Movie Review: Super 8

Synopsis: In the summer of 1979, a group of young friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth - something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.

Part Cloverfield, part Close Encounters of the Third Kind and part The Goonies... this is a nice homage to the old school Summer blockbusters which I grew up on. There are a lot of big thrills but also some depth to the story with a lot of emotions to accompany the visual fireworks. It's just a lot of fun.

I've always loved the sort of coming-of-age tales of kids like Stand By Me for instance where a group of youths has a common interest, moving making in this instance, and they share a passion and love for it while growing up. This has a very nice old school feel and the interaction between the kids is great stuff I thought, which helped make me care about the characters when the story gets serious.

And things do get pretty tense and serious, almost turning into a horror movie at times. It's pretty much straight-up a sci-fi/monster movie though for the most part. Kids will enjoy it, but I'd say only the mature ones... it's is PG-13 and deserves it.

One of my favorite parts is actually during the end credits when the full movie that Charles and his friends are working on for the whole film, titled The Case, is shown. It's a blast. Which is a good thing for me since I thought the ending of the film felt a bit hokey and this sort of left me with a better taste in my mouth.

Overall it's pretty original and entertaining I thought with a great sense of nostalgia. This will probably age well and for some kids might even become that "classic" that we had growing up and get to look back upon and recall fondly.

8/10