Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Soooooper Great


Whats that coming over the hill? Oh wait its just another J.J Abrams monster movie loaded with mystery. And to be honest , its something he has had a lot of practice at over the years. Where Super 8 differs from Cloverfield is that it works quite well.

Set in 1970s America Super 8 tells the story of a group of thirteen year olds making a zombie movie. While out on a night time shoot they witness a train crash. But something is wrong, the cargo of the train is guarded with high secrecy and slowly the plot unfolds to reveal that what was on the train has gotten out and isnt too happy. Like Cloverfield, Super 8s main draw to get people into the seats has been a promotional run drenched in mystery. Whats on the train? What does it want? Effective yes, but the problem arises when the inevitable reveal comes somewhere round the hour mark. With these films it will never live up to the viewers expectation. But within saying this Abrams has developed as a director and kept, for the most part, the film about the characters. Its tried and tested, but if you dont make the audience care about the characters they just wont care about the film. Spielberg is attached as producer and the films does have a very Goonies feel about it. Which isnt a bad thing but its been done, and been done better.

Still its a good movie, verging on great. (If it wasnt for those obnoxious and altogether pointless lens flares every five seconds.) It tends to get a little too E.T. esque towards the end and loses its humour somewhere in the middle but the cast are great (Its even got that little Arian boy from 7th Heaven all grow-ed up, dont pretend that you dont know which one Im talking about .) , the script is good and the nostalgic feel to it makes it a damn good watch in my opinion. Life changing no, but what do you want on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and lets face it, those are the movies youll always come back too.

xxx

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