The V7 Report: Super 8
7 Aug 2011 09:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patentdragonOkay, as promised...
Review: Super 8 I managed to miss a lot of the hype concerning this movie, partly out of a desire to avoid any spoilers, as it opened in The States several weeks before the UK, so I came to this with uncoloured expectations. The feedback seemed to be good, but one person's "must see movie of the summer" is another's "I'll catch it on DVD". This veers closer to the latter than the former.
JJ Abrams has done a lot of good stuff in the past, Cloverfield and the revived Star Trek springing to mind immediately, but when the name "Steven Spielberg" appeared in the credits of Super 8, it all made sense. "Your powers have grown weak, old man", as Darth Vader once said, and when Spielberg's influence makes itself known, it's pretty much downhill from there. The film starts off well enough, as our home-movie-making young heroes witness a massive (and very impressive) train crash, but what could have been something different turns into ET for the 21st Century - I'm surprised the soldiers and cops weren't running around with walkie-talkies.
If you've never seen ET, this will be new, and possibly fresh to you. Admittedly, the Elliot figure in this one doesn't befriend the stranded alien, but with all the metal flying around, you could have expected someone on a bicycle to take to the air, drawing groans from the audience. A last-minute sentimental moment falls flat, as the alien apparently needs the boy's locket, his last memento of his dead mother, to complete his repaired space-ship. Come on, people - just fifteen minutes ago, this alien was eating someone! The alien does have good reason to be pissed off - I imagine ET wouldn't have been the friendliest of sorts after several decades in captivity courtesy of the United State Air Force - and it seems too much of a stretch for him/her/it to "reform" just because a young boy stares him down...
I had suspected this film was going to be a Cloverfield prequel, and some design elements did cross over into this creature - and that was one of the ticks in the "win" column. Even at the end, there was never a true, full-on "reveal", leaving you wondering exactly what you were looking at.
Overall, this isn't a turkey, and I'm still to feel inclined to get up and walk out on a movie - only Star Trek V came close. In the cold light of day, Spielberg's influence stripped this of whatever power it could have had, much like Indy IV. I just wasn't impressed as much as some.
Final Opinion... Must try harder. The finished home-movie, shown at the end over the credits, was almost better (except for the "train-crash") Score: 7/10
Review: Super 8 I managed to miss a lot of the hype concerning this movie, partly out of a desire to avoid any spoilers, as it opened in The States several weeks before the UK, so I came to this with uncoloured expectations. The feedback seemed to be good, but one person's "must see movie of the summer" is another's "I'll catch it on DVD". This veers closer to the latter than the former.
JJ Abrams has done a lot of good stuff in the past, Cloverfield and the revived Star Trek springing to mind immediately, but when the name "Steven Spielberg" appeared in the credits of Super 8, it all made sense. "Your powers have grown weak, old man", as Darth Vader once said, and when Spielberg's influence makes itself known, it's pretty much downhill from there. The film starts off well enough, as our home-movie-making young heroes witness a massive (and very impressive) train crash, but what could have been something different turns into ET for the 21st Century - I'm surprised the soldiers and cops weren't running around with walkie-talkies.
If you've never seen ET, this will be new, and possibly fresh to you. Admittedly, the Elliot figure in this one doesn't befriend the stranded alien, but with all the metal flying around, you could have expected someone on a bicycle to take to the air, drawing groans from the audience. A last-minute sentimental moment falls flat, as the alien apparently needs the boy's locket, his last memento of his dead mother, to complete his repaired space-ship. Come on, people - just fifteen minutes ago, this alien was eating someone! The alien does have good reason to be pissed off - I imagine ET wouldn't have been the friendliest of sorts after several decades in captivity courtesy of the United State Air Force - and it seems too much of a stretch for him/her/it to "reform" just because a young boy stares him down...
I had suspected this film was going to be a Cloverfield prequel, and some design elements did cross over into this creature - and that was one of the ticks in the "win" column. Even at the end, there was never a true, full-on "reveal", leaving you wondering exactly what you were looking at.
Overall, this isn't a turkey, and I'm still to feel inclined to get up and walk out on a movie - only Star Trek V came close. In the cold light of day, Spielberg's influence stripped this of whatever power it could have had, much like Indy IV. I just wasn't impressed as much as some.
Final Opinion... Must try harder. The finished home-movie, shown at the end over the credits, was almost better (except for the "train-crash") Score: 7/10
