Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

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Tom Hagen
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#76 Post by Tom Hagen » Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:59 pm

Matt wrote: One might even say that Vilmos Zsigmond wrote the book on lens flares with that movie.
László Kovács and Easy Rider! The new guy who is obsessed with Dennis Hopper will back me up on this.

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sidehacker
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#77 Post by sidehacker » Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:13 pm

The middle school romance and the making of the movie were actually quite nice. Really anything that wasn't running around "action sequences" which is about as exciting to me as brushing one's teeth. Quite a shame, it could have been something much more special.

Still, if you're going to make a movie with a nauseating amount of CGI action, this is definitely the best way to do it. Like, in the sense that there was stuff to actually like. I guess it just depends which way you look at it.

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SpiderBaby
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#78 Post by SpiderBaby » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:11 pm

Tom Hagen wrote:
Matt wrote: One might even say that Vilmos Zsigmond wrote the book on lens flares with that movie.
László Kovács and Easy Rider! The new guy who is obsessed with Dennis Hopper will back me up on this.
:lol:

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#79 Post by Cold Bishop » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:51 pm

Off topic, but have you read John Turturro's Random Roles at the AVClub? His description of Hopper's directing style warms the cockles of my heart.

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SpiderBaby
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#80 Post by SpiderBaby » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:55 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:Off topic, but have you read John Turturro's Random Roles at the AVClub? His description of Hopper's directing style warms the cockles of my heart.
Thanks for that, being the "new guy who is obsessed with Dennis Hopper" according to Tom's post.
That was one of his directions: “fuck.” But he’d say it in all different ways, like, “You fucking do this, and then you fuck it, man! And just fuck it! Fuck it, man! Just fucking fuck it!” I remember Joe Pesci turned to me and said, “Man, that’s directing.”
lol.

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HistoryProf
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#81 Post by HistoryProf » Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:06 am

Jeff wrote:I did see Star Trek, and I certainly noticed the lens flares there, but they actually stood out more to me in Super 8. I think it was because they actually obscured the actors in several scenes. Either way, his use of them is just plain silly. It's like in an effort to develop an auteurial signature, he said, "I know! I'll draw blue lines all over every fucking thing whether it makes sense or not! That'll be 'my thing'."
The one spot in particular they really bothered me was at the gas station. for no particular reason, the majority of the picture is dark sky but there are ridiculous blue flares all over the screen. it was just distracting and pointless.

but then again, my wife leaned over shortly after that scene and whispered "I love how he made all those light things on the screne!" #-o

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#82 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:17 am

I saw this tonight, in pretty much ideal conditions- on a blanket, at the drive in, on a nice balmy evening. It moved well, as I think everything I've seen from Abrams did, but I felt as though the emotional arc and the monster movie stuff weren't well integrated, and the monster aspects gave you just enough information to feel full of holes-
SpoilerShow
Why were the military moving it? Why did they have its ship on the same train? If it could control metal, how did they keep it contained? What was it doing with all those hanging bodies- particularly if they could all psychically contact it and have it understand they meant it no harm? Why did the military let the science teacher go with all that secure footage in the first place? What happened to the fire they set? If they were so incompetent they couldn't figure out a subterranean creature would be maybe underground, how did they catch it in the first place? Etc, etc, etc.
None of them are really questions that matter, but essentially I felt like the characterization of the monster didn't quite work- it's viewpoint wasn't clear, but we had too much information about what was going on to feel like it was purely alien.

That said, I thought the kids' performances were great, particularly the leads- the backstory with the mother was executed a little clumsily at times, but the actors managed to sell it pretty well, and the relationship between them seemed very sweet and genuine. I'll be sad if this winds up being on my top ten for the year, but it's a nicely ambitious idea for a summer blockbuster and I'd be happy to see more movies work this hard at achieving real characters and a well-realized environment before blowing shit up.

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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#83 Post by JakeB » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:53 am

Looking at the date of the last post in this thread has made me realise how late I am to the game with this one!, No wonder I had to travel a bit further afield to see this film at a decent time! Anyway, I saw Super 8 at the weekend and really enjoyed it. Children make the best adventure film protagonists! There's something about the fact it's young film nerds running around and dodging falling train parts during that absurdly cinematic train crash scene earlier on makes it all so much more enjoyable.

