Super 8- Page 2

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 11:15am

Let's be fair. Transformers 3 looks F'in AWESOME.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 11:16am

I thought the first two looked awesome too...until I went to see them.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 11:17am

You make a good point. lol

[strummergirl]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 1:00pm

I obviously disagreed with parts of Armond White's review (though I can never turn away from what he says about a movie). His whole Spielbergphilia is pretty well-known/notorious so these proclamations in that review feel both damming and typical Armond White all in one.

Aside from the geek culture aspect and the wonderful Spielberg 'cameo', I was really disappointed with Paul. It felt like the script was watered down from what I know Frost and Pegg are capable of as nerd icons.

If the alien and Joe were carrying on some kind of parallel I did not really see it. If it was supposed to be that way it should have been crafted better.

And kill me for thinking the train crash was walking a tight-rope between spectacular and a 'nuke the fridge' moment.

I will say Spielberg's body of work as a producer (which has a lot of mediocre stuff in addition to fun popcorn movies) he gave us Animaniacs, and no matter how many Transformers movies come out under his watch- he is forgiven just for Animaniacs' existence.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 1:15pm

Definitely an homage to Spielberg's great flicks. All I kept thinking was how much I adore 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. And that score? Bravo! If I didn't know better, I would've thought it were John Williams all along.

I didn't hate it. But I've been looking forward to it for a very long time and I can't help but feel a little disappointed.

SPOILER - I was a little perplexed with how the alien chose to take motors out of some cars, but not all. And, ironically, the important (well, important to the plot-twists) cars all somehow seemed just fine. It's things like this where I feel the creative team wrote themselves into a corner and need a way out.

In addition, I was thoroughly confused as to how he and his friends suddenly got out of the crater in the cemetery. Just felt very odd.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 1:22pm

The crater thing didn't seem odd to me. Wasn't there a line where one of them came back and said he came in through another way?

[romantico]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 2:07pm

I agree with iluvtheatertrash. I did not hate it but I was disappointed. First half was excellent. Many plot holes (I began thinking of LOST and all the plot holes and questions that were not answered) How did the kid know where to find the cave/crater? I still can't understand why the aline did not kill the Sheriff and the people it abducted. Was it explained what the purpose was on why this alien would want these people alive? Otherwise, why take them?

My friend who I saw it with kept thinking the kid's mother was going to somehow appear (like Jodi Foster's Dad in CONTACT)Frankly, I wish the alien was about 4 feet tall with a big head and big eyes. I guess that would not be seen as being very scary though.I wanted a bit more in the ending like there was in E.T and Close Encounters.

I have other questions and issues with the film but overall I do admire Hollywood actually making an original film for the summer (even though I wish there were more than just one film) I hope this makes Spielberg return to his roots. Maybe Chris Columbus or Joe Dante will be inspired.

Updated On: 6/12/11 at 02:07 PM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 2:55pm

I don't think any of these things are plot holes. The kid knew where to find the crater because he saw something suspicious in the shed the night before when he was in the cemetary. That was pretty clearly explained.
The alien was shown eating people. I just assumed it didn't get to the people that were still alive yet.
Updated On: 6/12/11 at 02:55 PM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 3:36pm

SPOILERS

The alien was eating the humans. I thought it was very clear that the writers intended for us to assume that it wanted them alive because it needed them for food on the journey back home.

Again I say I don't know where people are coming up with these "plothole" complaints. None stuck out to me...

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 3:44pm

I wish I had stayed for the credits. Now I might have to go see it again!

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 6:48pm

Just saw it this afternoon. I wanted to love it a whole lot more, but I'm only in "like" with it.

The story and production ultimately fell short for me. It felt like too many derivations all at once, and while it was a nice homage, it only reminded me of how great those movies were, and how this one just wan't measuring up. It was good, yes. But it's not in a league with E.T., Close Encounters, Alien, Jaws, or Stand By Me.

Okay, it's better than Goonies, another movie it borrows from, but that's it.

There are even cliched story elements from Romeo & Juliet. It's kinda bad when I can picture them all in story meetings, saying, "Hey, why don't we do the thing from that other story? Yeah, let's put that in here, too!"

I do recommend this movie, though. Just don't go in thinking it's going to be "the best thing ever!" Maybe you'll enjoy it more that way.

