Thoughts on "Super 8"
I need to get my ass to the movies more often. Because even sitting through a disappointing, loud, and not-smart movie like "Super 8" is fun. Everyone else may be at the beach today, but I spent it at Clark's Pond in South Portland.
Please don't read this post if you haven't seen the movie. "Super 8" is worth a look.
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-- I was disappointed that the act of filmmaking was NOT central to the plot. The moviemaking within was just an excuse to set up the love story and get the kids out of the house. I really expected more "Blow-Up"/"Blowout" type stuff.
-- Kyle Chandler seems to have a one-note acting style: stern and humorless. Not much going on there. I think a better choice for the father would have been someone with a more interesting face, like Noah Wyle, who is starring in the new Speilberg miniseries on cable. He's a guy with more humanness than Chandler. Enjoy it while it lasts, Kyle: there may not be much in the works for you after this.
-- At the end of the movie, Chandler's deputy character says, to his son, "I got you." "I got you?" Just what did the deputy do exactly? The kid did all the work. A better line might have been "I love you, son", or "You're a great kid, you know?" "I got you?" No, you don't Dad. The kid saved your ass and you act like it's your doing. It may have been an interesting choice to make Chandler's character a female in her thirties, and have the father be the one who was killed. I might not have been as frustrated with a woman who couldn't get anything done (as I am a male who wants to have sex with attractive females, not Kyle Chandler.) as I was with the male deputy character.
-- The train derailment scene completely defies the laws of physics. Didn't anyone see "Unstoppable"? A pickup truck can't derail a train. Come on, everyone in the theatre knows that. Christ, a nuclear warhead couldn't have done more damage than the ridiculous little tan pickup. You lost me there. That scene was just an excuse for more (and more) explosions. I'm not against explosions entirely, but man, that was silly. Couldn't there be a better way to derail the train, like a bridge collapse, or having the teacher plant some explosives? Or have him driving a tanker truck or dumptruck, something with more weight? Further, the train station was all lit up when the kids arrived, but no one questions them when they set up their movie shit? What the hell? Shouldn't the place have been deserted instead of lit of like a Christmas tree? Flashlights would have been a cool way for the kids to get around at first at the train station. It just didn't make sense the way Abrams filmed it.
-- Just what the hell were the soldiers shooting at after the town was evacuated? There were tanks and guns going off, and an attempt at an explanation with the line about the alien taking over the weapons, but I didn't get it. What the hell were they shooting at? Another excuse for explosions.
-- Elle Fanning is a great young actress. It will be fascinating to see what she does with her career. She is extremely likeable, and is not too beautiful to be intimidating to audiences. And the kid who played the hero was good, too. So hard to know what's going to happen to young actors when they mature, though.
-- I couldn't understand a fucking word the kid with the braces said. Not one fucking word.
-- I would have liked to have a bit more backstory on Elle's character's father: why do we care about him? Maybe Elle's character could talk briefly somewhere about her Mom being a good person, which would lead one to believe that her Dad was OK, too. I don't know. But one thing I do know: Ron Eldard, the dude from "ER", wasn't going to hurt anyone. Once I recognized him from his previous work I know he was no one to worry about as far as violence. It would have been cool to cast an unknown in the role, like the people who made "Winter's Bone" did with unknown John Hawkes. With someone you've never seen before, there is potential for bad shit to go down. But Ron Eldard has a career to worry about: He wasn't going to hit anyone. That whole storyline could have been handled better. Complexity and a sense of danger would have helped the scenes between Fanning and Eldard and the other actors.
-- The alien EATS someone AND we're supposed to feel sympathy for it? WTF? The dude chomped on someone's leg, then a scene or two later Elle's character is trying to make us feel bad for it? At minimum, the leg eating scene, all two or three seconds, should have been edited out. There has to be another reason for the alien to take the girl and the other folks prisoner. Maybe some mind reading being done on them by the alien dude or something unscary, but shit: Eating them? AND we're supposed to like the fucking alien? No way. Didn't buy it. When the spaceship took off at the end, I thought, "So long, asshole." I can buy killing off some of the soldiers, because they're the bad guys in all Speilberg movies. But the alien was about to eat Dakota Fanning's adorable little sister. I won't stand for it! No sympathy.
============
It may seem strange to comment on a movie I didn't exactly fall for.
But I love the movies. They are such a beautiful, important medium in examining the human experience in all its complexities and oddities. And seeing a movie where the questions I would think any thoughtful viewer would have asked and that are not answered seems sad. Is JJ Abrams too powerful to have a strong editor to guide him? I don't know. But I do know this flick could have been a lot better than it was. You only get so many years to make good movies, and Abrams missed with this one.
