Super 8

Here's what I liked about Super 8: it let me surmise what would have happened if Stephen King's movie Dreamcatcher would have been cast with the kids from The Sandlot instead of Hung's Thomas Jane and Jason Lee. This is not a complaint. I love the kids from The Sandlot... I wish that there had been an alien-themed sequel but alas, Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Abrams dropped the ball on that one.

Seriously though, the kids make this movie watchable. Applause all around to Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning, who at 15 and 13 years of age, respectively, are better leads than any of the adults in this movie. And Riley Griffiths, who plays the chubby underdog best friend character, was hilarious until the very end.

There are some other redeemable qualities to Super 8. Set against the backdrop of 1970s Suburbia, the film is necessarily campy which completely works in its favour. HOWEVER, the ending blew... it blew big time and the several unnecessary attempts at relevancy make it so much more painful than it needed to be.

And just to mention one personal pet peeve of mine, why WHY does it always have to be the one girl in the gang who gets kidnapped? Do we not believe that a girl would go and rescue a guy she likes just as readily as they boys? Meh, whatever - I'll leave it there.

Overall, I'm glad I didn't spend $12 to go see this in the theatre but I am glad that I saw it. It was really funny if not overly engaging... if we had a rating system, I would give it somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3/5. Hey, I'm feeling generous today!

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