Super 8

[skizzerflake]

Looks like I'm first. We saw Super 8 tonight and I really liked it. JJ Abrams does what he did with Star Trek, only this time with early Speilberg. Super 8 is one Speilberg homage after another, only pumped up with big FX. Life in the suburbs, troubled families, household clutter and a bunch of kids encountering something strange, complicated by adults' malignant reaction to it. Think of ET, Close Encounters, Jaws with a special homage to the gas station scene in John Carpenter's The Fog. The movie seems to delight in being derivative and does it well. Speilberg was the producer, so I guess none of this is a surprise to him, but it's obvious that Abrams watched a lot of Speilberg at some point in his life. It's a fun movie that doesn't bear much analysis but is tense and well done. If you're looking for a good summer flick, this is it.

 

[speakerman39]

Looks like I'm first. We saw Super 8 tonight and I really liked it. JJ Abrams does what he did with Star Trek, only this time with early Speilberg. Super 8 is one Speilberg homage after another, only pumped up with big FX. Life in the suburbs, troubled families, household clutter and a bunch of kids encountering something strange, complicated by adults' malignant reaction to it. Think of ET, Close Encounters, Jaws with a special homage to the gas station scene in John Carpenter's The Fog. The movie seems to delight in being derivative and does it well. Speilberg was the producer, so I guess none of this is a surprise to him, but it's obvious that Abrams watched a lot of Speilberg at some point in his life. It's a fun movie that doesn't bear much analysis but is tense and well done. If you're looking for a good summer flick, this is it.

Excellent write up! Very much agreed here. Seen it today and noticed that the start of the movie was kind of slow. But then, it really kicked in so to speak. The audio effects were top notch and most of the visual effects were done well. At times, I found myself liking this film. However, about the time I get to really liking it-just like that the film was over! It is as if they ran out of money or something. Needless to say, the ending could of been done better imho. Over all, I would have to give this film a solid C+ at best.



Cheers,

Phil

 

[mike c]

i'm skipping anything JJ Abrams (well i didn't skip star trek because i'm a bigger trekkie than an Abrams hater)

i refuse to watch someone who thinks people have short attention spans. i.e. lost.
until he explains wtf the polar bears came from in 'Lost', i will consider him a hack.

JJ's style of story:

...for Alias
season 1 ... ooh, super interesting rambaldi arc ... season 2 ... what happened to rambaldi? i dunno.

...for Lost
mystery ... oooh. -> what happened to that one? -> look here! new mystery ... oooh.
smack in the face -> why did you hit me? -> smack the other cheek.

...for Cloverfield
instead of the typical story arc, he concentrates on a very short part of the arc, expands it, doesn't actually show anything of importance, concludes with another mystery.

...for Star Trek
lens flare galore. i'm glad he didn't write this one.

...for Super 8
Cloverfield with crappier and grainier cameras?

 

[rnatalli]

Saw Super 8 Saturday at IMAX. I thought it was ok. IMO, he should have done the Star Trek sequel first.

 

[speakerman39]

Saw Super 8 Saturday at IMAX. I thought it was ok. IMO, he should have done the Star Trek sequel first.

Yeah, I am a bit surprised Abrams has not done the sequel already. Who knows, maybe it is on the horizon. If it is, you can bet I will go see it. Thought the original was very good.



Cheers,

Phil

 

[dkane360]

until he explains wtf the polar bears came from in 'Lost', i will consider him a hack.

Here: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Polar_bears

I saw super 8 and thought it was entertaining. The blue lens flares throughout the movie really bothered me, and some parts of the movie had me scratching my head. Worth a rental, not a $9 movie ticket.

 

[mike c]

Here: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Polar_bears

I saw super 8 and thought it was entertaining. The blue lens flares throughout the movie really bothered me, and some parts of the movie had me scratching my head. Worth a rental, not a $9 movie ticket.

isn't this fan guesswork? i mean i'm pretty sure JJ Abrams left it to the people's imagination to do his work for him.

 

[dkane360]

isn't this fan guesswork? i mean i'm pretty sure JJ Abrams left it to the people's imagination to do his work for him.

I remember them finding the little zoo thing, because thats where they were kept hostage for a few episodes.

 

[j_garcia]

This one looks interesting and paying homage to great movies can be a good thing if done right

I liked Cloverfield. It was a monster flick and in that respect it was OK. A classic? Hardly. The main thing it lacked was an actual story, but it was still as entertaining as I would expect from a popcorn flick ala Godzilla. Maybe because I was a Godzilla fan from childhood, this one made more sense to me? I also saw it on BD, not in theaters.

 

[skizzerflake]

This one looks interesting and paying homage to great movies can be a good thing if done right

I liked Cloverfield. It was a monster flick and in that respect it was OK. A classic? Hardly. The main thing it lacked was an actual story, but it was still as entertaining as I would expect from a popcorn flick ala Godzilla. Maybe because I was a Godzilla fan from childhood, this one made more sense to me? I also saw it on BD, not in theaters.

Cloverfield was like an amusement park ride, although if you were at Disneyworld, they might be able to develop more of a plot than the movie had while you watch the pre-show in the 45 minute line. Nevertheless, I liked the close-up, first person stuff as a contrast the the "classic" monster movie with lots of unidentified people running and screaming and getting stomped on.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

until he explains wtf the polar bears came from in 'Lost', i will consider him a hack.

