My Thoughts: Super 8

Upon first seeing the teaser trailer of the train accident, I was immediately intrigued. Over the years, I've grown to love J.J. Abrams. And I know Cloverfield received mixed reviews, but I enjoyed that as well, and I'll get back to that one in a bit. As for Super 8, he collaborated with Steven Spielberg on this project. Fairly unknown child actors supplied the cast, which I enjoyed and I hope to see more of the likes of Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning and Ryan Lee. The plot held up very well for me, the special effects were great and I was happy that I didn't actually get to see the alien up close until the final act. That is what I enjoyed about Cloverfield. I felt a nostalgia for a time period I never actually experienced. Don't know if that makes any sense but that's just how I felt. And like some critics, I was reminded a bit of E.T. A few went as far as calling these elements plagiarism with permission. I wouldn't exactly say that. Even though both Super 8 and E.T. dealt with children and extraterrestrials, they were by far not the same movies. After all, I don't remember E.T. being extremely violent and attacking the military. If anything, I felt like Abrams gave us an homage to the 1982 classic. And homages and respectable remakes are just fine in my book.

As for Cloverfield and the feedback it received, vs. the reception that Super 8 received, I really can't compare the two. Cloverfield was just a different kind of movie, almost like an experiment and I applauded the effort. But one really had to do the research to fully understand Cloverfield, much of it done through viral marketing. Just like how people had to play the Enter the Matrix video game to completely fill in the gaps for the Matrix sequels. People who didn't were obviously lost and I remember the murmurs in the crowd that verified the confusion. It was the same with Cloverfield. I was fortunate enough to visit the website, play the photo game, read the fictitious Slusho! website and see the splash in the background during the final scenes. I guess Cloverfield is just a movie that requires people to do some homework, and with an American audience who just doesn't seem to want to think, movies like this may suffer in feedback. It's a shame because I think it's a great idea to give us a movie we literally have to unlock in our spare time and I hope that we see more of this in the future.

As for Super 8, this may very well be a movie I will add to my DVD collection in due time!