Super Ate…..Super 8 ohhhh where ohh where to begin with Super 8?

Well first off I want to keep this shit spoiler free because I knows how peoples get…

In between the time-frame of seeing the movie Saturday morning and seeing the MTV Movie Awards Sunday night, I was thinking what a good job the trailers had done with keeping the movie a mystery, SOOOOO much so that shots are filmed differently in the film when compared to the trailers. Everything isn’t going to happen exactly like you saw in the trailer. I really dug that. CUT to the special, longer spot they showed during the MTV Awards, and NOPE! Gone are the trailer made shots, they’ve now been replaced with more shots right out of the film. It sort of blew me away that they did this, but I can understand it. I don’t think the movie was registering on people’s radar. No one I know, knew what the fuck I was talking about before going to the screening for this, so nobody came with me, and when I got there it wasn’t full. The movie was pretty cheaply made, so they’ll be able to pull off a hit. I think it will have good word-of-mouth, so it should be fine. Also, I’m utterly fucking boggled as to WHY this movie is hitting IMAX screens while GREEN LANTERN isn’t. I mean, I know some fanbois would love to see their chubby 1970s self on a four story screen, or that Friday Night Lights/Early Edition fuck, but me….I’d rather have THIS as big as fucking possible!

Ok so enough jibber jabber….how was this Steven Bergian throwback to your childhood, nostalgia-ridden monster movie? Well it’s FINE. There is no particular reason why this Cloverfield Origin story is set in the 1970s beyond geeks fascination with 8mm film (I wonder how long it took them to remember that 8mm was a shitty movie before they had to change the title?). The movie could’ve easily been set in rural Vermont with kids dicking around with a Flip video camera. What’s funny is that little is made, tension-wise of the actual FOUND FOOTAGE in the 8mm. Since going by its title and everything, you’d think it is the MacGuffin. It sort of is, but not really. By the time they bring it to play, it seems worthless. Another aspect that didn’t make sense was how dumb the military was with trying to find it.

You all know the train crash happens and the kids are filming a movie there, and then the military rolls in and the kids run away. Of course the military figures out someone was recording the crash. SOOOO later on, they still haven’t figured out WHO was doing the filming. Even after seeing kids filming military work around town, no one thinks to put two and two together? ALSO since this is 8MM, not instant upload, they had to send the film out to get processed SOOO no one in the military thinks to stop by the local film processing store to ask some questions or look at some reels?! I mean the military in this movie is such an unstoppable force of cannon fodder it seems like they had enough people to question the entire town in a matter of hours. BUT honestly that’s a minor gripe, because really…its about these relationships and the kids and the strings of your heart that they pull because you can identify with them…blah blah blah.

This is a strange movie to go over afterward, because while sitting there in the theaters I loved it….I had a blast. By the time I got home, I couldn’t even remember what the fuck I just got back from seeing. The whole thing plays out more like a good flashback episode of LOST rather than a classic creature feature. I even thought one of the main dads was that Jack fella from LOST because they kept him sort of a mystery for a good chunk of the film.

Two of the biggest weaknesses are JJ’s overuse of the television-esque close-up, and the fact that the final monster doesn’t seem like he fits in the world they’ve created. I mean, sure he doesn’t fit in, HE’S A FUCKING CREATURE! But the mystique and the history surrounding it don’t jive with it’s look. When the big moment comes where you’re supposed to care about the beast…you sort of don’t. Like you kind of wish the fucking military would get him wrapped up in some cables on a bridge then just fucking missile the shit out of it like a good monster movie does. You know, just to squeeze some emotion outta you. AND again, you may say IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONSTER, IT’S ABOUT THE KIDS….GOD!!! Which is correct. In the end, you DO get wrapped up in these kid’s lives. JJ did do a good job of making you feel for them. When that explosion hit, I really did fear for their lives.

The best moments of this childhood reenactment play like the best moments of Superbad. The two leads are like Cera and Fatso in that they are those middle of the road kids, they aren’t geeky/dorky enough to just be dweebs, but they aren’t cool/jocks/badasses/emos either. They fall into the universal middle ground to allow more people to connect with them. Sure they have geek tendencies, but they aren’t spazzes. What starts off as a fun buddy-film between the lead kid and fat kid (yeah fuck them, their names won’t be remembered) turns into a love story between main kid and the other Fanning sister. So when they suddenly throw in a twist halfway through and Fatty gets upset at Main Kid about Main Kid getting The Girl, it felt forced and half-assed. I’d rather Fatty be more excited for the two of them. This dynamic eventually comes around in a typical fashion, and it’s fine. The whole thing is fine….just nothing to really kick the tires and light the fires, ya know?

I get how JJ wants this to be a MONSTER movie with a human heart. Like the scene I just described, it plays out right after they get the SUPER EIGHT tape back, and rather than freaking out over it they have a lover’s quarrel. Also….I ALMOST wonder if the movie would’ve played out better had the monster never been shown. There is a lot of BIG FUCKING DEAL build up to this thing, and that is all handled very well. The sly camera tricks were more fun than fucking annoying. You enjoyed the unraveling mystery of what the monster is going to be so much it’s pretty much inevitable you’ll be let down when it arrives. Again, its not just some big fucking puffy cloud of black smoke, but its like……ohhhhh, ohhhh…that’s it?

In the end, the perfect way to sum up SUPER 8 is a SOLID use of the single F-word allowance in a PG-13 film followed shortly thereafter by a ‘DRUGS ARE BAD’ spot seconds later. For whatever reason, it tries to negate its own coolness. An odd movie it reminded me of is Frequency, and not just because Noah Emmerich is in both. They have a similar feel/look/setting/time-frame about them. Both have daddy issues. Both are solid thrillers the whole family can enjoy. You have fun while it’s on, but you’ve forgotten most of it by the time you get to the bathroom to do a bump of coke before hittin’ the road.

Bottom Line: A STEVEN SPIELBERGPRODUCED film is not the same as a

STEVEN SPIELBERG FILM.