Posted on 06/17/2011 1:36:19 PM PDT by pabianice
"Super 8" is an almost scene-by-scene remake of "ET." That is not a compliment. Same-same. Kids. Evil U.S. military. Robotic killer soldiers/airmen. Misunderstood monster that just wants to get home. What a waste of time. Even the CGI is second-rate.
There are a few differences. This time the alien is big and can raise hell with the military that has kept it captive and tortured it for 24 years (it's set in 1979 for absolutely no reason except to trot-out old cars, hairstyles, and music). The plot is moronic, with the kids saving the day, of course. The US Air Force could successfully sue Speilberg for slander. His repeated characature of the US military as neo-Nazis is so ugly as to make the viewer turn away from the screen. In this movie the Air Force tortures aliens, destroys entire towns to hide their guilt, and murders civilians that become inconvenient. The character of the Air Force colonel in charge is a copy of Col. Kurtz in "Apocolype Now," except this actor isn't fat and can remember his lines. Adults are portrayed as, at best, bunglers and losers, and at worst, careless monsters. The kids, of course, have all the bravery and all the answers.
I have watched with dismay as Speilberg has gone to exciting director in "Jaws" to this shambles of a film. Shame on him and shame on anyone paying to see this fiasco after being forewarned.
Just sayin’. Jeez. Lighten up Francis.
“It was a manipulative, mean-spirited kids movie.”
Agreed. I hated how the starring brat called his brother “penis breath.” What the heck is wrong with the people producing this so-called entertainment?
Haven’t seen “Super 8” yet, but “Alias”, “Lost”, “Fringe” and “Star Trek” were all pretty good projects of J.J. Abrams.
Thanks for the post....I was going to go to it and won’t now.....Saw Thor and didn’t mind that one! All I could think of though, is good-bye Brad Pitt and Matt Damon—at least for the “lead” “sexy” roles. They are so yesterday.
Thanks for the review. I’ve heard a number of criticisms of this movie.
Which in my case was on regular 8.
≤}B^)
Thanks for the warning. I was thinking of seeing it. Glad I won’t be wasting any money on this thing.
Rule of thumb: The quality of a motion picture tends to be in inverse proportion to the amount of advertising said motion picture receives on tv and radio. If they have to bombard you with ads about it, it means word of mouth wasn’t going to get you through the turnstiles.
This rule tends to be doubly true during the summer months when the whole mission is to get bored teenagers to spend $8-$10 dollars they probably didn’t need to spend.
And big props for everything starting at Romero Chemical. I think the folks that don’t like the movie are missing the viewpoint. This is a movie about kids trying to make a movie that get interrupted by a massive event, but all the way up until the massive event gets so big they can’t navigate around it anymore, they’re still just trying to make a movie. And that’s really the theme of the movie, almost all the characters are too busy to notice big things that had they noticed their life would be much easier.
And, of course, there’s the whole homage to early Spielberg, the good years as it were.
I saw it and loved it. Might go see it again.
If it was set in 2011, it would be kinda silly filming it in "Super 8".
“It was Goonies meets Cloverfield.”
I want them to make a sequal to Cloverfield, but without that I-am-a-camera crap. Maybe with a perspective a little higher up the information food chain.
it's already on line... i watched a few minutes, that was enough, i turned the channel
If you make the perspective higher up the food chain it’s Godzilla. Cloverfield was a rubber suit monster movie from the ground. Which was a great change of pace.
I know JJ says Super 8 has nothing to do with Cloverfield, but the alien sure looks like it could have come from the same planet. I think the Super 8 alien got home, complained about how mean we were to him, so they launched Cloverfield at us as an F-U. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it.
I liked “Cloverfield” very much. I thought it was frightening.
Thanks for the heads up.
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