Please don't read this post if you haven't seen the movie. "Super 8" is worth a look.
=============
-- I was disappointed that the act of filmmaking was NOT central to the plot. The moviemaking within was just an excuse to set up the love story and get the kids out of the house. I really expected more "Blow-Up"/"Blowout" type stuff.
-- Kyle Chandler seems to have a one-note acting style: stern and humorless. Not much going on there. I think a better choice for the father would have been someone with a more interesting face, like Noah Wyle, who is starring in the new Speilberg miniseries on cable. He's a guy with more humanness than Chandler. Enjoy it while it lasts, Kyle: there may not be much in the works for you after this.
-- At the end of the movie, Chandler's deputy character says, to his son, "I got you." "I got you?" Just what did the deputy do exactly? The kid did all the work. A better line might have been "I love you, son", or "You're a great kid, you know?" "I got you?" No, you don't Dad. The kid saved your ass and you act like it's your doing. It may have been an interesting choice to make Chandler's character a female in her thirties, and have the father be the one who was killed. I might not have been as frustrated with a woman who couldn't get anything done (as I am a male who wants to have sex with attractive females, not Kyle Chandler.) as I was with the male deputy character.
-- The train derailment scene completely defies the laws of physics. Didn't anyone see "Unstoppable"? A pickup truck can't derail a train. Come on, everyone in the theatre knows that. Christ, a nuclear warhead couldn't have done more damage than the ridiculous little tan pickup. You lost me there. That scene was just an excuse for more (and more) explosions. I'm not against explosions entirely, but man, that was silly. Couldn't there be a better way to derail the train, like a bridge collapse, or having the teacher plant some explosives? Or have him driving a tanker truck or dumptruck, something with more weight? Further, the train station was all lit up when the kids arrived, but no one questions them when they set up their movie shit? What the hell? Shouldn't the place have been deserted instead of lit of like a Christmas tree? Flashlights would have been a cool way for the kids to get around at first at the train station. It just didn't make sense the way Abrams filmed it.
-- Just what the hell were the soldiers shooting at after the town was evacuated? There were tanks and guns going off, and an attempt at an explanation with the line about the alien taking over the weapons, but I didn't get it. What the hell were they shooting at? Another excuse for explosions.
-- Elle Fanning is a great young actress. It will be fascinating to see what she does with her career. She is extremely likeable, and is not too beautiful to be intimidating to audiences. And the kid who played the hero was good, too. So hard to know what's going to happen to young actors when they mature, though.
-- I couldn't understand a fucking word the kid with the braces said. Not one fucking word.
-- I would have liked to have a bit more backstory on Elle's character's father: why do we care about him? Maybe Elle's character could talk briefly somewhere about her Mom being a good person, which would lead one to believe that her Dad was OK, too. I don't know. But one thing I do know: Ron Eldard, the dude from "ER", wasn't going to hurt anyone. Once I recognized him from his previous work I know he was no one to worry about as far as violence. It would have been cool to cast an unknown in the role, like the people who made "Winter's Bone" did with unknown John Hawkes. With someone you've never seen before, there is potential for bad shit to go down. But Ron Eldard has a career to worry about: He wasn't going to hit anyone. That whole storyline could have been handled better. Complexity and a sense of danger would have helped the scenes between Fanning and Eldard and the other actors.
-- The alien EATS someone AND we're supposed to feel sympathy for it? WTF? The dude chomped on someone's leg, then a scene or two later Elle's character is trying to make us feel bad for it? At minimum, the leg eating scene, all two or three seconds, should have been edited out. There has to be another reason for the alien to take the girl and the other folks prisoner. Maybe some mind reading being done on them by the alien dude or something unscary, but shit: Eating them? AND we're supposed to like the fucking alien? No way. Didn't buy it. When the spaceship took off at the end, I thought, "So long, asshole." I can buy killing off some of the soldiers, because they're the bad guys in all Speilberg movies. But the alien was about to eat Dakota Fanning's adorable little sister. I won't stand for it! No sympathy.
============
It may seem strange to comment on a movie I didn't exactly fall for.
But I love the movies. They are such a beautiful, important medium in examining the human experience in all its complexities and oddities. And seeing a movie where the questions I would think any thoughtful viewer would have asked and that are not answered seems sad. Is JJ Abrams too powerful to have a strong editor to guide him? I don't know. But I do know this flick could have been a lot better than it was. You only get so many years to make good movies, and Abrams missed with this one.
posted by joe sweeney at 5:05 PM
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