‘Super 8’ family-friendly multi-genre modern classic

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

An effectively constructed script with a solid thematic subtext, well-defined characters, and strong acting performances all combine to make the new film “Super 8” one of the best summer movies ever to come out of Hollywood and among the best films released this year. It is especially refreshing in that its elaborate digital special effects serve the story, instead of the other way around, and that its large and talented cast is made up of character actors and relative unknowns rather than familiar box office name stars.

Steven Spielberg is renowned for action-adventure and sci-fi films designed to appeal to all ages but aimed especially at the innocent (yet resourceful) child and the hopeful adolescent in all of us. His “Indiana Jones” films, along with “E.T.,” “Close Encounters,” and “Jurassic Park” remain among his most beloved films, long after he turned to such serious material as “Schindler’s List” and “Munich” for his directing projects. But Spielberg has continued to be involved with movies that fit his trademark style and subjects as a producer for other directors.

“Super 8,” written and directed by J. J. Abrams (who helmed the new “Star Trek” reboot), looks as much like as Spielberg film as any he wrote and directed. Spielberg is credited as producer, but his influence can be seen everywhere, from its focus on children as the main protagonists to its science-fiction story of a lost extra-terrestrial creature to its blend of poignant personal drama with light comedy, suspenseful action, and heart-felt sentimentality. 

The film is also celebration of moviemaking as a passion, its small-town coming-of-age story and sci-fi / government cover-up plot both set against the backdrop of a bunch of young teenagers struggling to make their own Super 8 film in time for a festival deadline. It’s probably no coincidence that Spielberg himself was making movies as a precocious 13-year-old growing up in Ohio (where “Super 8” is set).

The title, for all those born after the video and digital revolutions, refers to a format of 8mm film used for home movies, substantially less expensive than professional 35mm movie film or the semi-professional 16mm film once used by independent filmmakers, TV stations, and schools. The story is set in 1979, when Super 8 film was near its height of popularity, just as affordable home video formats were beginning to appear.

In “Super 8,” a boy (Joel Courtney) has just lost his mother in an industrial accident, and his grieving sheriff’s deputy father (Kyle Chandler) wants him to attend a baseball camp for the summer. But when school lets out for summer vacation, the 12 or 13-year-old is still determined to help his best friend (Riley Griffiths) finish the zombie film he’s been working on. This includes sneaking out late at night for production meetings and shooting sessions, and getting to know a new cast member, the beautiful, slightly-older daughter (Elle Fanning) of the working class single father (Ron Eldard) that the deputy blames for his wife’s death.

While the kids are filming a midnight scene at a railway station, a mysterious train suddenly rushes by, and even more mysteriously is derailed when a pickup truck drives onto the tracks heading straight toward the train. The train wreck disrupts not only the kids’ movie production, but the entire town, as the military quickly move in to clean up the mess under top security and soon decide to evacuate the population. Something apparently escaped from one of the train cars, and the kids accidentally captured the event on film.

To tell much more would ruin some of the fun, but film buffs will immediately recognize strong connections to “E.T.” as well as close parallels with classic 1950s sci-fi flicks like “It Came From Outer Space” and “Them!” and various science-fiction films of the past half-century, not to mention any number of adolescent coming-of-age films.

What makes “Super 8” stand out from so many others is the underlying character relationships that tie everything together. The people aren’t merely going through the standard action and sci-fi formulas (although they do plenty of that). The kids aren’t just struggling with parents and school and friends and rivalries and unfamiliar hormones. They are trying to live their lives, follow their natural inclinations, learn, and grow up, while all the action goes on around them and eventually draws them into its center.

The film has something for everybody and doesn’t get stuck in one limited area. Characters, props, and incidents are expertly connected to several simultaneous plot threads. Some of the action may be predictable, but the acting (especially by Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney) creates an emotional connection with the viewer and the skillful switching from the comic to the dramatic to the intensely suspenseful keeps one wondering what will happen next.

The occasional moments of unashamed sentiment never become cloying as they sometimes do in Spielberg-directed films like “E.T.” or the last section of “A.I.” The sequences focusing mainly on character-building or technical exposition or special-effects sequences never drag down the pacing like they do so often in, say, “Close Encounters.” In short, Abrams has made a classic Spielberg film that is even better than much of what Spielberg has done himself. It’s no surprise that “Super 8” opened in the number one box office position, despite its modest $50 million budget.

And be sure not to leave the auditorium when the closing credits start, or you’ll miss the complete finished Super 8 film that the kids have been working on throughout the story.

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