However, Super 8 - a seemingly simple plotted alien movie - has changed all this for me (at least for now).
Super 8 (directed by J.J Abrams with help from the mighty Spielberg) is on the surface a movie about an alien visitor (of sorts). It focuses on a group of young teenagers one summer, who are making their own zombie movie for a competition. One night they are filming their production by a train track, when a train is suddenly ran off the track and a massive disaster follows. After this catastrophic event, things start to get extremely weird in the town, dogs go missing, microwaves go missing, and people start to disappear. Soon the kids realised that they may have filmed more in their movie than what they bargained for.
As expected, the special effects in this movie are big and impressive. The acting and actors are perfectly chosen, and Abrams has got it right with the amount of "creature" that you see, and what it looks like when you do see it. What is unexpected, is an extremely sweet movie about a group of friends who are ever so likeable, and not only have to cope with the mysterious goings on from the train crash, but also their own tragedies that have occured in their lives.
The charm of the film, is added to by the fact that the children are all played by relative unknowns. Even though Elle Fanning (Dakota's sister, playing the part of Alice) has done movies before, and has very much been brought up in show business, it doesn't matter, because she is emotional, beautiful and generally quite a superb young actress. The relationship between her and Joe Lamb (the main protagonist, whose mother has just died and is trying to live with this fact, played very well by Joel Courtney) is lovely. Abrams has got the mood and the atmosphere just right, showing emotion and depth, without making their relationship tacky and trivial.
Not only are the children brilliant, but the whole film is quite something. However, although this film is based on kids, and is made for kids / teens, it isn't light. Abrams doesn't lay off the suspense or the occassional bloody moment, and the way in which this is incorporated into real life, and real people, is quite amazing.
My only criticism, would be that towards the end of the film, it seemed to get a tiny bit trigger happy - explosions happening here there and everywhere - when quite frankly the characters create enough tension and excitement all by themselves.
This 70's based film, is reminiscent of some of the classics made in the 80's. It has the charm of the goonies, the friendship of stand by me, and the hint of the unexplained of E.T, but what's new and exciting, is the success of mixing all this together and creating an intelligent, heartfelt yet exciting summer blockbuster. 5/5
