Directed and Written by J.J. Abrams
Starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and some drug use. 
Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes

by Matt McCafferty, Staff Writer

Of the six films that J.J. Abrams has directed, Super 8 stands alone as his only original story that isn’t attached to an established franchise. I never took the time to think about that fact until I sat down to write this. Abrams made a name for himself early on in TV, most notably with Lost from 2004 to 2010. Somewhere during that time, I thought there was an early Abrams indie movie that I just missed somehow. You know, something along the lines of Christopher Nolan’s Following. After looking through all his IMDb credits, I finally settled with the fact that no such J.J. Abrams-directed indie movie exists. In reality, he jumped right into blockbuster filmmaking with Mission:Impossible III in 2006. 

I don’t want to spend too much time going over Abrams’ unique career path, but I also think it’s important to note his immediate jump into directing summer blockbuster films as a way to set up his approach to making Super 8. After the success of M:I III in 2006 and Star Trek in 2009, Abrams had the pull to put out a blockbuster of his own in 2011 with Super 8. Of course, some people will argue that Super 8 isn’t all that much his own. Listing Spielberg as a producer just below Abrams on the promo posters didn’t help that narrative. If you let the Spielberg similarities bother you, you probably ended up being down on Super 8. If you (like me) were able to appreciate the way Abrams embraced his inspirations to create a well-constructed monster flick with plenty of heart at its core, you likely found this film to be one of the better blockbusters of the last decade. A throwback effort that was built upon many of the successful aspects of its predecessors from the 80s.

The big thing that Abrams got right was the way he wrote and developed the kid characters. Everything about the way Joe (Joel Courtney) and his friends prepare to make their own zombie movie is a lot of fun. When Alice (Elle Fanning) joins their movie, the complicated relationship between her and Joe creates a kind of awkward tension that makes the film feel much deeper than anything Spielberg gave us with his kid-centric movies. It also doesn’t hurt that the entire cast of kids is terrific, especially Elle Fanning and Joel Courntey. 

On this rewatch, I watched it with my seven-year old daughter for the first time. I wasn’t sure how scary the monster part of the story would play out, but it wasn’t too bad. There were a few visually scary moments at the end that I think creeped her out a little. Honestly, it’s hard to tell because she rarely admits to being scared of anything. As for the first half of the film, she loved the mystery of it all. This goes back to Abrams and his knack for knowing how to deliver the kind of summer blockbuster that audiences want to see. Maybe he catered a little too much to what he thought audiences wanted in The Rise of Skywalker, but that’s a totally different discussion that was already talked to death at the end of 2019. As for his vision of Super 8, he knew exactly what boxes to check to construct the kind of story that would appeal to all ages without tipping too far to one side.

For those who initially dismissed this film as just a tribute to The Goonies or E.T., I recommend revisiting it with a fresh perspective. When Super 8 was released in 2011, along with the Spielberg comparisons, there was also a lot of hype surrounding the mystery of the monster. A lot of that had to do with Abrams’ involvement with Cloverfield. The monster looks great, but expectations for something completely mind-blowing were probably a bit too high at the time. 

There was also a lot of attention on his use of lens flares. It was a pretty trivial thing to complain about, but hey, we’ve seen uproars on Twitter for plenty of lesser issues. Abrams eventually apologized for overusing them. He uses them a lot less now, but I actually think the lens flares are a pretty cool signature touch that I hope he holds onto. Plus, they really do add nicely here to the beautiful cinematography of Larry Fong.

Ok, I spent more time on lens flares than I told myself I would. Bottom line, Super 8 is the kind of kid-friendly summer blockbuster that we don’t get all that often anymore. Even though it didn’t have the kind cultural impact that E.T. did when it was released, I can imagine many kids—such as my seven-year old daughter—will eventually consider Super 8 to be one of the better sci-fi films of their generation.