[pardales]

 

[mclsound]

at first I thought it was a basic ET movie but some say its a lot more aggresiseen...I have not seen it yet.

[Rclark]

The best movie of its type ever made and a fitting homage to an 80's all-age adventure movie.

It both echoes and greatly surpasses movies like The Goonies and E.T.

I looooooved it. I wish I could watch it again for the first time. An amazing achievement on many levels and might end up being the best movie Spielberg is associated with. An instant classic and MUST be seen in the theater.

On an audiocircle note there is a lot of neat vintage gear that makes the scene in this film if you look for it. I remember the camera passing by a vintage tube radio to where they intentionally showed the tubes glowing inside. Nice.

[wushuliu]

greatly surpasses movies like The Goonies and E.T.

 

[wushuliu]

at first I thought it was a basic ET movie but some say its a lot more aggresiseen...I have not seen it yet.

Aggre-what?

[Rclark]

I know I know. You're not really allowed to say something new is better than something old without offending people, but I went ahead and and said it because it's true. You'd have to be a real curmudgeon to watch this movie and not like it.

[Cacophonix]

Agreed ... I have seen both goonies and ET, and this is better than those two.

[Rob Babcock]

I hated the Goonies and never saw E.T.  Maybe I'll catch Super 8 though.

[lokie]

Thinking about taking my 6 year old twin boys to experience their first Spielberg movie on the big screen but the PG13 scares me a little bit. I don't like them getting ahead of themselves with movies and TV but I have always found Spielberg to offer more suspense than disturbing violence. Hard to explain but lets just call it good taste.

Anyway, is this movie too much for 6 year olds?

[ctviggen]

Thinking about taking my 6 year old twin boys to experience their first Spielberg movie on the big screen but the PG13 scares me a little bit. I don't like them getting ahead of themselves with movies and TV but I have always found Spielberg to offer more suspense than disturbing violence. Hard to explain but lets just call it good taste.

Anyway, is this movie too much for 6 year olds?

I haven't seen the movie, but I'll answer your question.  Yes.  It's going to be incredibly loud and involves an alien/monster.  What 6 year old isn't going to freak out about that?  I went to see Jaws when I was too young and still am terrified of the ocean, and I'm 45.  Please see this movie before making a decision as to whether to take your children to see it. 

[GerryD]

I saw the movie today and enjoyed it.  I'm surprised no one has mentioned the original Advent speakers on display in the camera/hi-fi store towards the beginning of the movie.

[pardales]

I haven't seen the movie, but I'll answer your question.  Yes.  It's going to be incredibly loud and involves an alien/monster.  What 6 year old isn't going to freak out about that?  I went to see Jaws when I was too young and still am terrified of the ocean, and I'm 45.  Please see this movie before making a decision as to whether to take your children to see it.

From what I have read and heard from people who have seen it, 6 is too young for this movie. Just my opinion and I have not seen the film. Part of the reason I asked the question was to try to gauge whether it would be too much for my 11 year old.

[eclein]

If my youngest was 6 I wouldn't take him, at 11 it might be possible, I just saw it, it could be a bad dream generator type flick....  Its was good, not great, I was shocked at the ending..

[Eric]

I am going to see it at IMAX tomorrow

[wushuliu]

Saw it today. It's a good film and certainly better than most of the junk at the cinema right now. Neither my gf or I thought it nearly as good as the classic Spielberg films that inspired it, but you can certainly spend that money on a lot worse. We saw nothing in this film that came close to approximating the experience of seeing ET in the theater. I remember the entire theater for ET literally jumping up from their seats and applauding when he came back to life (sorry if this is a spoiler but it's been 30 years already...)  and crying out in unison. Twice. I have never experienced anything like that since.

Super 8 has all the ingredients but JJ does not the have the intuitive ability to tug the heart strings like Spielberg does, and is not nearly as good at suspense IMO. The gimmick of not revealing the creature got old quick and the character stuff he threw ended up seeming more like filler than integral to the story (all that development gets resolved with hugs, then credits roll?Wha?). With the lens flare and John Williams-like music cues, he goes through such nostalgic effort but does not even incorporate the now famous 'good news, bad news' structure of Spielberg's films. I think that the first Transformers(!) is a more successful attempt at a 'Spielberg' film than Super 8. If JJ Abrams had Michael Bay's sense of scope or Bay had JJ's focus on character, they would get close. Anyhoos.

As for Goonies, I have a personal love for that film and think that S8 would have been umpteen times better with that stronger cast of kids and writing instead (which included Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, and Martha Plimpton), though Elle Fanning is the standout (her sister Dakota also impressed me recently in The Runaways, another retro film).

Ironically, we thought the actual Super 8 film being shot by the kids (won't say anymore about it) was better than the rest of the film. That's where the heart of the film was. Hilarious, creative, naive, and cute. Too bad you don't see it until it's too late (Abrams late reveal gimmick AGAIN). What should have been at the center of the film ends up more like an addendum.

just my .02 as a film fan.

P.S - I did like the 'LOST' drawing with a  amidst the 'missing' posters...

[Eric]

Saw it on IMAX Saturday. Sort of had some of the "feel" of Close Encounters with the intensity of Predator and Alien. Enjoyed the period in which it was set (late 70's) including a box of Space Food Sticks sitting in a kitchen, and David Gallager from 7th heaven playing a stoner

[viggen]

I thought it was more goonies + district 9 than goonies + ET.

[eclein]

I just thought to myself while reading the posts, but it really wasn't all that great. It was good, solid and typical Spielburg type product of late but when it ended I thought it was too soon and that the film had just started to pick way up and then boom OK lets make it end, like they ran out of editing room time or something.....it just felt that way to me.

The confrontation of the young girls father and his Dad was not intense enough, they all of a sudden to me just resolved the big rift between families and all like off screen in some fictitious mediation court or something, boom it was fixed... I'd say like 7 or 8 to me but not a 10 or 9. Great scene with the train though, that was a 10 for sure...LOL..wow...its an extremely solid film made by a team of excellent filmmakers some of whom are legendary and some that are on the way to being legendary.

[dfx]

Movie is not that grate as you might think based on trailer!