UHD Review Super 8 UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Neil Middlemiss]

What do you get when you put Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and a few other creatives in a room to come up with a story idea from which to make a fun summer movie? Well, 10 years ago you got Super 8. What I have always appreciated about this film is its unrelenting focus on its characters. Abrams’ fascination with a driving mystery, a puzzle box that its characters must assemble as the picture progresses, is on display here but it carries the film along nicely. The conceit of trying to understand what escaped the crashed train is a fun one, but only as the carrot for the characters to chase. The mystery itself, or rather where the mystery lands, in and of itself isn’t all that compelling. No, rather the idea is interesting only insofar as it relates to the group of kids we’re following. That, curiously, is a strength and a weakness of the final product.
Now 10 years since the film premiered, Abrams’s skills and strengths as writer and director are more acutely seen. For fans it’s...

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[Todd Erwin]

This film holds a special place in my heart because those kids were my childhood, particularly my teenage and college years making movies on Super 8 film.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

This film holds a special place in my heart because those kids were my childhood, particularly my teenage and college years making movies on Super 8 film.

That's why I SHOULD love "Super 8", as I also made 8mm flicks as a kid.

And I loved those late 70s/early 80s Spielberg movies.

Everything about "S8" should resonate with me - but it doesn't.

I've watched it multiple times and always hope it'll click, but that never occurs.

It just feels like Abrams' self-conscious attempt to emulate Spielberg but it's too much homage and not enough of its own movie...

 

[Todd Erwin]

 

[Johnny Angell]

That's why I SHOULD love "Super 8", as I also made 8mm flicks as a kid.

And I loved those late 70s/early 80s Spielberg movies.

Everything about "S8" should resonate with me - but it doesn't.

I've watched it multiple times and always hope it'll click, but that never occurs.

It just feels like Abrams' self-conscious attempt to emulate Spielberg but it's too much homage and not enough of its own movie...

What I enjoy most about the movie is that the kids are so real. While I did not make my own movies, I identified with the kids. The way they talked and behaved, was that of real kids. “Drugs are so bad.”

My main problem with the movie is not of execution, but content. While I know humans had put the creature thru hell, I have a hard time empathizing with him while he’s eating us.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Did I miss the credits? I had fun watching it. Low budget on wardrobe, I presume.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Did I miss the credits? I had fun watching it. Low budget on wardrobe, I presume.

No wardrobe budget whatsoever, minimal credits because I did practically everything, and there was no written script. Shot in two days over a one-week period over Easter break in Hatboro, PA, this was my first talkie (as you can probably tell by the poor audio) shot with my then brand-new Elmo Super 8 sound camera that I got the week before for my 15th birthday. I think the budget was basically the cost of two 50ft rolls of sound film, processing, and an ape make-up kit I got on clearance at Two Guys.

The film went on to win regional first place in the 1980 Los Angeles Film Teacher's Association Jr. Student Film Festival, but lost at the finals.

 

[TravisR]

No wardrobe budget whatsoever, minimal credits because I did practically everything, and there was no written script. Shot in two days over a one-week period over Easter break in Hatboro, PA...

You had to be getting excited to see The Empire Strikes in only a month and a half at the Barn in Doylestown or the Eric 3 in Montgomeryville.

About a decade later, me and my cousin would make similar (though markedly worse) movies on VHS in North Wales, PA.

 

[Todd Erwin]

You had to be getting excited to see The Empire Strikes in only a month and a half at the Barn in Doylestown or the Eric 3 in Montgomeryville.

About a decade later, me and my cousin would make similar (though markedly worse) movies on VHS in North Wales, PA.

No, we took the train in to Center City to see it at the Sameric in 70mm!

 

[Johnny Angell]

Back then it was Super 8. I wonder what the kids are doing now with their smartphones?

 

[Malcolm R]

Back then it was Super 8. I wonder what the kids are doing now with their smartphones?

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