Super 8

When I first saw the previews for Super 8, I was stoked to see it. I love movies about things from other planets so the possibility of an awesome sci-fi movie was fuckin awesome. Sadly to say...I was a bit disappointed by Super 8. I just felt like something was...missing.

The first problem I have with Super 8, is that it just lacks any type of originality. The monster (who you have to wait wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long too see) looks like the Cloverfield monster's ugly brother. The whole "evil government and/or military is responsible" idea has been done in just about every movie with aliens and it gets really fucking lame after a while. We get it. Anarchy owns. The last five minutes (which I will get to more so in a few paragraphs) is ridiculously reminscient of E.T. Yeah. This shit copies E.T.

For a movie that seems to be action packed and full of scares...Super 8 is oddly dull. It takes a while for things to get going and when they do, they barely happen. Most of the action/deaths occur offscreen which gets extremely frustrating after watching about 30 minutes of nothing but talking in between. On the positives, the special effects are absolutely amazing. I just wish that they had shown them off more often. Super 8's pace often hurts mainly because you're waiting for a payoff that just really isn't that interesting in the long run.

Now, my biggest problem with Super 8....the fucking last 20 minutes. Literally, nothing works. There's no tension considering children are the main stars (and rarely is a child murdered or even really hurt in a movie). The way the actors find out about what the monster is and how it was created/brought to the U.S.A. is just dumb. It's a typical explanation of blaming the Government which has been done to death. And I don't even know what to say about how the children convince the monster to leave. THEY FUCKING TALK TO HIM LIKE HE'S ON GODDAMN DR. PHIL ABOUT HIS PROBLEMS. And no, I'm not making this shit up. And yes, it did need to be captalized.

Super 8 is just a movie of missed chances. The special effects that we see are beautiful and the performances are stellar, especially Elle Fanning, who pretty much makes everyone her bitch in terms of performance. But some awesome effects and performances can't save a lack of interest, originality, or an explanation and conclusion that Super 8 just fails to bring. It just fails to take off.

2/4