It’s such a cliched truism that special effects don’t make a movie better that you’d think it wouldn’t have to be said ever again. And yet, “Super 8” — which features a wonderful cast of believable kids that has drawn favorable comparisons to “The Goonies” and “Stand By Me” — shifts its focus from the people to the alien monsters and computer effects for the final act, and it all falls apart.
Even before that, we get several scenes of an off-screen monster tossing around large chunks of metal and appliances such as ovens or dishwashers. The hurtled objects interrupt peacefully silent scenes of the Ohio town at night by falling from the top of the screen and landing with a loud, expected-but-still-jolting thud. The question of what these creatures are is supposed to have an air of mystery, I think, but frankly, I found the whole plotline landed with a thud. For one thing, these monsters are stealthy enough not to be spotted for several days, yet all of their killings are violent and screechingly loud — the aliens sound like the offspring of a T-rex and a bug from “Starship Troopers.”
Still, I would’ve forgiven the “been there, seen that” monsters-on-the-loose plot if writer-director J.J. Abrams (TV’s “What About Brian” and “Six Degrees,” and of course more well-known credits like “Lost,” “Fringe” and the 2009 “Star Trek”) spent more time playing to his strength — characters — and embracing the fact that he got such a great cast together.
“Super 8” is highlighted by the friendship/love story between Joe (Joel Courtney, the spitting image of the kid from “Almost Famous”) and Alice (Elle Fanning). These wunderkinds’ natural filmmaking talents — loosely modeled on Abrams and his friends (or maybe just Abrams) in the late ’70s, when this film is set — are a joy to behold. Mop-topped Joe is the makeup artist, braces-wearing Cary loves blowing stuff up, chubby Charles (the most ’70s-ish character, who says things like “Old Man Woodward” and “That’s mint”) knows the writing and directing side, and ethereal Alice is a natural on camera. During the closing credits, we see “The Case,” the 8 mm zombie picture the kids were shooting, and it’s one last highlight of a what should’ve been a better movie.
“Super 8’s” plot begins when the kids witness a train derailment while shooting their movie. The derailment is extremely, absurdly, almost comically over the top, as if one person shot the character stuff and another person shot the action stuff and they never communicated. “Super 8” would’ve been a better movie if it had been made during the same era it takes place in, when filmmakers couldn’t give into their temptations because special effects weren’t so easy to achieve. (Maybe, for example, the train crash would last for 30 seconds, instead of five minutes.)
That’s not to say that early movies by Steven Spielberg — a producer and inspiration for “Super 8” — always got it right: The final scene of the overrated “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” relies on wow-me visual effects; same with this movie.
The most bizarre mistake is that the heart of the movie — the Joe-and-Alice relationship — is taken away when Alice is captured by the aliens and is off screen for a long stretch while the boys mount a rescue operation. Then when the young lovebirds reunite, they spend an inordinate amount of time on their reunion hug while their friend Cary, who created a diversion for Joe, is being chased by the monster. I thought it might’ve been appropriate to cut to a shot of Cary being eaten by the monster: It would’ve served Joe right for being so self-centered.
In contrast to “The Goonies” and “Stand By Me” (or at least my impressions of those movies, which I haven’t watched in ages), “Super 8” does spend a fair amount of time with its adults. Kyle Chandler from “Friday Night Lights” and Ron Eldard are good as the troubled single dads of Joe and Alice, respectively. Still, their arcs are barely sketched out, as if Abrams opted not to bore us. There’s also a subplot with Charles’ older sister and the local stoner that looks like it’s going to be fun, but then it stalls. On the other hand, far too much time is spent on the usual rigmarole about the U.S. military trying to cover up the aliens’ existence.
It all goes to show that even filmmakers who understand what makes for good entertainment — and Abrams has proven he’s one of them — can get so caught up on what they CAN fill the screen with that they forget what they SHOULD fill the screen with. As the pre-movie trailers (“Cowboys & Aliens,” “Transformers 3,” “Captain America”) make clear, “Super 8” will not be the worst movie of the summer, not even close. But at this point, it looks like the biggest missed opportunity for greatness.
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