Firstly, I want to say that the strength, heart, and center of this movie is the kids. I don't think I've seen acting like this from a group of kids in a very long time. Joel Courtney who plays Joe is very reminiscent of people like Elliot from E.T. You understand him, and root for him from the very first moment you see him and every action he takes makes perfect sense to who he is. He acts like a kid, but also acts grown up at times. Something that is often tried in movies or shows these days is the need to have kids act even more adult, like Dakota Fanning in every role. It's not realistic, and makes you care less about the kid because there's a loss of innocence when you make them behave in ways they would not normally.
I loved the way they played on his crush on Alice(Elle Fanning). They didn't need to tell us anything, they didn't need to have him say it to anyone. We knew it because we are not idiots. Later he and Charles(Riley Griffiths) are discussing her, and they tell us then, but that was them telling each other. Once again, done the way kids talk. I've had conversations like that, exactly like that. Usually, I'm Charles in that situation, but it's all good. Elle Fanning was amazing as well, she was beautiful, and even her character was a great actress. When we meet her father(Rod Eldard) for the first time I was worried he would be a cliche'd drunk who threatens to hit her all the time. I was pleasantly relieved to see that he was not like that at all. He was exactly what Joe's mom said he was; "sad". Turned out he was a pretty good guy.
The other kids were great too. Providing that perfect blend of comic relief and realistic behavior that furthered my suspension of disbelief in the events. I would go on, but I think you get the point. I liked the kids a lot.
The other thing I loved so much about this movie was the pure 80s feel. It took place in 1979, but it had that feel of those early 80s Spielberg movies like E.T., and Close Encounters. The kids definitely made me think of movies like Goonies and Stand By Me. The movie seemed simpler, and about story. So many Sci-fi movies these days focus on special effects, and dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator. Super 8 does not do that. Like I said above it assumes you can connect A to B. We don't see the conversations the military is having with their command. We can figure that they are being ordered to do the things they are doing. J.J. Abrams has done that for years. He assumes his audience is not stupid, and far to many movies do assume that these days.
Joe's father(Kyle Chandler) was very good I thought as the deputy. The man lost his wife, has to raise his son alone, and now is in charge of a police force that's facing problems that he can't even begin to understand. I think he dealt with it pretty well. He also struck me as a great 80s parent. There, doing their own thing, but pretty much nonexistent to the story we are interested in.
Which brings us to the STORY. I thought the story was good enough. I have some logistical issues with it, but they are not that important. I mean it is a movie. The story I thought was very simple, another classic science fiction idea. Alien crashes, held captive by the military, wants to go home. The alien gets really pissed in the mean time, and seems to be able to mind-meld with whomever he touches. A cool story, and fun monster movie, but in the long run none of that really matters. Those were the events that tell the overall backdrop to the movie, but the movie is about this group of kids, and yes, it is a love story. Aren't they all?
That leaves only the BEST FRAKKING PART OF THE MOVIE...THE CASE!! Haha, ok I loved this so much. We were all dying in the theater. "Hello Mr. President", all the stuff about "'nam", the minitrain exploding, the ending with him in the chair. I am sure that they took that movie directly from a movie J.J. did when he was younger. If that is the case(haha, nice), then I want J.J's movie on the DVD too.
Well that's pretty much all I have to say about the movie. If you have anything to say please do comment. Review of the penultimate The Killing should be up tomorrow, and Green Lantern will be up Friday night. Keep checking the site though, cause you never know when I'm going to decide to post from rambling soapbox about something.
This post is MINT!
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