‘Super 8’ is the best ‘Spielberg’ movie in years

Typically a director needs to be long gone from this life to deserve cinematic adoration.

But J.J. Abrams jumps the gun with Super 8, his love letter to Steven Spielberg’s early extraterrestrial flicks. Abrams is clearly influenced by the big man (Spielberg serves as producer of Super 8), but not to the point where the movie comes off as unoriginal. The two-hour film is an energized sci-fi tale that triumphs of its own accord. The fact that some of the plot elements have been done before is a moot point.

If a formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Joel Courtney plays Joe Lamb, a young boy who loses his mother in a terrible factory accident at the beginning of the movie. This leaves Joe’s father, Jackson (Kyle Chandler), the unenviable task of raising the boy by himself. The grief immediately sets Joe on a path of escape; when he’s with his friends, he needs to get away from the mundane aspects of his new home life.

Joe’s friends are a motley crew of horror-film fanatics. They are all pulled together by their slight oddities and penchant for all things bloody. To prove that they have true genre chops, the friends decide to make a low-budget zombie movie on the outskirts of town. Charles (the very funny Riley Griffiths) directs the piece, while Joe serves as make-up man and all-around jack-of-all-trades. Their leading lady is Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning), the pretty girl at school that these boys have a crush on.

Late one night, after sneaking away from their respective houses, the amateur filmmakers head out to an old railroad station along a dark and dusty road. While filming a scene for their movie to the backdrop of a passing train, something begins to go wrong. A crazed man driving a pickup truck leaves the road and starts heading right for the oncoming train. The resulting crash is enormous, and the accident sends the train into a violent derailment.

Joe and his friends run for their lives as fiery debris lands all around them. Luckily (or unluckily) their 8-millimeter camera records the entire crash and also the strange creature that emerges from one of the cars labeled United States Air Force.

After rushing home with their unbelievable evidence, strange things begin to happen in the town of Lillian, Ohio. Joe’s father, who is the deputy chief of police, starts to investigate the crash, but is immediately turned aside by the military officials who show up to canvass the local area. The neighborhood is cordoned off and everyone is questioned. Something big is going down, and Joe and his friends are the only ones who can possibly fill in the blanks.

The actual alien that emerges from the train car is an impressive sight to behold. Abrams keeps the creature just out of view for much of the movie (this could be seen as an homage to Spielberg’s Jaws), and this heightens the suspense. The audience definitely becomes enraptured in the adventure of Joe and his friends, constantly wanting to know what’s around the next corner.

The movie’s screenplay is nice, although there are pockets of overwriting. In particular, a side story involving Alice’s father (played by Ron Eldard) falls flat and never resonates. Noah Emmerich’s part as the military man known as Nelec is also quite two-dimensional.

The best thing about the movie is Abrams’ obvious love for Spielberg’s résumé, whether it be E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s so great to have an intelligent science-fiction movie hit cinemas. Although Spielberg helped progress the genre in the 1970s and 1980s, it should by no means be untouchable for today’s directors. Super 8 is an homage, but it’s very much a solid film in its own right.

Courtney is a solid actor at such a young age (again, reminding me of Henry Thomas in E.T.). Too often great movies are vilified for the young stars at their helm. Super 8 thankfully has a cadre of impressive actors, both young and old.

Abrams, who helped bring Lost to television screens and also reignited the Star Trek universe, is a can’t-miss director whose work shows a love for all things cinematic. One day a young director will likely pay his films the respect they deserve.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Super 8

• 2011

• Written and directed by J.J. Abrams

• Starring Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths and Ron Eldard

• Running time: 112 minutes

• Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use

• Bubble score: 3.5 out of 4

• Click here to purchase Super 8 on DVD.