...for Cloverfield
instead of the typical story arc, he concentrates on a very short part of the arc, expands it, doesn't actually show anything of importance, concludes with another mystery.

Cloverfield was directed by Matt Reeves, not Abrams. One of the worst movies I've ever seen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/

I thought everyone in LOST was already dead from the beginning, so nothing that happend was real anyway.

 

[mike c]

Cloverfield was directed by Matt Reeves, not Abrams. One of the worst movies I've ever seen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/

I thought everyone in LOST was already dead from the beginning, so nothing that happend was real anyway.

he produced the film. one of the videos in the imdb link is titled "on his idea for the film"

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

he produced the film. one of the videos in the imdb link is titled "on his idea for the film"

Right, but shouldn't the director be blamed for it?

We see Oscars for Best Director, not Best Producer.

So if "Super 8' sucks, do we blame Abrams (director) or Steven Speilberg (producer)?

And if it's great, do we give the director or the producer credit?

I always blame/credit the director because he is the one in charge of the movie. It is his vision - his story - his movie.

What the heck is the producer's job anyway?

 

[mike c]

Right, but shouldn't the director be blamed for it?

We see Oscars for Best Director, not Best Producer.

So if "Super 8' sucks, do we blame Abrams (director) or Steven Speilberg (producer)?

And if it's great, do we give the director or the producer credit?

I always blame/credit the director because he is the one in charge of the movie. It is his vision - his story - his movie.

What the heck is the producer's job anyway?

i believe the producers have a lot of say in how a film should go. (of course there are simply money-men producers, and producers who think what they say matters). e.g. see movies that were ruined because the producer(s) wanted this and that added and removed.

anyway. anything he touches, i hate. even if he just came in for the snack table.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

anyway. anything he touches, i hate. even if he just came in for the snack table.

**hee**hee

Well, I can't agrue with that.

I guess I feel the same way about that M. Night S guy. It's not even worth looking up the spelling for his name.

The Last Airbender? Really? Need I say anymore? Most over-rated director of all times. This guy makes pure crap.

I'm glad Abrams did not DIRECT Cloverfield, because I thought that was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

I totally enjoyed Alias, Lost, Fringe, Mission Impossible 3, and Star Trek. Sure there are some plot holes and things that are not very "accurate", but hey, it's entertainment.

 

[skizzerflake]

Right, but shouldn't the director be blamed for it?

We see Oscars for Best Director, not Best Producer.

So if "Super 8' sucks, do we blame Abrams (director) or Steven Speilberg (producer)?

And if it's great, do we give the director or the producer credit?

I always blame/credit the director because he is the one in charge of the movie. It is his vision - his story - his movie.

What the heck is the producer's job anyway?

The producer's job is whatever he makes it. As a job category, contracts, actors, budgets, script writer all need wrangling, but producers can hire directors who will do what they want down to the last detail or hire one that is independent. Sometimes a producer is nothing more than somebody who put up a lot of money and bought a lead line in the credits. In this case, it appears that Speilberg put his blessing on Abrams to do a homage to Speilberg. Abrams seems to have not had any problem with that.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Well, I just saw Super 8, and I thought it kind of sucked.

It's definitely not the kind of movie I would want to watch again.

Kind of lame, I thought.

 

[lsiberian]

It was entertaining, but silly. No real story line. Zero depth.

I think movies for directors are like for singers. Most suck no matter how good you are. Star Trek was terrible. Why must we redo Kirk? Why not make a new generation? Lets move on from where Voyager and DSN left off and build some characters.

Sorry but they basically jacked up the storyline with the Super Nova nonsense.

 

[j_garcia]

Looks like I'm first. We saw Super 8 tonight and I really liked it. JJ Abrams does what he did with Star Trek, only this time with early Speilberg. Super 8 is one Speilberg homage after another, only pumped up with big FX. Life in the suburbs, troubled families, household clutter and a bunch of kids encountering something strange, complicated by adults' malignant reaction to it. Think of ET, Close Encounters, Jaws with a special homage to the gas station scene in John Carpenter's The Fog. The movie seems to delight in being derivative and does it well. Speilberg was the producer, so I guess none of this is a surprise to him, but it's obvious that Abrams watched a lot of Speilberg at some point in his life. It's a fun movie that doesn't bear much analysis but is tense and well done. If you're looking for a good summer flick, this is it.

That's a pretty good summary IMO. It wasn't deep story wise, but had enough character development to make it interesting. The main characters were interesting, but still only seemed to hint at what; had to have been Spielberg's influence IMO. They gave you just enough to not lose interest in the characters but not enough to care. There were a few good action sequences and suspense to balance it out. The "homage" aspect may have been a bit too much, but still fit within the context.

I agree, if you don't look for a lot of meaning in this one, it is fairly well done and entertaining. Is it a classic? Definitely not. Is it worth a rent? For sure.

 

[DTS]

I got to watch my bluray last night. We like the movie. The 7.1 Dolby TrueHD along with my Ultra was nothing short of awesome. The derailment scene IS the new 'go to' reference scene for surround and bass