I also enjoyed the fact that two vital exposition scenes feature them watching home movies (the scene with Alice and Joe in his bedroom, and discovery of lab footage later on). The fact they are using the real life chaos (not REAL real life of course) as sets for their own film made me think about how much films such as Hiroshi Shimizu's 'Children Of The Beehive' and Jacques Tourneur's 'Berlin Express' were greatly improved by their authentic war torn backdrops (I'm in no way comparing the kids' finished film to those two of course!)

Agreed on the general dislike for lens flare. However, the screen captures from Close Encounters definitely helped put it into context, and alleviate that dislike a bit.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#84 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:12 am


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manicsounds
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#85 Post by manicsounds » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:23 am

Japan's coverart looks better, except they are kind of spoiling the ending with it.
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mfunk9786
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#86 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:23 am

Jeez. Not too much better. Why is it so hard to make a good cover for this?

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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#87 Post by starmanof51 » Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:20 pm

manicsounds wrote:Japan's coverart looks better
I wouldn't say so, it's pretty generic. I'd agree with the idea they haven't found a really good poster/image for this yet, but I like the one mfunk linked to best of all so far. If they pushed the idea further and really just did it up as a dummy kodak box instead of just kinda sorta doing it, I'd be happy. Too esoteric for mass consumption I suppose, so you get this half-measure.

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domino harvey
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#88 Post by domino harvey » Fri Sep 16, 2011 1:32 pm

If only there was a thread to discuss terrible covers...

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mfunk9786
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#89 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:55 pm

Well, in all fairness, I think that thread exists because most of the films discussed in it don't have a thread dedicated to them.

How dare someone discuss the home video release of Super 8 in the thread for Super 8!

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ghostargot
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#90 Post by ghostargot » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:24 pm

I'm wondering if it's an attempted riff on the old Kodak 8mm packaging.
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tarpilot
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#91 Post by tarpilot » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:26 pm

You're wondering?

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domino harvey
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#92 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:31 pm

The reason I mentioned the other thread is that we've already had this exact discussion

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mfunk9786
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#93 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:03 pm

Touché

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manicsounds
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#94 Post by manicsounds » Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:53 am

Well, to the people who picked it up, looks like that bright yellow is just the slipcase. Inside artwork is nearer the original posters.

LavaLamp
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#95 Post by LavaLamp » Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:55 pm

Saw Super 8 for the first time a while back, and was quite impressed. This is definitely one of my top ten films of the decade (so far):

- Though the winter opening was quite sad & depressing, I liked how it quickly flash-forwarded four months later to a more hopeful time, i.e. the last day day of school & the beginning of summer, all super-imposed over the sound of ELO's Don't Bring me Down - this really established the strong late '70's vibe/tone, and the rest of the film was also spot-on in this regard re: the clothes, hair-styles, music, etc. I myself grew up in the early '80's, and this film very accurately reminded me of that time period, especially how I & friends felt on the last day of school with the whole summer before us.

- As has been said, this film strongly reminded me of movies that I saw as a kid in the '80's, i.e. "Goonies", "E.T.", "Stand by Me", and to some extent even "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"; while at the same time, "Super 8" was in many ways better than any of those other movies.

- I liked the "movie within the movie"; the filming of the amateurish zombie film was very clever. Also enjoyed the seeing the poster of the original Halloween (1978) on the kid film director's wall. And, I liked how the naming of the "Romero Chemical Company" was obviously an homage to G.C. Romero, who directed the original late '60's classic Night of the Living Dead - very nice!

- It was a great idea to cast largely unknowns as the kids, so when watching the film you wouldn't have any preconceived ideas about them, and thereby could really buy into the late '70's setting.

- The train crash was truly spectacular, and is probably the most impressive train crash I've even seen on film; in fact, I found this superior to the the one in 1993's The Fugitive (which was, for that time period, very impressive as well).

- The scene when the main character & the E. Fanning character were watching the film with him (as a baby) and his mother was very touching.
SpoilerShow
- The Monster was amazing - great design, which was both creepy & well-done. When I first saw the film, I actually thought it was supposed to be a prequel to J.J.'s previous film Cloverfield (which I thought was great as well) since the monsters looked similar, but later read that this was just a coincidence.

- Excellent ending, i.e. the Monster "building a model" space-ship using the metal in the town.

