The movie stars Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler (King Kong 2005, The Day the Earth Stood Still 2008), Elle Fanning (The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, I Am Sam), Amanda Michalka (The Lovely Bones, The Guardian), Jessica Tuck (Secretary, Life Pod), Joel McKinnon Miller (Friday After Next, Gone But Not Forgotten), Ryan Lee (Super Brawl), Zach Mills (Mr. Mangorium's Wonder Emporium, Steam), and Gabriel Basso (Alabama Moon).
The plot is six kids, while making a super 8 movie, witness and film a train wreck. The train has an army alien captave (I dont think Im letting any cat out of the bag.)
This movie works for me. It goes inbetween kids being friends and the secondary (at least for me its secondary)plot line of trying to figure whats loose, what to do about it and stay alive.
The six kids all did a pretty good job on the whole. Fanning and Courtney (I am assuming thats the makeup artist/ Deputys son) both did a very good job. The kid with braces had a few good lines. And the kid director (what JJ was like when he was a kid?) was good also.
I thought there were some broad simularities with Super 8 and It and Stand By Me (based on the short story The Body). It for kids battling a supernatural foe and Stand By Me with the bond between kids of a particular age. All are good examples of what good child actors can do when given good material or directors to work with.
I thought the movie was strongest when focusing on the kids and a little less good when the alien was the focus of the movie. It may be because both JJ and Spielberg (a producer or an exec. producer I think) both were doing movies when they were kids. And they are both pretty good at this movie thing.
The alien was pretty good visually. To me it was not seen too much but that worked. It left some to the imagination but when you do see its face its pretty cool.
Im rating the movie as a solid B. The grade is baed on the performances of the kids. It is a sci fi sort of thing but its not what is good about this movie.
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