The Spielberg Entity

Love, loss, zombies, monsters... and kids
By Morgan P Salvo

I have an immediate aversion to any movie with Stephen Spielberg’s name on it. Not just because Spielberg and George Lucas singlehandedly changed movies for the worse in the 70’s by making special effects induced blockbusters and taking away the strong story driven anti-hero movies of that era, but because nowadays everything Spielberg touches has antics that make a decent flick get all cute with bad schmaltzy music and some sort of cornball ending. Plus he has this “never grow up” attitude to convey and all the money God can dish out to make things over produced and over extravagant (think Transformers franchise for starters). Super 8 is no exception to all these agendas: it’s a kid’s movie from start to finish. By the way, I pride myself that I have never seen ET. This fact will be engraved on my tombstone along with “never sang karaoke.”
Teaming up with the brains behind TV’s Lost J. J. Abrams (also responsible for Mission: Impossible III and Star Trek) this movie is a combo of Stand By Me, Cloverfield meets ET with a smidgeon of District 9 thrown in for good measure. Don’t get me started on how LAME I thought the ending to Lost was or we’ll be here till next Tuesday.
In this 1979 Ohio period piece, several youngsters (Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Gabriel Basso) are hard at work making a zombie movie with a Super-8 camera. In the midst of filming, the friends witness a horrifying train derailment. They discover that the crash was no accident followed by a series of unexplained events and disappearances. Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler), the dad to one of the kids and the designated “grown up” in the bunch searches for the terrifying truth behind the crash.
There was a lot of secretive buzz on this flick culminating in high expectations. But even though Super 8 seems destined to score big at the box office, it might miss its intended mark. Don’t get me wrong - if I was a kid I’d probably love this movie, but I wouldn’t be old enough to compare it to the outdated and overrated ET or Goonies. And I’m guessing not too many people will even remember what Super 8 film is. Predating video and digital, it will seem too archaic to the youth of today and only seminal for people that are old enough to remember what shooting on film was like. I still have my Super 8 editor from high school film class. Despite all this nostalgic filmmaking Super8 still falls on its face and falls back on corny fluff.
The period piece also falters as the filmmakers attempt to juice up the dialogue with slang of the time like “mint” used to describe something cool. But then in an attempt to keep youngsters riveted they fall back on jargon no one used in the 70’s like “dude” “awesome” and “totally”. Plus there’s only so much of cute suburban white kids a person can take.

Super 8 has a decent buildup then convenient filmmaking takes over and the movie ends way too quick in an unbelievable blur of crap. Best part was the kids finished zombie film at the ending credits.
With all the special effects you can pull out of a techno geek’s wizard’s hat along with suspense and cuteness intertwined, Super 8 provides the perfect Spielberg entity. I know hoards of people will be entertained out of their wits but I miss that story-driven anti-hero time when actors, writers, producers and directors were on the same page about art and integrity and if it happened to make a buck, all the better. Now, thanks to the revolutionary Star Wars shift in cinema comes pre-ordained, studio driven, market researched junk. We are doomed to take the ultra lame with the so-so.Super 8 pulls out all the F-stops and hits a wall.

Super 8

Starring Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Gabriel Basso, Kyle Chandler
Directed by J. J. Abrams
2 stars