A combination of ET and the Goonies, Super 8 is a throw back to 80’s style film making that provides a good homage to those classic films but loses something in the translation in the depth and emotion department.

Written and directed by JJ Abrams, Super 8 tells the story of a group of kids trying to make a zombie movie in 1979 who witness a mysterious train crash and notice weird things going on in town after the crash. When people start disappearing, the kids start to investigate and find that they caught something on the video they were never supposed to see.

The movie follows Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), the make up artist on the movie who is trying to recover from his mother’s death just a few months earlier while his Sheriff’s deputy father (Kyle Chandler) does his best to keep it all together. The meat of the story deals with Joe trying to come to terms with the loss while attempting to woo Alice (Elle Fanning), a girl he has had a long standing crush on, without understanding why her father (Ron Eldard) and his father want the two apart. This all plays out against the back drop of a government cover up and apparent conspiracy going on in the town while also dealing with the complex relationships with his friends and his father.

There is a lot going on in Super 8 and while the material is generally of quality, I think that this division of focus hurts the film ultimately. In trying to ratchet up the emotionality of what is going on, Abrams stymies that emotion by spreading it too thin while dividing the audiences attention. This doesn’t mean the whole thing falls apart but the elements don’t come together as well as one would like. With a more specific focus, the Goonies played on emotions of loss and fear while mining the kids’ bravery. Similarly. ET explored the overreaction from the government and only a child’s innocence and optimism allows Elliot to approach ET as a being of worth instead of a threat. These themes are explored to varying degrees in Super 8 but because the focus is so scattered the effect feels somewhat scattershot.

With that out of the way, Super 8 does provide compelling characters and exciting set pieces that keep you involved even if you aren’t as emotionally engaged as you would like to be. The effects are very well done and never fail to impress. Abrams has a knack for directing well put together action scenes and Super 8 is no different. He could probably lay off the lens flare a bit as it got kind of distracting after awhile  but the overall look of the film is great.

Like the films this is paying homage too, the kids are fun to spend time with and are very well realized. Part of this is the writing but most of the credit has to go to the actors themselves. They all click together as friends and you can buy that they would trust each other and be there for each other while their one upsmanship felt equally natural and affectionate. That the two lead boys have never acted before is nothing short of amazing and I expect to see great things from Joel Courtney and Riley Griffiths. The two of them are particularly convincing and really carry the whole movie. Two different leads and Super 8 would have failed horribly.

One particular element of the 80’s movie formula that Super 8 gets very right is that the kids act like kids and they do things kids do. They also aren’t super human nor do they pull off things they couldn’t do. That isn’t to say that your average neighborhood kid can circumvent government agents and survive multiple intensely dangerous situations but the way the movie plays out, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility for THESE kids to manage.

Conclusion [8.0 out of 10]

Super 8 works if you take it for what it is but don’t expect something mind blowing or emotionally engaging. It has its emotionally effective moments but as a whole the viewer never manages to connect as much as they should to what is going on. There are a lot of different elements going on that never quite jell as a whole but the movie still delivers a great 80’s homage even if it is a little light in the soul department. Great performances help seal the deal here and make it a nice matinee feature on a hot summer when you need to get away for awhile.