Cut To The Chase Reviews from The City of Films are spoiler free ‘Reviews Abridged For Your Pleasure’. Quick, concise, and sometimes entertaining opinions on the go!
Having been looking forward to Super 8 all year, it wasn’t easy for me to attend a screening without high expectations. I wanted to love it and I wanted the film to evoke memories of movies past. I’m relieved that it not only met expectations but easily surpassed them.
A lot of secrets were kept about the film, and you’ll have to see it to learn them, but one aspect of the filmmaking that director J.J. Abrams didn’t shy away from was the obvious homage to past Steven Spielberg films. Themes from films like E.T. and Close Encounters are showcased here in an updated yet nostalgic fashion. Growing up on Spielberg movies, some of which are the best movies of all time, I was relieved to see that my memories were handled with such care.
Super 8 has a lot of amazing visuals, the train wreck scene is definitely one for the books. The cast is solid with a lot of credit going to the kids, who can always make or break a film. If anything is missing from Super 8, it’s the heart and emotion found in the early days of Amblin. While you certainly come to feel for the characters and believe what’s happening on screen, you never quite get the butterflies or lump in your throat like when you watched Elliot say goodbye to his alien friend for example.
Super 8 is sure to draw a line between viewers today. I’ve already read a few negative reviews of the film, and I couldn’t help but feel the jaded commentary was due in large part to the writers falling out of love with movies. Super 8 is for kids, old and young – if you loved movies at some point in your life but now have some obligation to hate everything that comes out (I feel that way too sometimes), Super 8 might just bring back some of those feelings you had. It’s like getting under the blankets in my parent’s rec-room all over again, playing with a silly tracking button and wishing I was a Goonie too.
Score: 4.5/5
Extra: Check out this last poster for Super 8, now that’s classic.
