. It is a very fun movie to watch, with solid character work and an intriguing and emotionally engaging plot kept at a great pace. On top of that, its not afraid to get dark and intense at times, with some thrilling scenes. It’s definitely derivative of other similar movies and has its cliches, from conspiracies to government agencies. It borrows a bit too much from the classics its inspired by, and the homages are a little forced at times. Ultimately though, this isn’t a huge problem for the movie.

The cast including Kyle Chandler deliver some great performances. However, it’s the younger actors including Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning and Gabriel Basso who were the highlights; they share great chemistry together and they genuinely felt like a group of friends filming a movie together.

J.J. Abrams directs this well, giving the film quite a good amount of energy throughout. There are some impressive visuals with stellar and clean cinematography from Larry Fong. The special effects along with the sound design are all great. It also delivers on the thrills and scares, a notable example early on is an intense train crashing scene. Finally, Michael Giacchino’s score is very good, and its probably one of my favourites from him.

Super 8 is a solid and emotional coming of age sci-fi thriller, well written and directed, with a good cast, and satisfying thrills. It’s one of J.J. Abrams’s more overlooked and underrated movies, and possibly one of his very best.