“E.T phone home…”
A sentence anyone would say if told that the plot of a movie involved an alien on the run to return to his home planet. However, in Super 8, the sentence only holds true if our “friendly” extra terrestrial friend grew up with a steady diet of steroids and dead human.
In director JJ Abrams’s latest offering to science fiction, having already been responsible for rebooting Star Trek and shows like Fringe, the 45-year-old has written a love letter to filmmaking and B grade horror films. One might say the movie held autobiographical elements for the director, as well as for producer Steven Spielberg.
Before the digital camera, the only way for young, budding filmmakers to get their stories on video was through a wonderful device called the Super 8 mm camera, a stepping stone for many a Hollywood titan, from Peter Jackson to Christopher Nolan, and yes, Abrams and Spielberg. It is from this contraption that the film, set in the 1980s, derives its title from, and how we get to know our protagonists.


The boy, Joe Lamb (played by Joel Courtney, in his debut performance), who is obsessed with Carpenter horror and model sets, finds himself having to come to terms with his life after tragedy strikes. Lamb is caught between his personal demons and his obligation and enthusiasm to help his best friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) finish his zombie movie, and the film is centered about his growth rather than the rampaging monster from outer space, a mere subplot in the face of adolescence.
The amateur crew is backed by Lamb and Charles’ boyhood gang, pyromaniac Cary (Ryan Lee), Preston (Zach Mills) and their actors, Martin (Gabriel Basso) and Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning). Their innocence and youthful energy are captured through brilliant, honest performances from the child actors, particularly from Joel Courtney, which is pretty impressive seeing as many of them (including Courtney) are total newbies.
Abrams also handles the emotional scenes with enough depth and warmth, and balances them with his signature fast paced action to ensure his audience is at once sympathetic and entertained. However, the pace may have hurt the characters’ interactions, for one wishes that Joe Lamb’s relationship with his father, Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler), could have been explored further.


However, you could also argue that the paternal relationship isn’t really the focus of the film, but the relationship the children have with one another as they deal with the ramifications of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (rather like another 80s creation, The Goonies, which Spielberg wrote).
Remember to stay for the credits, where the children’s novice zombie film is screened as a bonus, in all its Romero-like glory.