Super 8
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People accuse me of many bad things for making a movie where kids go against their parents into dangerous situations. Apparently they never seen Super 8. One criticism I hear often about Super 8 is that the kids in this film are way too brave! No wonder Steven Spielberg is attached to this project. He made and produced a fair share of anti-ageism films in his career.
J.J. Abrams, the director of Super 8 doesn't make a lot of original movies. From Mission Impossible to Star Trek and Star Wars he seems to get hired to do very expensive films for big franchises. That is why Super 8 is such a rare Gem. And the interesting thing is, with how good Super 8 is, I can't understand why he doesn't make more original movies. It just doesn't make any sense.
The movie is about a group of kids who sneak out of their homes in the middle of the nigh, one of them, the girl, steals a car from her father and they go into various dangerous adventures, while fighting with their parents. And I swear, I am not talking about my movie Moria's Race here.
The kids in the movie have a movie project that they are making. And that means that they need to do a bunch of crazy shit for production value. Like sneaking to a train station in the middle of the night. Or shooting in front of the real military or the real crashed train, for a better background. And so on. And all of that is happening during a mysterious train crash that seems to have been carrying something otherworldly in nature.
This movie has a wonderful kind of identity crisis. Sometimes it is a teen romance. Sometimes is a serious drama about life with a single parent. Sometimes it is a horror monster movie. Sometimes it is Goonies. Sometimes it is kids driving cars because the adult is too stoned. Sometimes it is an explosive war film. Sometimes it is E.T. But that is kind of what makes this movie fun. It is exploding with energy!
The films has a very good cast of children. The most famous name is Elle Fanning who played Alice Dainard, a 13 year old who steals a car in the middle of the night from her father. She has a few very interesting scenes. One extremely ballsy move on part of J.J. Abrams is to have a scene where she acts in a movie that those kids are filming and she blow them away with her acting. If she cannot make it work, the scene will not work. But she does make it work.
Joel Courtney plays the main character Joe, who is phenomenal in this film. He has a lot of dramatic scenes all of which land. I think in some way, he is even better than Elle Fanning. Riley Griffiths as Charles Kaznyk is so good as a young director of a movie within the movie. Especially when he starts yelling swearwords at other kids. And I guess one of my favorite is Ryan Lee as Cary. A kid who likes to blow shit up and light everything on fire. And you might think that the movie has to teach him a lessor, right? No... His obsession with explosions actually comes as an aid to save the characters in a dangerous situation. I fucking love this movie. Oh and I should probably mention Gabriel Basso who plays the lead of the movie within the movie.
The music for the film is made by the legendary Michael Giacchino who also got a cameo in the movie as one of the police officers. At some point John Williams was brought as a guest to help Giacchino conduct. Giacchino admitted trying to sound like John Williams for this movie. Because frankly, J.J. Abrams was trying to shoot the movie like Spielberg would do. Though he added enough of his own touches, such as a dutch angle to make it feel more unique.
Speaking about the style of J.J. Abrams, this movie has probably the best use of his signature lens flair. In some films he did, the lens flair is distracting. Here it is so well integrated into the imagery that I cannot think of this movie without the lens flairs.
Super 8 is one of those films where I sit though the credits in the end.
The Case
The movie within in the movie is called The Case and it is available to see during the end credits of Super 8. The film is being directed by Charles Kaznyk and stars Alice Dainard and Martin Read ( characters of the movie Super 8 ).
It is a story about a private investigator who investigates a Zombie related case. The case. Strangely enough most of the Zombies are played by Cary MacCarthy, the special effects and pyrotechnic on the film. Blood effects and makeup were done by Joe Lamb. Who got a cameo in the film playing a military officer.
The film was shot by 13 year old adolescents. For some scenes they used a real crashed train as a background. There are rumors that they were present during the crash of the train. Which just speaks to dedication of these kids to the craft of film making.
Plot-wise the film is rather shallow, because it is a short film. But there is a very interesting development between Detective and his Wife which ultimately leads to a very dramatic ending.
Directing-wise the movie is very simple. The budget of the film consisted mostly from money Charles Kaznyk could steal from his mom. So the movie was shot on a tripod with very basic camera moves. Though there are very interestingly done action scenes in the movie.
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