Super 8

As a person who started watching films in the 80's, I have a real soft spot for Steven Spielberg; films such as The Goonies and the Indiana Jones films (ignoring the last truly dreadful film released in 2007) were a backdrop to my childhood. In my teens, films such as Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan gave me an insight into something that I'd only read about in school text books. In short, he has given us some fantastic films. So I was quite excited when I heard that Super 8 was a venture back to those Spielberg classics. Although, it has been written and produced by J.J Abrams, the Spielberg influence was evident even in the trailer, and my appetite was whetted even further. . .

The film is centres around Joe (Joel Courtney) and starts with the wake for his mother who died in a factory accident. The film moves on to his group of friends who are trying to make a zombie film to win a competition lead by Charles (Riley Griffiths). As is with these things, the parents disapprove and the friends have to be very secretive about where and how they they make the film. They ask Alice (Elle Fanning), to play a part in their film and to film her scenes, they need to be at a railway station (as they want a train to be part of the scene), very late at night.

The shoot goes ahead and suddenly the train derails (in truly spectacular fashion) and things start getting a little mysterious. . .

First of all, the U.S Air Force come in to control the crash scene; cats and dogs run away to other parts of the county, electrical equipment vanishes and finally people start disappearing. Joe's father who is a Deputy in the town, tries to find out more from the Air Force, but is turned away by the authorities.

I don't want to tell you too much, needless to say that there is a monster involved (although, you don't really see it until the very end) and as is typical with Spielberg films, its not a 'bad' monster as such, just very misunderstood and one that wants to go home. Again, as is a Spielberg trademark, there is an audacious rescue using nothing more than fire crackers and a heart-felt conversation.

Although, this is a predominantly a science fiction film, there are the standard relationship issues that early Spielberg films had. First there is the grieving father and son who can't communicate; the teen squabbles between younger brother and older sister and finally the innocent and very sweet, blossoming romance between Alice and Joe. The film deals with this particular issue in an incredibly sensitive way, looking not only at the joy of finding someone who 'likes' you, but also the pain of having someone who you like, not 'like' you.

The film is a massive homage to Spielberg and does indeed hark back to those glory days where kids and only kids could solve the problems facing entire towns. And that's the issue I have with this film, there's nothing new or exciting about it, it really has all been done before. The film that I felt it most resembled was The Goonies, right down to having a 'fat, shouty' kid and the main character Joe is almost identical (at least personality wise) to the lead character Mikey from The Goonies.

The child actors are great, the script is fairly sharp and tight, the special effects are reasonable, but if you are my age (almost mid-30's), then you will know what is going to happen at every stage as it is a mixture of all those Spielberg films you've seen before.

Verdict: Excellent if you've never seen any early Spielberg films, predictable if you have happened to have seen E.T, The Goonies or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.