Super 8
Dir. J.J. Abrams
***/****
I dig J.J. Abrams, I really do. I was a latecomer to Lost and did not start watching it until just after the series had ended. This was a conscious decision my part, having been too big a fan of odd experimental shows that get cancelled before their resolution (good or bad, but this is a topic for another day). But I like his style, I like his tone, and I like how everything he likes, I like. I never miss a reference he makes or fail to get the homage he is doing, and that always makes me smile. Its good to know that there are other people out there with almost identical tastes to me, and that they can be successful.
Super 8 is the first film Abrams has directed from an original concept, and despite what ever the concept seems to be, I would argue that the actual pitch for the film was something a long the lines of this.
ABRAMS: I have an original concept I’d like to pitch.
STUDIO: not a comic book?
ABRAMS: No
STUDIO: Toy line?
ABRAMS: Are you kidding?
STUDIO: Remake?
ABRAMS: No
STUDIO: (hopeful) Reboot?
ABRAMS: Nope
STUDIO: Come on!
ABRAMS: Fine…Spielberg
STUDIO: Post Schindler?
ABRAMS: (Sighing) Pre
STUDO: Done…but we expect aliens.
ABRAMS: Duh.
Point being, Abrams set out from the very beginning to do a film that harkens back to the Spielberg glory days of Jaws, E.T, Close Encounters and the like. And with The Great Berg producing, it was easy to accomplish.
I won’t go into the plot of the film, or its stars or the effects. Rather I would like to discuss if I may the tone of the work. If in the coming decades SPIELBERGIAN is it’s own genre, then Super 8 made it possible. Every moment of the film has that flavor of the old blockbusters The Great Berg used to direct and produce. It had the sense of wonder, the looming menace, and the distant fathers…oh the distant fathers. It was not hard to see who would have played each of the adult parts had this movie been made when it takes place (Richard Dreyfus = Cop Dad, easily.)
There are moments in the film where it is hard to believe Abrams directed them at all, that’s how reminiscent they are. One notable scene is early on in the film where a large family is getting ready for dinner. The kids are playing and watching TV, the mother is rushing around the kitchen, the father is tired form work and good naturedly tells his kids to be quite, the older daughter fights with her mother and so on. Similar sequences can be found in Close Encounters, E.T. and Poltergeist (I know Tobe Hooper directed this, but many people have claimed Spielberg had a bigger hand in it than he is credited, and form the look and tone of the film, it’s pretty obvious) Indulge me in another imaginary dialogue, one that I kept running in my head through out several portions of the film.
ABRAMS: Steve, how would you direct this scene?
SPIELBERG: Just give me the camera J.J.
Abrams relies so much on Spielbergian story telling, that you almost forget that he directed the film until the last act. The creature is pure Abrams. (In fact that was my only disappointment, his designers ideas tend to all look annoyingly similar, and the spindly sinewy Cloverfield-esque alien was a bit off from the rest of the film.)
But is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. It was the point of the film, to recreate the timeless cinema of late mid century America, when the adventure came back full swing and the blockbuster was born. And in that, it was a success. I sat in the theater with the feeling of awe and wonder I always have when watching any of the great Spielberg films. (Except E.T. My friends know how I feel about E.T. Haven’t watched it since I was 6 and probably never will. Terrifying) it succeeded in what it was trying to do, and although Abrams could learn to love the lens flare a bit less, it was a more than satisfying summer flick that took me back to Jurassic Park, Close Encounters, and so many more films that I love.
