"Super 8"
Scott,
A.O. “Hey,
Guys, Let’s
Make a Monster Flick” Rev. of Super 8, dir. J.J Abrams Refn. The New York Times
9 June 2001
Turan,
Kenneth. “Movie
Review: Super 8” Rev.
of Super 8, dir. J.J Abrams Refn. The Los Angeles Times 9 June 2011
Ebert, Roger.
“Super 8" Rev. of Super 8,
dir. J.J Abrams Refn. Roger Ebert 8 June 2011
Theme and Intention
"Themes
of childlike resistance to authority and intergalactic compassion are evident
here, as they were in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.” The visual and emotional
poetry of those films, however, never quite blossoms, despite having been
copied out carefully, line by line." Scott
"It
is a requirement of these films that adults be largely absent. The kids get
involved up to their necks, but the grown-ups seem slow to realize strange
things are happening." Ebert
"Very
much like Rob Reiner's "Stand by Me," "Super 8" lives and
dies by having those six 14-year-old kids as a group protagonist." Turan
Separate Elements and their Relationship to the Whole
"Mr.
Abrams is good at those, and at balancing big effects with smaller-scale,
real-world touches. Somehow, though, while he admires the seat-of-the-pants
spirit of his fledgling cineastes, he is too careful and dutiful a filmmaker to
embrace it." Scott
"He
uses his camera to accumulate emotion. He has the rural town locations
right." Ebert
Objective Evaluation of the Film
"Set
in the 1970s, it opens with its 12-year-old hero, Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney),
helping his intense friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) make an 8mm zombie movie
for a local film festival. This of course must be done in secret, not so much
because parents would forbid it, but because it's fun to operate with stealth.
Besotted by stories of other young directors (no doubt including Spielberg),
they scout locations, improvise costumes and energetically apply zombie
makeup." Ebert
"The
main character in Mr. Abrams’s film is not Charles but his best friend, Joe Lamb (Joel
Courtney), who serves as makeup artist on “The Case,” a zombie picture Charles hopes to enter in a regional film
festival. Joe’s
mother was recently killed in an accident at the steel mill, a loss that
shadows both the boy’s relationship with his father (Kyle Chandler), a sheriff’s deputy, and with Alice
Dainard (Elle Fanning), whose father (Ron Eldard) seems to have had something
to do with the death." Scott
Subjective Evaluation of the Film
"But
"Super 8's" elements do not jell into a satisfying whole." Turan
"During
the first hour of "Super 8," I was elated by how good it was. It was
like seeing a lost early Spielberg classic. Then something started to slip. The
key relationship of Alice and her troubled father Louis (Ron Eldard) went
through an arbitrary U-turn." Ebert
The Films Level of Ambition
"The
poster for the new movie "Super 8" is dominated not by an image but
by two equally prominent names: writer-director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven
Spielberg. Hybrids may be all the rage for cars, but this melding of two
cinematic sensibilities, though effective at moments, is finally not as
exciting or involving as it we'd like it to be." Turan
"There
are really two movies here, one about the world of the kids and one about the
expectations of the audience, and "Super 8" leads a charmed life
until the second story takes command." Ebert
"Remember
Three Mile Island? Remember “My Sharona”? Remember CB radios? Remember Blondie and disco? Mr.
Abrams certainly does, and he evokes that bygone world with a sense of period
detail that sits right on the line between uncanny and neurotic. His 1979 is
more like 1979 than the real 1979, which hardly seemed like a time of innocence
and eager wonder." Scott
Words You Found Interesting
"...materialization..."
Ebert
"...cumbersome..."
Scott
Relationship to Film Movements/Genres/ Relation to other
Filmmakers’
Work
"Old-fashioned
and genteelly entertaining, even wholesome, "Super 8" plays more like
a family film than a kinetic work by Abrams, best known on the big screen for
such high energy items as "Mission: Impossible III" and the latest
"Star Trek." A longtime admirer of Spielberg, Abrams has made
something more in that director's style than his own, an action that has
diminished his own effectiveness without replicating what makes the best of
Spielberg's films so successful." Turnan
"The
associations are deliberate. Steven Spielberg produced the film, and its
director, J.J. Abrams, worked in lowly roles on early Spielberg movies before
going on to make "Mission Impossible III" (2006) and "Star
Trek" (2009) — and produce "Lost" on TV. What they're trying to
do is evoke the innocence of an “E.T.” while introducing a more recent level of special effects.
There are really two movies here, one about the world of the kids and one about
the expectations of the audience, and "Super 8" leads a charmed life
until the second story takes command." Ebert
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