Coyote Cinema: Super8

[cyrano]

Managed to catch this one before it left the cinemas (probably two hours before).


Wow. This is some excellent storytelling. It's got that Spielberg glow that so often can make a film taste like way too much candy corn but in this case works out, only occasionally venturing into the too-much-zone. The interactions, kids to kids or kids to adults, felt like people rather than scriptwriters, and the adults are people rather than obstacles who are too old to understand. There's not a whole lot of depth, which showed when I kept finding myself analyzing directorial choices (usually thinking "nice job") rather than being caught up in the story, but it was fun and I cared about what was going on. The don't show the monster rule is well followed until we need to humanize it (ironically). And the "we are in 1979!" hammer was pulled back before it got to be too annoying, thank you so much. (Kids these days! With their Rubiks Cubes and their Walkmans and the Electronic Football games! And that crazy rock and roll music! Oy! 1979 is such a time!)


Coyote says four wags. In a cinema with popcorn.

Comments

[pusifoot.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it yet, but the plot description that was given to me made me go "Wow. So it's a live action Iron Giant without Vin Diesel voicing the robot because the robot's an alien."

Is that accurate or inaccurate?

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Not really. The titular iron giant is far more of a character in his own right. The alien in Super 8 is more of a MacGuffin than anything else - the plot tries to give it some depth, but ultimately focuses far more on the other characters. Fortunately it does a good enough job on them that the movie doesn't suffer much as a whole.

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

I was quite impressed with Elle Fanning, myself - particularly the scene where her character is acting.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she was definitely good.