So I think I owe J.J. Abrahms an apology

If any of you remember, about a year ago, I wrote a big long review for Cloverfield, and how I found the movie to be infuriating, despite how well it was done. Also, at the end of the movie, I swore vengence on J.J Abrahms, for the movie, by going to Super 8, his next film, and tearing it apart. Since that time however, my loathesome rage had cooled a bit and while I was still going into the theater in an anylitical mood, I was willing to believe that the movie could be good.

And it was. In fact, it was great. The movie was much better than Cloverfield in all aspects, and it was probably the best movie I've seen in theaters since Zombieland. I could pin that the good parts of it were due to Steven Spielberg's involvement, but that would be unfair of me. J.J. Abrahms and Spielberg combined their styles and made a movie that was emotionally engaging, thrilling, and comedic at points too. I was worried about the involvement of the little kids, but they were apparently older than I thought they were, giving it a "Yeah, that's what it was like to be that age." feel.

If you took Cloverfield and E.T. and mashed them together, then trimmed the fat, that would leave you with this. My one complaint about the movie that's worth mentioning is it's tone. There are points in the movie where it goes from the survival horror against an omnipotent foe, like in Cloverfield, and then to a sincere kid's film like E.T. It didn't bother me at all till the very end though, when the monster snatches up two people, and then the kids have a sincere ET style moment in it. It seemed a bit farfetched to me.

That aside, the movie was great. So, I'm sorry J.J. Abrahms. It's certainly not a healed wound from Cloverfield, don't pull that stunt again, but I'm willing to forgive you now.

One thing I will say though. The very first advertisement for this film, the truck hitting the train, and the style of advertising, gave me the feel that this was going to be a dark, survival horror movie, much like Cloverfield appeared in it's first ad. So one complaint that I WILL hold against Abrahms, is that his style of advertising is misleading. Both films are, overall, not about the monsters in the film. Cloverfield especially so. In Super 8, the film is about the little kids and the bond of their friendships, and the bond of their families. In Cloverfield, it's about a guy who regrets saying mean things to his 'girlfriend' and then goes on a mission to save her, against the survival instincts of humans. Where Super 8 surpasses Cloverfield in leaps and bounds, is the depiction of the monster. At the beginning, you see very small bits and pieces, but as the film progresses, it's revealed more and more, culminating with the last scene, where you see it in it's full splendor. It gets explained enough that your curiosity is satisfied, whereas people are still trying to figure out whether or not Cloverfield was a turtle monster hopped up on caffiene or not.


So, if you were worried about Super 8 being like Cloverfield, like I was, don't worry. I strongly recommend this film. It's better than Cloverfield was, and better than a lot of other movies have been lately.