I thought the acting was uneven, too. The main kid is great, and so is the girl. Excellent, in fact. The director kid was horrible when the film started. Couldn't act at all. Once they got to the train station and he was directing his movie, he really came alive as an actor, though. But I winced at the thought of watching him at the beginning. None of these kids are in a league with Henry Thomas or the scene stealing little Drew Barrymore. Except for maybe Elle Fanning. She has one difficult scene in particular when the camera just holds on her while she's talking about her dad, and it's a riveting performance. Kyle Chandler is good, too, but all of this feels like I've seen it before ... and seen it better.

The story has too many elements and tangents going on. Some of them play out nicely, while others go absolutely nowhere or just stop altogether to blow something up. Again, this reminded me of how clean and solid the storytelling is in movies like Close Encounters, Jaws, and E.T.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 7:23pm

Aww...I'm sorry you didn't like Riley Griffiths (the director kid). He was actually one of my favorites. But that might be becuase his bedroom looked just like mine when I was that age, right down to the Halloween poster. But overall I thought it was the best ensemble cast of kids since Stand By Me. Another one of my favorite moments is when Elle Fanning is practicing being a zombie. Thought that was really sweet.
That's one of the other things I loved about the movie. It didn't treat the time period it was set in as a joke. And it's the first family oriented action movie I've seen in a long time that didn't have a heavy dose of cynicism.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 7:32pm

All good points, Erik. And I hope I was clear that I did warm up to him quite a bit, after the train station scene, which is fairly early on.

His "busy family scene" was right out of Close Encounters with the overlapping dialogue and kids running around (some bashing things). I kept looking for Teri Garr.

He had some nice moments later in the film, and when he was directing his Super 8 movie, he really came alive, as I said before.

So it wasn't a black-and-white impression. He was bad early on (seriously bad), but got much better.

[sally1112]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 9:58pm

I'm so glad to read that I am not the only one who had issues with the last part of the film. I went to see it with three other people last nite and they all loved it and thought I was crazy when I asked why the alien didn't kill the people already, etc.

I loved the first part of the film, and I thought the young actors, especially the lead, were awesome! But overall, I was disappointed.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 3:25am

My son and I caught this today. I simply adored it. I, too, loved the slow reveal of the alien (which reminded me of Jaws). I was so impressed with the performance of all the kids and thought they totally captured the feel of the 80s.

Yes, it is imperfect....but I didn't care. I was compelled to care, moved to tears (once or twice -- I'm a sap) and laughed a good number of times.

I found the three lead kids (sorry, I'm horrid at character names) to be really good, as well.

[singtopher]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 9:18am

Add me to the liked it but disappointed camp. It's basically Cloverfield meets E.T. The main kid is fantastic.

A few things that bothered me/I did not believe:

- The dad knocks out the guard in the prison, steals his uniform and then gets treated like a senior officer. Why would someone with so much seniority be guarding prisoners?

- When the water tower started attracting metallic items, how come only some of the soldier's guns, some cars, etc. get attracted? (I guess this is more of a question, but it still seed odd)

- Now, I've never seen a train crash happen in real time, but something about the crash depicted here seemed incredibly unbelievable and over the top. I gave it up to the fact that there were supernatural items on the train that give it a certain weight. Also, the truck hit it face on, and yet was split in half lengthwise.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 7:19pm

Wow. This is a long post...

I finally saw it last night, and I did love it, had a great time and even screamed out loud in a couple of places! That boy WAS me, (except I was gay) I even had the movie monster models.

But, there were some GLARING problems.

The first one was, as singtopher just noted, if the truck hits the train head on, why was the truck later shown as if the train hit it from the side? That guy would have been hamburger.

Second: Why were the neighboring counties all stripped of their power lines by the creature and Lillian wasn’t?

Third: When the cube shot through the wall, it also went through a poster for the Space Shuttle. Uhm, the Space Shuttle didn’t launch until 1981.
“Columbia was successfully launched on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first human spaceflight (Vostok 1), and returned on April 14, 1981, after orbiting the Earth 36 times, landing on the dry lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California”

Unless the kids was just 'ahead of the times'

And last, why were they able to drive that jeep right up when other cars and metal objects were being pulled up to the water tower?

I seemed to be the ONLY person laughing hysterically at the woman with the curlers. No one seemed to remember that she was described earlier at the police station.

I am surprised by a lot of the questions that romantico has posted here, because most of them were very clearly explained…
“How did the kid know where to find the cave/crater?” He learned from the teacher’s film that the creature was subterranean. Remember the scene when he first went to the cemetery and could see ‘something’ going on in the shed. He just put two and two together.

