oh oh.. thanks for reminding me about "Lillian Steel"
Is this a purposed dig on on the Altals Shrugged film? Lillian Reardern the wife of Hank Rearden the magnet of Readern Steel. Lillian was a antagonist to Hank.. Seems awfully coincidental to me..
Loved the kids and a lot of the events surrounding them. Fave moment was Fanning, acting out the zombie part. As filmmakers, most of us have had that happen to us! My wife has done it and if no one else is around, we usually need to take a break....
The monster stuff was every bit as illogical as Steve Gelder and parts of Wheatgrinder's posts pointed out! It was pretty much a backdrop. Too bad. The movie tries to make a point about "telling a story" (how fleshing out characters make the audience care about what is going on), then deprives itself of the main event! While there were good characters, this depth did not extend to the creature. Spielberg has been far more effective with a shark, T-Rex or E.T., than Abrahms was with the alien (kind of a smaller rehash of the CLOVERFIELD creature).
Fortunately, I read a bunch of IMDB reviews and enjoyed the movie, very much.
Okay, now you're just being silly. You should watch the latest episode of South Park.
I agree with gelder -- actually, this movie does have a number of plot holes. However, it wasn't enough to take me out of the movie.
I think they did a terrific job building suspense and tension, and I think they did an even better job telling a heartfelt coming-of-age story, and I liked both of those aspects enough that I'm able to look past any problems that I would consider minor.
I saw the movie the other day. I thought it was a good, decent film. But I didn't fall in love with it. I had a similar experience as some others who said that they weren't all that emotionally vested etc. I do think that this one might be one of those movies that grows on me. As has been said, the kids are excellant and well written.
Hey, I can't remember when it was, but I could have sworn I heard, like, about one second worth of sound effects from Star Wars, like, maybe...jawas, or something or something from Tantooine?
Another thing that was on my mind as I watched Super 8 was that it is an excellant homage to Speilberg and Amblin, but then I was also very aware that it was not a Speilberg film.
Let's just say that if you highly recommended or even just plain recommended Super 8 to me then your credibility with me would be shattered and I would never watch a movie you recommended ever again.
Let's just say that if you highly recommended or even just plain recommended Super 8 to me then your credibility with me would be shattered and I would never watch a movie you recommended ever again.
Right. I got that the first time you said it. What that means, though, is that you've just discounted the opinions of more than 80% of all film critics, and regular film-goers alike (based on rottentomatoes and cinemascore statistics).
That's fine; you don't have to be a sheep, but you've really narrowed how many people you're willing to take film recommendations from. It's one thing to not like a movie. It's another thing, altogether, to completely discount the opinions of those who do like it, and that's a tad small-minded of you, in my opinion.
It's even more absurd to enter a discussion like this one, and publicly declare that you don't trust any opinions of the majority of the people who are taking part in this conversation, merely because we like a movie that you don't. Are you not capable of expressing why you don't like a movie, without insulting the people who do?
Saw this late last night, what a fun stinkin movie.
A lot of stories are better told through the eyes of kids, and this didn't disappoint.
Reading through the post, I think the movie adresses most of the "plot holes" there are. One kid asks another as they're running to the truck, "how did this truck survive?". The whole point of the hysteria in the town is that weird stuff is happenening that doesn't make sense.
As far as the monster not being fleshed out...
The movie isn't about the monster. It takes a background to the boy and girl and their family issues and them working past it.
It had some great lines and symbolic moments. Not necessarily hidden ones, but like when the dad is complaining to the kid after the sheriff is gone, "There's 12,000 frightened people here that i have to help. There used to be two of us for them to rely on, now it's just me." and the kid is there in tears because it's re exact dynamic of their family after his mom died.
Even the "romance" in the story was brilliant. It was something pure.
Bottom line, this was a great ride. I don't think I could take anyone serious who whole-heartedly hates this movie and swears it's the worst ever made.
I saw Super 8 last night... and LOVED it!! Makes me want to be young again with no worries, bills, or responsibilities! The plot holes (which I agree with) are fine with me and I can easily look past them because everything else was done well. I left the movie with a great feeling.
