Written and Directed by J.J. Abrams
"Super 8" is written and directed by J.J. Abrams, who also directed "Star Trek", my favourite film of 2009. Keep that in mind not only when seeing the now-(in)famous lens flare but also a gas station called "Kelvin" (the Starfleet ship Captain Kirk's father served on).
The film opens with an apparent accident - I think it was at a factory. We then cut to a funeral wake where our protagonist-to-be young Joseph is sat outside on a swing, surrounded by snow. Joseph is holding a silver necklace, which later turns out to be a locket. A blonde man - later revealed to be Alice's drinking and bad tempered father disturbs the wake and is sent away.
Four months later, Joseph and his friends Charles, Preston, Cary and Martin are working on their own zombie film ("The Case") and convince girl Alice to drive them to the location shoot taking place at night at what I suppose is a train station. Alice is reluctant at first as - at her age - she has no license to drive and is aware that Joseph's father is the deputy sheriff. However, they are soon on location and Alice is to be the film's protagonist's wife as they bid an emotional farewell on the station platform. As an example of creative film-making, one of the kids will play an extra using the telephone in the background. They rehearse the scene and the boys are surprised by Alice's display of genuine emotion. A train is seen speeding up to the area and they decide to film the scene with the train passing by. However, Joseph spots a truck driving onto the track and collides with the train, setting off a series of almost-literally deafening explosions that the kids (and the filmstock) manage to survive. Before the military arrive and investigate (which includes trucks which have red containers with three white spots on them), the kids find crates filled with mysterious cubes, one of which Joseph pockets. They also find the driver, who is in possession of a map.
Other mysterious events occur such as dogs running out of town - one of which is Joseph's dog Lucy (although I do not recall seeing her earlier in the film), electric powerlines vanishing and car engines being stolen. During this, Joseph is forbidden from seeing Alice first by Alice's father and then by his own. But the two of them still meet in secret. Charles and Joseph discover some kind of creature on the footage taken on the night of the "accident". The military instigate a fire that forces the town's population to evacuate while the kids investigate a link between the creature and the driver who rammed the train (aided by a pothead photo-developer).
I used the spoof "if movie posters were honest" poster which titles the film as "E.T. with Lens Flare" (the latter of which I have already mentioned). There are possible connections with "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (it's been ages since I've seen it in full). Of course, Steven Spielberg is producer and it has a circa 1980 setting in a town which has been visited by an alien (in this case, of a subterranean nature) and there is a scene in which a character races on a bicycle (also seen in the Michael Bay-directed and Spielberg exec-produced "Transformers", 2007, which has also been compared to "E.T.". Perhaps that explains the yellow car, which brings to my mind Bumblebee). Perhaps the key difference between this and "E.T." is that whereas Elliot has no father figure, both Joseph and Alice have no mother (Joseph's mother had died while Alice's apparently walked out on her and her father, which presumably explains his drinking and anger). That and the alien creature is not - apparently - very nice, although there is the notion of it being able to make a psychic connection with a human.
My favourite scenes were those with the kids making their zombie film and seeing it projected (stay during the end credits for the film in full, thus giving you a nice Double Bill). The one that sticks in my mind the most, is the already-mentioned train station rehearsal in which Alice's tears are real. In fact, the film-making sequences made me want to get a camera and some friends to do some filming (perhaps this would be good practise for the career to which I aspire).
My two main problems is that I am unsure some of the kids (namely Martin and Preston) get as much screentime as Joseph, Alice and Charles. In fact, Charles appears to be dropped from the third act and replaced by Cary (whose use of fireworks - aka special effects - come into play). However, they are all together for the end credits premier of "The Case".
Another quibble is the creature, while mostly hidden in the dark is another that could be compared to the "Cloverfield" monster (on which Abrams was a producer), along with creatures such as those in "Skyline" and "Monsters". Next time, can we have a monster movie with a much more original-looking monster?
