Super 8

If you were a child of the 80s and grew up on early Spielberg movies such as The Goonies, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Jaws, go watch this movie now; you won't regret it. Being a child of the 80s myself, I was immediately reminded of these classic movies from the acclaimed filmmaker. I have often thought that some of the great movies of all time were made in the 80s and closely adjacent years. Maybe I'm biased, but the quality and child-like charm of those films and others like Stand By Me, Jurassic Park, and the early Indiana Jones movies are hard to deny. While I also enjoy the edgier films of today, I sometimes bemoan the fact that simple but memorable movies like those from my youth just aren't made any more these days. Super 8 changes that perception and allowed me to be 12 again for a couple of hours.

***Light spoilers ensue***
Since this movie has relied on low-key secretive marketing, I'll try not to give anything away that wasn't in trailers.




A classic bunch-of-likeable-kids-have-an-adventure movie, Super 8 opens with an allusion to a tragedy: an industrial accident has left young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) without his mother. To make matters worse, Deputy Sheriff Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler of Early Edition and Friday Night Lights) isn't much of a father. Joe finds solace in a close-knit group of friends including budding filmmaker Charles (Riley Griffiths), borderline pyromaniac Cary (Ryan Lee), somewhat nerdy Preston (Zach Mills), none-too-bright jock Martin (Gabriel Basso), and especially Alice (Elle Fanning) whom he has a bit of a crush on. Four months after his mother's death, Joe and his friends spend the summer making a Super 8 zombie-themed movie under the direction of Charles. While filming at a train station, they witness the most spectacular train wreck ever filmed. In the aftermath, they find some strange cargo and it sounds like SOMETHING came out of one of the cars. The kids high-tail it out of there as the air force arrives on the scene. Not long after, strange happenings occur in the fictional small town of Lillian, Ohio. Weird things go missing: microwaves, car parts, power cables. Dogs run away in droves. People vanish without a trace. As Joe's father tries to grapple with increasingly panicking citizens, he grows ever more distant from his son. Meanwhile Joe continues to work on his friend's movie and nurtures a growing romance with Alice, which is not without some opposition from their respective fathers. The strange events come to a climax when the air force gets more involved and sinister happenings are clearly afoot culminating in a thrilling adventure for the kids.

The acting by the children, especially Fanning (I coulda sworn she was a tiny little girl) and newcomer Courtney, is very good and very natural. The kids all have some really funny lines and background dialogue reminiscent of The Goonies. Their chemistry really sells the plot and the film. The villains are suitably mean archetypes typical of classic Spielberg movies and Chandler does his job of portraying the distant but still loving father as well as one could hope. Using relative and total unknowns for the lead roles was a smart move by Abrams and he may have discovered a great talent in Courtney (who was ironically just hoping to land a commercial for laughs and a little bit of extra money).

Clearly a loving homage to the films of Spielberg, JJ Abrams continues his unbroken streak of awesomeness with this movie that combines many of the elements of the aforementioned movies with the same wide-eyed wonder that made them memorable. Even the music by the Abrams' resident composer Michael Giacchino (who also composed the excellent score for Up among many others) was reminiscent of John Williams' scores for early Spielberg films. The imagery of small-town Americana, gorgeous backlit skies, and kids on bicycles harks back to films of the era as well. The effects are very believable and while Abrams doesn't skimp on the CGI, it is used sparingly and seamlessly, never overshadowing the story.

Derivative perhaps, but Super 8 derives from some of the best material ever made and infuses it with a heart and soul sorely lacking in so many recent films. The plot is well fleshed out and takes its time without ever being boring. Abrams is definitely one of the most gifted storytellers of our time and further collaborations with masters like Spielberg would bear glorious fruit indeed.

For near-perfection in storytelling and for allowing me to be a kid again, Super 8 gets 9 out of ten baby seals.



Oh, and do stay for the credits :)

X-Men: First Class

Wheee.... my first movie review in months...

The X-Men have been one of comicdom's most enduring and popular series. I've been a fan since I was younger and watched the animated series. It was definitely fun to see the stories translated to the big screen and the first three movies were enjoyable to some degree at least. The mediocre X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a bit of a letdown with its less-than-inspiring script and bland storyline. Fortunately, this new origin story returns to the strong roots of the first movie.


**Minor spoilers ensue**





Taking place primarily in the 60s against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, the movie opens with young Erik Lehnsherr being separated from his parents during World War II in a Nazi concentration camp in occupied Poland which causes him to manifest his magnetic powers. This scene is a duplicate of what we've seen before in the earlier trilogy. What we didn't see was what happened later in the camp, where Erik meets "Dr. Schmidt" who tries to get him to use his powers at will by employing less-than-nice methods.

In the meantime, we also see young Charles Xavier as a poor little rich boy who meets with a young Raven whom we later know as Mystique. This is a new revelation which I *think* is probably at odds with cannon (and maybe with the rest of the trilogy), but I'll grant Matthew Vaughn some creative licence. They become like brother and sister and grow up together.

Years later, Erik (Michael Fassbender) is an adult in far greater control of his powers, Charles (James McAvoy) is an Oxford professor, and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is by his side as a close friend, though she may want to be more than that. Erik is still hell-bent on tracking down Dr. Schmidt to exact his revenge. Meanwhile, CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) in another out-of-cannon turn is tracking down the good doctor who now goes by Sebastian Shaw (the inimitable Kevin Bacon). With psychic Emma Frost (January Jones), Shaw has founded The Hellfire Club and recruited mutants including Nightcrawler-lookalike Azazel and airbending Riptide. When the CIA discover that he and his merry band of evil mutants are planning something dastardly, they attack him with the aid of Charles. The attack fails, but brings together Charles and Erik for the first time with the former saving the latter's life.

Now friends, Erik, Charles, and Raven join the CIA at a top secret training facility where they meet young genius Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult of About a Boy). Hank has invented the first Cerebro which enables Charles to find mutants from all over the world. He and Erik set out to recruit mutants to join the CIA and help them while Erik still dreams of revenge against Shaw. They end up with mutants who will later become sonic-screamer Banshee, plasma-hurtler Havok, insectlike Angel Salvadore, and quick-adapting Darwin. And so the First Class is born.

Campy but cool, this film echoes the strong dramatic undercurrents and message of the first film. While missing the sheer screen presence of Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, the acting is pretty good all around with McAvoy suitably idealistic, Fassbender suitably bitter and angry, Jones suitably erm... frosty, and Bacon in his element as a slimy villain who makes up for the disparity in physical size from the comics incarnation with a menacing demeanour. The young actors do well in their smallish roles too. The effects are well-made and believable, though Beast looks a little weird.

The story breaks from cannon with Beast as the only actual 'First Class' character shown here since this movie is still in the same continuity as the others. This could annoy the die-hard fans, but it does work. I enjoyed seeing Banshee discover flight and a totally out-of-cannon Havok throwing his plasma blasts around although I sometimes wished they woulda just broken continuity and rebooted the thing with the original First Class characters. Anyhow, the film is worthy of the high critical acclaim received thus far and makes for enjoyable and satisfying summer fare. I love a good origin story and I will certainly look forward to the inevitable sequels.


PS. Watch for an amusing cameo when Charles and Erik are recruiting mutants.