Super 8- Joel Courtney and Ryan Lee

The Gist

Super 8
Buy it here and support our blog

Joe Lamb has just lost the most important person in his life, his mother.  His father takes his job as the town police officer very seriously and has almost no time for Joe, so his mom was the one to watch over him and help him through his problems.  He doesn't even want to go to her funeral so instead he sits out on his swing thinking of what is to come.  
Months pass, school has just gotten out for the summer and Joe is getting over his mom's death with the help of his friends Cary, Martin, Preston and his very best friend Charles.  The thing about Charles is that he loves making movies and some day wants to be in the business.  He is currently working on a zombie film to enter in a contest starring his friends and Joe is the make-up artist.  The only problem with the film is that they need a love interest and they aren't really friends with any girls.  That is when Charles decides to ask the unapproachable Alice Dainard to play the love interest in the movie.  The second that Joe hears Alice is going to be in the movie he has a heart-attack because he happens to have a huge crush on her.  
Later that night Alice comes to pick them up to bring them to the spot where they are going to shoot and Joe is beyond excited.  When they get to the site they begin to film when Joe notices a car heading towards the train tracks and is about to hit the train passing through.  All of a sudden the car hits the train and explosion after explosion goes off.  The kids soon run to find safety as things are flying all over the place.  After the explosion the kids find one another and all of these strange little white shapes on the ground.  As the police approach the crime scene Joe steals a white shape and heads home.  Soon after the accident people start disappearing and it is up to the movie crew to figure why.


What We Think
Reviewed by The North Star
Run Time: 112 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
First off, when I first heard about this movie I read about it in EW (Entertainment Weekly) in the summer movie section.  I had never heard of any of the people starring in it and instantly put it on my to-see list in my head because of the lack of famous people.  I was so pumped that me, Dream and Living went to go see it the day that it came out and....it was AMAZING. 
First off, this movie was made by J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg who are two of the most successful film makers in the business so it was bound to be pretty good. 
super 8
My favorite part of this movie was the actor choice.  Going into the movie I knew NO ONE famous that was going to be in it.  Later, In found out that Dakota Fanning's little sister was in the movie and I was pleasantly surprised because she could actually act.  Anyways, this was something I loved about this movie because I  could see everyone as the characters they were trying to portray and not the actor that they were.  Ex.  When you go see a George Clooney movie, most times you are seeing George Clooney pretending to be a character instead of a character that ends up being George Clooney but you don't realize it.  The actors in this movie were also really good.  I gave huge props to the Casting Director because she REALLY nailed the actors.  Now, onto the characters themselves.  Joe, was one of my favorite characters in the entire movie. I truly cared about his character and what was going to happen with his story line.  Lately, when I have gone to see movies I have not cared one bit about what happens to the main character and mostly care about supporting characters but for once in a loooong time I cared about the main character.  Alice, was a great supporting character and even though she was the love interest she didn't annoy me.  Alice was played by none other that Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning's sister) and I can't stand Dakota Fanning at ALL so it was surprising to see that she could act and was believable.  She was one of my favorite characters  and the love story between her and Joe was cute even though they were both kids.  Again, I cared about her character and didn't want anything bad to happen to her.  The last "main" character is Charles.  I LOVED his character so much and he had some of the best one liners in movie history. I really felt his pain and the things he went through.  Ryan Lee (the actor who played Charles) was brilliant and I couldn't believe that this was his first real acting gig and as he grows older he will go places because it was the best acting that I had seen in a LONG time.  The rest of the characters were great but there are too many to go into detail on each one.  
super 8
I would like to include a brief paragraph about the title of this movie.  During the entire movie I was trying to figure out why it was called Super 8 because there was only 6 kids.  At the end Dream, Living and I were all ranting about how it didn't make any sense and then my mom explained to us that they were using 8mm film in the movie, which made sense.  If there is anyone going to see the movie that is confused after watching about the title it is the film (we are probably the only people who didn't know that though).  I would also like to quickly mention that the ending of this movie was a little disappointing.  There is a little part of me that feels that something wasn't resolved but other than that this movie was AMAZING.  The last thing I am going to say about the ending is that, STAY THROUGH THE CREDITS IN THE END! TRUST ME!! Seriously, wait the extra ten minutes it is worth it. 
super 8
In the end, this movie was amazing and a breath of fresh air after all of these movie slumps that have been happening lately.  I would recommend this movie to everyone because of the great plot, character development and nailing the era.  This movie was set in the 1970-1980's and they get everything down perfectly and there is absolutely nothing wrong and it feels as if  that is really the time period that you are in.  In short, GO see this movie!


Real Teen Rating~ A: You MUST watch this movie