By Scott Muoio

Many people have movies from their youth that they fondly recall as adults. Sadly, however when many of those same movies are viewed later in life they lose their luster as the disappointing truth emerges: the films were never really that good to begin with. Instead, adolescent nostalgia and jaded adulthood combined to elevate youthful memories to epic, dated proportions that subsequently tumble to reality when viewed under contemporary circumstances.

So it is with Super 8, a movie clearly inspired and set in the decade dominated by our adolescent dreams of the Steven Spielberg late 1970’s – early 1980’s ouvre (think E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Amazing Stories television program, and The Goonies). Unfortunately, however this modern effort more closely resembles those films’ lesser followers, and is inevitably tarnished by modern cinematic demands and dull plotting. Apparently, trying to repeat the past is better in the mind’s eye than on the big screen.

Super 8 is really two movies playing simultaneously - one a fun homage to Spielberg, the other a typical disaster cheesefest. The homage arrives in the form of a group of youths emulating their monster magazine and alien comic heroes by making a zombie film. The cheesefest is an extended shoot ‘em up action chase picture where the baddies are the unsmiling military, a secret, barely glimpsed alien runs amok, and the kids scurry to save the day. Familial drama in the vein of classic Spielberg adds weight to the characters but as the neatly tied strings emerge from the go-go-go silliness we find that the truly interesting questions never find resolution. That is to say a fascinating tease about alien technology goes nowhere, the history of government/alien secrets remains a mystery, and an eerie blue glow that only appears when an alien is nearby stands as an exceedingly silly directorial trick.

Perhaps my disappointment with the film comes from the notion that I was in the mood to see an honest to goodness science fiction film, a family drama from the kids’ perspectives, or something that really left me in awe. Instead, writer/director J.J. Abrams gives us a shoot ‘em up real good monster movie cliché that sort of looks like Spielberg, sort of sounds like Spielberg, but fails to deliver the trademarked Spielberg magic.

Director: J.J. Abrams

Producer: Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk

Writer: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler

Original Music: Michael Glacchino

Cinematographer: Larry Gonf

Editor: Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey