SUPER 8:
Director: J.J.Abrams
Producer: Steven Spielsberg
Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
Rating: 12A
Cast:
Joe Lamb - Joel Courtney
Deputy Jackson Lamb - Kyle Chandler
Alice Dainard - Elle Fanning
Charles Kaznyk - Riley Grifitths
Louis Dainard - Ron Eldard
Preston - Zach Mills
Cary - Ryan Lee
Martin - Gabriel Basso
Super 8 was directed by J.J.Abrams who has also directed other movies such as Mission Impossible III and Star Trek. The movie is also a homage to Spielberg films and we see this through the use of chiuldren and extra-terrestrial effects.
The main actors of this movie, listed above, are mostly young children to come across to the target audience, however they are not well recognised as they have only stared mainly in US shows that are not aired in the uk. The main character is a boy named Joe Lamb who is suffering from the loss of his mother.
It is a movie in which a group of teenage friends come together trying make a movie in which movie obsessed Charles Kazynk wants to enter into a competition. Whilst filming scenes they witness a devastating train crash caused when a car being driven on the train tracks meets the train head-on resulting in a number of odd events. Some of these events include the US Airforce retrieving weird looking cubes which we later find out are the key to setting free a monster that had been trapped on Earth. These events helped Joe into building a better relationship with his father as well as getting close to Alice who he had a crush on. The quality of the acting I believed could have a little been better as at times it didnt seem convincing.
The genre of this movie is hybrid of sci-fi and thriller. This is because of the suspense that is created through low key lightings etc. It does fit my expectations for this type of film because you never know what to expect next as they dont tell the story all in one go so you have to watch it to the end in order to know everything. Oblique angles were used to show the strangeness of the genre i.e. when the camera was still recording on the platform after the crash.
I did not notice a soundtrack, maybe due to eagerly concentrating on the movie that I blocked out all other senses because of the gripping story. To me the movie created its own atmosphere and that was enough.
