Review of Super 8 (1988) by Lewis E — 12 Aug 2014

I should have fell asleep after the train crash scene, leaving the instructions "wake me up when the alien comes on".

'Super 8' follows a group of kids as they attempt to shoot a science fiction movie, only to have real abnormal activities occur in front of them in their town. Sometimes I wondered whether there were children behind the cameras filming 'Super 8' as well. It shares positive resemblances with other popular Spielberg-involved projects such as 'The Goonies' and 'ET' in the sense of having a young main cast and solid production value. The template is not bad for producing a passable popcorn flick for the appropriate family audience. Nevertheless, the ending's attempt to create the equivalent emotional level to 'ET' falls flat because of the lack of memorable characters and its refusal to allow the audience to build a connection to the alien. You're suppose to emphasise with the extra-terrestrial being despite only properly seeing it in the last half hour and the fact that when it is on screen, it is either kidnapping or killing civilians. Another criticism is that it is poorly focused. You find it hard to care about the boy-father relationship, the kids' movie, government conspiracy, the alien, boy-girl romance nor the overcoming of the mother's death because they are all underdeveloped. Therefore, interesting and engaging aspects to the movie are limited.

It tries to be a Spielberg classic, taking plenty notes from his previous successes, but it ultimately turns out to be a super flop. Anyone over the age of 18 should seriously consider giving this one a miss.