Tag Archive: The Iron Giant

Movie Review – Super 8

*Spoiler Free Review

When a group of aspiring kid filmmakers just trying to enter a local film competition wind up recording an air-force train derailment outside a sleepy Ohio town, it sets a chain of fantastic and terrible events in motion.  What cargo was the train carrying?  Why is the air-force so desperate to keep it a secret?  A fantastic spat of performances by the child actors, (and truthfully, even the adults are pretty good) make up for the plot holes and bits of missing logic.  The Spielbergian feel is in full effect here, and the film is littered with simple pleasures of a by-gone era.  This is the Americana where it was okay to hop on your bike and peddle to a friend’s house, the sleepy small town that still has a steel plant, the community that bans together in fear of Russian invasion.  And it is into this setting that Abrams unleashes an X-Files conspiracy and potential close encounter.

For everyone who complains that “they don’t make them like they used to” you NEED to go see this film.  JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg have crafted a film from my childhood.  It feels like a product of the times in which it is set, the late 70s early 80s.  The films is a suspenseful rollercoaster ride harking back to classics like “Close Encounters Of The 3rd Kind” and “E.T.” with a splash of “Goonies”, as well as newer movies like “The Iron Giant” and “Cloverfield” but it’s much darker in tone, kind of like what those movies would be when they grow up.

It’s also a love letter to Hollywood and filmmakers everywhere.  For every kid who’s ever picked up a video camera and shot little action vignettes with their models, for every makeup artist who creates fake blood out of Kayro syrup and red food coloring, for every young director who set up a shot NOT because it was needed for the telling of the narrative, but because it would look f***ing cool, this film is for you.

SUPER 8 – A