“I still can't understand why the aline did not kill the Sheriff and the people it abducted. Was it explained what the purpose was on why this alien would want these people alive? Otherwise, why take them?” He was storing them as food.

As far as the creature’s eye, he had protective coverings over his eyes, much like a shark does. He connected with the boy and his defenses went down, thus showing the ‘human like’ eyes. I thought those made the creature easier to relate to.

I also wondered how the creature took all those engines without scratching the cars. The inside of his tunnel was anything but smooth…

And Jordan, they DID have one, very sly joke, about the time period. In the scene at the gas station, with the counter guy telling the cop about his new Walkman… The cop replies, something like, “Yea, just what every kid needs, his own stereo. You have to be careful. It’s a slippery slope!”

I thought it was very funny.


I had to bite me tongue in the bus scene. I found it hard to swallow that the kids busted the window out and all crawled out RIGHT BEHIND the monster, and it didn't notice them. I mean, REALLY?!

And, why were the kids wearing the exact same clothes in consecutive scenes when it was obviously a different day. The director kid was wearing the same rainbow striped shirt and the lead boy was wearing the short sleeved, light brown with blue shirt.



My final thought was, “The alien couldn’t leave without that ONE last piece of jewelry, now, could he? It just pulled the entire ship together!”

[romantico]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 7:56pm

My Post is sort of long as well.

I realize the film explained the creature was subterranean and I also recall the scene at the cemetery. How he pieced it together never felt right. Did the creature build this tunnel from elsewhere? Why was the shed an opening to it? The fact that the adults could not figure this out but the kids can didn't work like it did in the 70's and 80's with Spielberg. Times have changed and even thought the time period is the same the audiences and films in general have changed.I think they could have made it work.Just sloppy writing in my opinion.

Why did the alien not kill any of it's victims? That never made sense. The eyes were just too much for me. People in the audience were laughing out loud during that scene and I just shook my head. We had to see these E.T.sad emotional pretty blue eyes.

There are other problems I had but I won't get into it. I still would like to see it again before it leaves but I am surprised so many dismiss some details and how they are willing to give some of the plot holes a free pass. I think overall it is a nostalgic old school movie and people are willing to ignore flaws in it for that reason. I had similar issues with LOST. They created these mysteries and then rely on the audience to figure it out on their own if they could. I think this is a problem I have with JJ Abrams. I've also seen this in MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE 3 and ALIAS.(But not on FRINGE or the Latest STAR TREK film, which I LOVED!)

I like the look and the setting but here you have this awesome film homage to the Spielberg films of the 70's and 80's. Why ruin the look by putting contemporary lame CGI effects in it? The alien should have been a puppet. AN homage to Stan Winston or Jim Henson.Since the boy is a lover of models why not have the ship be an actual model like ILM use to do instead of this ship that looks like it belongs in the TRANSFORMERS? They blew an opportunity to make this film an authentic 1970's Amblin Fantasy film made in 2011. The water tower scene looked like a video game.

I'm pretty harsh on the film because I really wanted to love it. Instead I thought it was OK.I know I am in the minority here but I thought the film got lazy during the second half. I would still love to see more films like this and like I sad in an earlier post,maybe it will inspire someone like Joe Dante to go back and make a 1970's/80's horror movie.Employ Rob Botin or Rick Baker and DO NOT USE ANY CGI!!!!

Imagine selling a summer movie by bragging that the film you are about to see has absolutely NO CGI in it once so ever.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 9:11pm

And now I'm thinking, "How did the alien not destroy that building in the cemetery? Did he go in and out using those tiny doors?"

Personally, I think an old fashioned stop motion, or puppet alien would have gotten more unintentional laughs.

[romantico]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 9:29pm

"Personally, I think an old fashioned stop motion, or puppet alien would have gotten more unintentional laughs."

Yeah, you are probably right. However, since audiences were willing to dismiss other things in the plot,maybe they would have overlooked that as well. Didn't they CGI E.T. for the 20th Anniversary edition? I HATED the fact that George Lucas used a CGI Yoda for the last 2 Star Wars films.

Guess it is the changing times. It is rare to do a summer Popcorn movie nowadays without using some if not most CGI. I was disappointed the last Indiana Jones used so much of it.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 11:22pm

Well, the CGI added to ET and Star Wars sucks. It's was in the infancy of CGI and it was (is) awful. I just re-watched the DVD's on my new TV and it just looks terrible.

I guess it made the monster more believable for me since everything else looked so rudimentary.