I know I usually do reviews of books that have been out for years and not films but I'm bored and what I'm planning for the reviews won't happen for ages. I was at the cinema today, I saw a good movie, I'm doing a review.
And it was a good movie. Super 8 follows an adolescent boy who has recently lost his mum and is stuck with your typical workaholic dad who doesn't really interact with him. In an attempt to get over it he joins a group of his friends in making a movie to enter into a local film competition. They've just persuaded a girl to join them and are filming a scene at a local deserted train station when the boy witnesses a truck driving into an oncoming train, derailing it and releasing the beast that it was carrying. The movie continues with the beast running amok, kidnapping people, stealing things and generally being a pest. Meanwhile the kids are using the crashed train and the presence of the army as background sets.
Most of the characters are developed well. The girl's father is at odds with the main character's dad, we learn more about the boy and his mother and more about the story behind the beast. If I have one complaint it's that only about three of the filming group had any depth behind them, the others only being around for a few useful skills, like an affinity for explosives. However it was a film, not a book and so there is a limited amount that can be done there.
The film itself is probably meant as a horror and therefore is as scary as a 12A can be. It produces this through the use of sudden shocks, though it managed that very well indeed. One of these shocks was so sudden that I've still got marks on the palm of my hand from where my nails dug in. As well as that you never really see the creature so there's the fear of the unknown playing a part. It reminded me a bit of the movie Cloverfield and the monsters didn't look dissimilar, though this one was much smaller. Having said that it was still large enough to make me wonder how it was sneaking around so easily.
The interaction between the characters was good too. The group of friends all talked over each other in a manor which was natural but still easy to follow. There was some quite sweet romantic scenes and some sad scenes, usually involving one of the two fathers, who both seem to have the same parental instincts as a dazed panda.
There are a few things I think could be better about this movie, though those are mainly nit-picking. When the train derails I personally think they went overboard on the special effects. There was a good two minutes of explosions, of pieces of wreckage flying everywhere and at the end the guy who drove at the train still survived. I also feel the dialogue could have been better. The boy's big speech seemed a bit hollow to me and over sentimental, though it could just be I'm deeply cynical. And when, at the end, he lets go of something very important to him I just don't see why he does it. It's deeply symbolic but again, not something I think would actually happen. The other complains are just little things. For example the girl's dad looks like the sort of person that should have a shotgun at some point but he doesn't. That sort of stuff.
When the credits started rolling my main criticism was that they hadn't actually let us see the movie that the kids were filming for the competition. Then it started playing and I shut up. For what it was, it was very good. It had a fair bit of humour in it and it was good seeing the scenes that we'd seen being filmed in the movie proper. And it was about zombies, which is an almost automatic seal of approval in my opinion.
All in all it was an exceptionally good movie. The parts were well acted and emotive. The story was just about credible. There was even a good moment when one of the people of the village being attacked by the creature thought that it was the Russians invading, which was just about the only thing that told you what time it was set in. I would heartily recommend it to anyone thinking about seeing it, whatever their age. I'd rate it a good eight out of ten.
As I can't link to Amazon this time, I'll link to one of the trailers. Enjoy.
