DVD Reviews

Super 8 - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 23, 2011, 11:25 GMT

JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg join forces in this extraordinary tale of youth, mystery, and adventure. Super 8 tells the story of six friends who witness a train wreck while making a Super 8 movie, only to learn that something unimaginable escaped during the crash. They soon discover that the only thing more mysterious than what it is, is what it wants. Experience the film that critics rave is, “filled ...more

Super 8 is J.J. Abrams’ tribute to his childhood and we can certainly guess who his favorite filmmaker might’ve been.

However, the movie certainly has a heart and relies on character rather than bombast. A refreshing change of pace, even if you’re reminded of other films.

It’s 1979 and Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) is in mourning. His mother has been killed in an industrial accident and his deputy father Jackson (Kyle Chandler) blames Louis Dainard (Ron Eldard) who didn’t show up for work that day causing Joe’s mom to fill in.

Four months pass, and Joe’s pal Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths) is shooting a super 8 movie for a film festival. Joe is doing the makeup, Cary (Ryan Lee) holds the sound boom, and Charles (Zach Mills) and Martin (Gabriel Brasso) are acting.

Charles has an idea to add some story to his zombie epic and asks Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning) to act as well. Joe is dumbstruck, not that it’s because of Alice’s father, but that he has a crush on her. It helps that she promises to drive them to the railway station to shoot the night’s scene.

Faster than you can say “production value,” the boys hurriedly set up their shots because a train is rolling through the station. What they don’t count on is that a white pickup truck veers in front of the train causing a massive crash.

They discover that the truck was driven by their teacher Dr. Woodward (Glynn Turman) who warns them to not talk about the crash as they are in danger.

When military forces led by Col. Nelec (Noah Emmerich) show up, the kids speed away. Suddenly strange things start to happen in their tiny town and it all stems from the train wreck.

Steven Spielberg was certainly an influence on J.J. Abrams judging from the film. Both of them found inspiration from homemade film projects using Super 8 cameras, so it can come as no surprise when they team up for this nostalgic thriller. You’ll find hints of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Goonies, and other films in Super 8.

That shouldn’t put you off since Super 8 does formulate a story of its own. Abrams has assembled a likeable, talented kid cast and you can find one in the group to use as a surrogate for yourself or remind you of your friends. It all comes together into one grand package that is both exciting and touching.

There seems to be some character development going on as we start to feel for our group of kids. There are some fine special effects, definitely not done on Super 8 cameras, as the train wreck is a spectacular highlight. The film’s ride is not a train wreck and instead is one that pulls you along with its great special effects and characters.

Super 8 is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features, all in high definition, include a commentary from director J.J. Abrams, producer Bryan Burk, and director of photography Larry Fong, next are 8 making of featurettes that you can handily watch with the “play all” function (roughly 90 minutes), the interactive “Deconstructing the Train Crash” which has storyboards, interviews, and other goodies, and 13 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary. Disc two is a DVD/digital copy.

Super 8 is a wonderful show. It has both thrills and character depth that show that production value is one thing, but having a great story to hang it upon is another. Super 8 gets it right on all counts.