Let's just say that if you highly recommended or even just plain recommended Super 8 to me then your credibility with me would be shattered and I would never watch a movie you recommended ever again.
You can see anything and still take something away from the experience of seeing it to help you as a filmmaker, even if it's just ideas of what not to do.
Watch EVERYTHING, learn a lot, use what you learn.
i thought the film was fantastic. very good performances from the cast, especially the kids. the plot inconsistencies didn't ruin it for me at all. plus every movie has some sort of plot hole/inconsistency.
I had been waiting for over a year to see this. We've all been seeing previews of a derailed train car and something bashing its way out. Abrahms has been very careful not to reveal the "surprise," the same way they kept the CLOVERFIELD creature under wraps. So, the buildup of expectation has been all about the monster and scenes of people looking wonderously skyward.
For the movie to come out and as you say, "isn't about the monster" sounds like a copout. I agree with you, it was background, to a point. So was the shark in JAWS.........,until we confront the shark and it gets retribution with Captain Quint, etc.
This monster also gets its retribution with the head military guy, but it also kills a bunch of innocent people. Now, this isn't a monster shark or wild beast, but an advanced being with telepathic/telekinetic powers. He can make a spaceship out of microwave ovens and appliances!
Now, I really liked the movie, so this is friendly debate. Honestly, there were a fair number of suspenseful scenes involving the creature. My beef was with the handling of it, while Abrahm distinctly made the point of what makes a story - characters you care for. The monster is a character, hence the flaw.
Robert McKee from his book, STORY:
BLADE RUNNER: Marketing positioned the audience to empathize with Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard, but once in the theatre, filmgoers were drawn to the greater dimensionality of the replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer). As the Center of Good shifted to the antagonist, the audience's emotional confusion diminished its enthusiasm, and what should have been a huge success became a cult film.
For me, that was the same problem with the monster - eating some people, killing innocents, yet it had all of this power and intelligence. Somehow, in the end, he is the good guy and this shift was hard to make, with the way it was handled.
The other problem is that until the girl gets taken, there is no interest from the children in focusing on the monster or solving this thing, until the girl gets abducted. After that, they find the professor's books and research. In other movies, like E.T., the story is also about the kids, but their attention is on the event or creature. They dress it up, hide it, etc.
Thirdly, SUPER 8!... You think that the footage this camera took is going to be some sort of smoking gun - bring it to the press, broadcast it, get famous, or targeted! Instead, the Super 8 is also relegated to the background. They didn't need to watch it to know that there was a monster.
Most of this is me thinking out loud. I really liked the movie, the era, the setting, the kids (yes, Cracker funk, I had Darth Vader's TIE Fighter back then!), but.... I wanted to love it, so I keep thinking about what would have made it better. Definitely worth watching on the big screen, if you have some idea what it's about, going in. Stay during the credits for a little extra something.
Ah, 1979. My all time favorite movie, ALIEN, came out that year.
You can see anything and still take something away from the experience of seeing it to help you as a filmmaker, even if it's just ideas of what not to do.
Watch EVERYTHING, learn a lot, use what you learn.
Well that's true, one can learn better by watching bad movies than only good ones.
Super 8 was just poorly acted, poorly written and boring. It was trying so desperately to be the next E.T. or the next Close Encounters of the Third Kind and it just had none of the pizzazze and kinetic energy of either film. I know J.J. Abrams has the ability to make a great movie because I've seen him do it but this was just utter garbage. It was an entirely cliche movie that had nothing truly original or inspiring to say. The one interesting bit was the doctor's little speech about how we experimented on the alien instead of helping him leave, but that's been done to death before and it wasn't done very interestingly this time. None of the main characters had any sort of notable screen presence - compare them to Haley Joel Osment form A.I. or, heck, even the kid from Close Encounters and they didn't hold a candle to them. About the only fun thing about Super 8 was finding out what the alien was up to, but once the movie was over all I could think about was all the better things I could have just been doing with the past 2 hours of my life.
Just saw this. Definitely going down as one of my all time favorite movies.
What I really liked is the realistic portrayal of the kids; the language, behavior, and emotion
A lot of the shots in this movie had me all happy on the inside
Also, did anyone else think Cary was like a child version of Michael Bay? xD That's the way I saw him
