Super 8 is GREAT

[JamesSavik]

Spielberg magic + J.J. Abrams flair == knock out hit of the summer!

Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney

Super 8 has a delightful innocence and a feeling not caught on camera since Stand By Me.

You're Gonna Love It ™

[colinian]

I agree! It's an outstanding movie, for young and old and everyone in between. Go see it!

Colin

[Camy]

Sadly, it's not released in the UK until August. :(

The trailer looks fantastic, though! :)

[Cole Parker]

It reminded me a lot of ET in that they used unknown kid actors--unknown to me a least; I don't see that many movies--who did a terrific job. I mean terrific. The plot was a little screwy in places, but overall very satisfying.

I liked it, and I don't like all that many movies I see. I'd recommend it.

C

[The Pecman]

I liked the film very much but didn't love it. I thought it boiled down to varying pastiches of E.T., Goonies, Explorers, Stand By Me, Gremlins, Predator, and Alien, almost an "'80s sci-fi greatest hits." The good news is, the performances of the actors were terrific throughout, and I'm particularly stunned that a couple of them (including the lead) had never acted before. I also think the technical aspects like the editing and cinematography were stellar.

But I think the film kind of loses its way about 2/3 of the way through. Roger Ebert put it best in his review when he said that he felt this was two ideas: 1) a group of kids in the late 1970s have adventures while making their own little movie, and 2) the government tries to cover-up a dangerous alien they're moving across the country to Area 51. Each idea is interesting, but jamming the two ideas together was a little bumpy. But he also essentially liked the movie, despite its flaws.

[Camy]

I finally got around to seeing Super 8 and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be. It was good, but it wasn't that good. Perhaps I was expecting too much. That said, the young cast gave great performances and the special effects couldn't be faulted.

[colinian]

This is not a movie that has meaning, it's a movie strictly for mindless entertainment. Like most of TV, but lots better.

Colin

[The Pecman]

I watched it again on Blu-ray a week or two ago, and actually enjoyed it. I wouldn't call it "mindless" per se, but there are a few lapses in logic that give one pause. For example: if you had a 20-car freight train barrelling along at about 30MPH, and a pickup truck drives straight at it going about twice as fast, is the entire train really going to derail? And is the truck going to remain in one piece? Both happen in this film, and that was a little hard to buy for me. There's also a plot detail as to whether the alien is inherently evil, and also a question about its diet (which I won't spoil for people who haven't seen it); neither are resolved very satisfactorily, at least to me.

But there are really, really good performances in the film, the photography and technical aspects are terrific, and it has some very good moments. The battle inside the bus was a highlight (as one example). A good, but not great, film. Let's put it this way: I liked it a lot more than I did the new Mission:Impossible.

[dude]

Great... just obtained it and will watch it on New Year's Eve.

I'm sure it will put me in the mood for writing my State of the Site message to be posted on New Year's Day!

[Chris James]

The film was a good choice for me, the new ET.

Being one of those behind the scenes guys I really, really enjoyed the Special Feature included on the DVD about the director and how he got started...making 8mm films as a fourteen year old boy. It was that flashback, and his early involvement with Spielberg, that made the film all that more enjoyable. He had an empathy with the story line because he had lived it, or some of it.

I was delighted to see that the unknowns could act, and that is what kept this from being a "B" movie. The plot was full of holes, but then so was ET. So I gave it a "B" since it was almost mindless entertainment and yet I had fun. Worth seeing just to talk about.

[blue]

Why and how did I miss that the movie is science fiction and not only a movie about amateur filmmakers?

That's what I get for not reading certain forum threads, isn't it? *cough* 'Scuse me.

I saw an ad for the movie and have it to watch on the i of tunes, once I pause from writing long enough to watch.

I promise to pay more attention to discussions. ...I visit two scifi forums regularly. How did I not notice? Duh, duh, duh....

[dude]

Yes.. enjoyed it a lot!