Super 8

[Steve Williams]

I happened to catch an early matinee today and saw Super 8.

Well it was good but certainly not great. The first half of the movie is quite suspenseful trying to find out what this eerie presence is that invaded this small town after a huge train crash.

Definitely worth seeing but I found the ending somewhat thin and disappointing but as my wife said, "there wasn't another way to end it"

On a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 7

Much of the suspense and action scenes are typical JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg with special effects done by Industrial Light and Magic

I'd be interested in what others who saw it, thought of it. I'm purposely avoiding the story line which would give away much of the plot.

Worth a view but not so sure I would have it in my library.

 

[RUR]

My son and I saw it in IMAX this morning and we enjoyed it very much. One of the reviewers encapsulated it as E.T. on crystal meth, and that strikes me as a particularly apt description.

Could've thinned out a bit in the middle and spent a little more time at the end, if you know what I mean. Special effects were superb and both the images and audio (esp. VLF) made it well worth the high-end venue, IMHO.

A definite Blu-ray buy, for me.

 

[Steve Williams]

I didn't want to say but I told my wife when we left thyat it was ET in a different version

I thought the end was just a little too quick Ken

 

[jadis]

I happened to catch an early matinee today and saw Super 8.

Well it was good but certainly not great. The first half of the movie is quite suspenseful trying to find out what this eerie presence is that invaded this small town after a huge train crash.

Definitely worth seeing but I found the ending somewhat thin and disappointing but as my wife said, "there wasn't another way to end it"

On a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 7

Much of the suspense and action scenes are typical JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg with special effects done by Industrial Light and Magic

I'd be interested in what others who saw it, thought of it. I'm purposely avoiding the story line which would give away much of the plot.

Worth a view but not so sure I would have it in my library.

Just watched it a few hours ago with the family and my feelings are mostly like yours, Steve. Good but not great. I was kinda expecting for more given how the trailer whetted my appetite. And yes, I too found the ending too quick and other than the huge slam bang crashing scenes coupled with the awesome sound effects, overall, I should say I'm a bit disappointed in the movie.

 

[FrantzM]

Saw it yesterday and it was immensely enjoyable. Cinematography is excellent. The framing of the scenes for example is close to textbook ... For example the framing of two characters when the girl was in the boy room .. Superb.
Special effect were smooth and the direction very good .. These kids are amazing actors ...

Good but not ET.. Although this is ET redux .. As someone so aptly put it, "ET on Meth"...

Worth seeing nonetheless

 

[RUR]

Hard to believe they built this movie for a mere $50M.

Lest we mislead prospective viewers, this is NOT the sappy-happy, benign E.T.. Much more intense with several Holy $hit!, jump-out-of-your-seat moments.

 

[FrantzM]

Hard to believe they built this movie for a mere $50M.

Lest we mislead prospective viewers, this is NOT the sappy-happy, benign E.T.. Much more intense with several Holy $hit!, jump-out-of-your-seat moments.

Wow! It might have helped that the actors were mostly yong, unknown children...

 

[Steve Williams]

Isn't Elle Fanning Dakota's sister

 

[RUR]

Isn't Elle Fanning Dakota's sister

She is, Steve. Didn't recognize any of the kids and so IMDb-ed them when I got home. Like Frantz, I thought they all did an amazing job.

 

[Steve Williams]

The one who plays the detective also plays the son in The Big C on Showtime

 

[rsbeck]

This was sort of like the Smoke Monster from Lost meets the Shark from Jaws, looks like the thing from Alien and turns out to be a cross between ET and the beings from Close Encounters. Lots of recycled ideas and gestures from mostly Spielberg but also JJ Abrams oeuvre.

Worth a watch and very smooth film making, but not destined to be an all-time classic to revisit time and again, IMO.

The extras on the blu-ray sort of explain to me what went wrong.

They sort of knew some of the elements they wanted to include in a movie and sort of had two incomplete story lines in mind for two films that were going nowhere, so they simply combined the two incomplete story lines and tried to patch a movie together.

I give them an A for effort and I could feel the fun they must have had doing it, so I am glad to have watched it.

It's sort of JJ Abrams' homage to Steven with a little bit of Alien thrown in for visual thrills and chills, all updated with modern CGI and state of the art high tech digital wizardry, which also underlines another important point, in my opinion.

Rather have a better story with less wizardry than a lesser story with more.

But, that's another discussion.

 

[Dimfer]

just watched it at Netflix, and enjoyed it