- Great closing credits w/fantastic music & visuals - instead of just having the credits themselves, the credits started with Don't Bring Me Down, then showed the complete amateur zombie film, then finished up with My Sharona, which the kids had been singing earlier in the film - brilliant!
All in all, an incredible experience. They sure don't make them like this anymore...

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mfunk9786
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#96 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:24 pm

Since 2011?

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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#97 Post by LavaLamp » Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:53 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:Since 2011?
Yes, I meant that it's one of my favorite films of this decade, so far. Granted, we're only 4 years (almost) into this new decade so it's hard to judge, but I haven't liked that many recent films as much as this one...

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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#98 Post by captveg » Fri Dec 13, 2013 5:34 pm

"Drugs are so bad!" - still one of my favorite lines/line readings of the last several years.

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domino harvey
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Re: Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#99 Post by domino harvey » Fri Dec 13, 2013 6:07 pm

I rewatched this over the summer around the same time I went through all the Jurassic Parks and loved it just as much as I did when it came out. I found a copy of the original script to the film on Tumblr earlier this year, if you can't track down a copy feel free to PM me. All that I remember not making the final cut was a bunch more scenes of the kids talking to each other, and their remarks are more scatological than what ended up in the final film. Nothing groundbreaking but interesting if you're a fan (which apparently a few of us are!)

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jazzo
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Super 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

#100 Post by jazzo » Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:53 pm

The announcement of this film’s 10th anniversary BR edition prompted me to write some of my own thoughts down on the film, and on our good pal, JJ:

Following the birth of our first child earlier that year, Super8 was the first film that my wife and I were able sneak out and see in the theatre on our first post-baby “date”. We have, since, shown it to both of our children, and they, like I, weren’t as impressed as we all wanted to be, even though on paper it should appeal to me and my family in every way.

It’s definitely not without merit. I am still very fond of Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning's performances, and the two have a lovely connection. I’m actually pretty shocked that Joel Courtney didn’t become a larger star. I'm also happy to see Kyle Chandler in any role, but his character is as confounding to me as the film itself; you want to like him (and the film) because we're familiar with him as Coach, (or familiar with the suburban adventure genre that Spielberg/Dante [and to a certain extent, Stephen King] practically created and influenced so many of us with in the 1980’s), but most of his and the film’s motivations, sadly, still ring rote and slightly hollow. My emotional reaction to his and Joe’s arc was similar to my reaction to shit like Mr. Holland’s Opus; slight disgust that years of childhood trauma and resentment evaporate in the last two minutes of a film because of a simple hug from a formerly selfish, almost abusive parent.

And by no means worse, but certainly an issue, are the various genre conventions that JJ Abrams injects into his story, so scuttling emotional investment in the picture that I'm absolutely convinced he had no real agenda other than, he now had the power and money to make an expensive homage to the filmmaker (and producer of Super8) that influenced him in the early 80's. So, y’know: Friends. Broken family. Suburbs. Lost alien.

The train crash sequence - the action centerpiece of the film - is fine, but also so over-the-top with its almost-apocalyptic destruction, and so off-putting with its absence of any real physical injury or jeopardy to the characters involved, that it becomes as disengaging as watching Jack Black weave unharmed between CG dinosaur legs in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Not as phony or, obviously, fucking stupid, but just as disappointingly hum-drum.

But it is the alien which is the most problematic aspect of the film for me, with it motivations wavering so broadly and inconsistently between malevolence and benevolence throughout most of the running time, that it becomes impossible to muster any real empathy for its plight or goals, and consequently, the plight or goals of the humans trying to help it. I suppose one could argue that these are simply the most basic characteristics of survival, but they don’t really seem like that. They just seem undeveloped, stemming from the confusion JJ Abrams perhaps had about why this film even needed to exist at all, other than it simply could.

And it is a very confused film. A hard one to hate, certainly, because there is much that is good in it, but ultimately a disappointing failure of execution and ambition, sometimes because it often overindulges in both.

I guess, in the end, I’m not entirely sure JJ is a filmmaker. He’s more of a regurgitator; a fanboy who has been given opportunities because of privilege/nepotism, but also with no real voice of his own, only those of his influences. He uses nostalgia as emotional shorthand. And with an absence of any original visual or storytelling instincts, it’s why he can be so easily slotted into long-form genre television or studio franchise reboots, but also why it becomes a bit of struggle for him to create anything original.
Last edited by jazzo on Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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