Super 8

Rating: 4 Shurikens

Super 8 is a good sci-fi movie about an Area-51-style secret military operation, and a nice fun movie about some middle-school kids in 1979, making a movie for an amateur movie competition. During the course of shooting the movie with a Super-8-millimeter film camera, a military train carrying a mysterious cargo, is derailed by a man in a pickup truck. Part of the mysterious cargo is a creature of some sort, definitely a monster, with incredible strength and intelligence. Super 8 was produced by Steven Spielberg, of Indiana Jones and E.T. fame, and by J. J. Abrams, the man behind the Lost TV series, and both Cloverfield and the recent Star Trek remake on the Big Screen.

We are introduced to Joe Lamb, the son of a local Deputy, whose mother was killed in an accident at the steel mill. His friend, Charles, is making a zombie movie, with the help of Jason and his other friends, and a girl named Alice Dainard, who Joe obviously likes. The Deputy, Jackson Lamb, has some sort of problem with the father of Alice, causing some drama within the erstwhile movie crew. Joe is played by Joel Courtney, a new actor who displays some significant talent in his role. The Deputy, Jackson Lamb, is played by Kyle Chandler, who appeared in King Kong several years ago, and also The Day the Earth Stood Still from 2008. Elle Fanning, the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, does a very nice job as Alice.

The friend, Charles, played by Riley Griffiths, also a fairly new young actor, gets the group to sneak out at night to film part of the movie at the train station near town. While they are filming, a pickup truck drives onto the tracks and drives right at the oncoming train at top speed. A spectacular derailment occurs, which is something that I would have replayed over and over if I had had a rewind button, and I might just do that when it comes out on DVD. Never mind the fact that the mass of the train at several hundred tons would barely be slowed by a pickup truck, at only about one ton of the finest Detroit steel. You couldn't get a pickup to go fast enough on train tracks to have a meaningful effect on a moving train, even head-on. And the driver would never survive that sort of an impact, except in the movies. And that is pretty much what happens here.

As the kids wander around the wreckage, they find the driver of the pickup truck unconcious, but he is able to wake up and tell them a cryptic clue about the contents of the train. The kids are then forced to flee and leave him to the huge contingent of Air Force personnel that swarms the area. This is after the strange passenger manages to escape the train by pounding its way through a steel railroad car door. The Air Force combs the area, and also the town, searching for their missing passenger. The officer in charge of the military, Nelec, played by Noah Emerich, is obviously malevolent, and is determined to capture the creature at all costs, and without telling anyone anything about what is really going on.

Noah Emerich is the only cast member that I thought had a familiar face, since he had been in The Truman Show years ago. Most of the other actors were young kids, new to the business. The acting was surprisingly good, and it was easy to get immersed in the story. There was a good amount of humor, especially the pyromaniac kid who made his own firecrackers. Nowadays, you would get jailed as a terrorist for that kind of thing. There was also some nostalgia for the Seventies evoked by the music, the furniture, and the clothing styles, as well as the cars.

Super 8 is a good movie, and good for all ages. The scary part isn't so scary that it would give kids nightmares, and the story is interesting enough for just about anyone to enjoy. It is a little predictable, though, but made in a way that it continues to entertain. It's well worth the trip to the theater to see it. I give it 4 Shurikens for a good story and decent acting, and not relying too heavily on the special effects.