Action-packed Nostalgia

Who never thought summer can be this epic and nostalgic at the same time? Preadolescent protagonists plus an adventure of their lives in their little town result to an action-packed yet sentimental summer movie for all in J.J. Abrams' Super 8.

Super 8 is about six friends making a zombie movie with a super-8 mm camera when a train derails and unleashes a dangerous presence in the town of Lillian, Ohio. The mystery is not about what this presence is but what it wants.

The movie contains a lot of homage to Steven Spielberg's movies back in the '80s and as a result, it has this feel of movies adults and children born from the early 90s like me used to watch during the weekends. Super 8 is very very nostalgic indeed to me that it reminded me some good parts of my childhood especially the theme of friendship which the movie tackles among other themes like young love and adventure. The young actors truly gave life and distinctive personalities to their respective characters and all of the six friends have on-screen chemistry which also helped evoke the nostalgia.

Larry Fong's cinematography helped make the action sequences more epic especially in the biggest set piece of the movie which is the train derailment sequence. This sequence, I consider it as one of the best action sequences of the year after Final Destination 5's bridge collapsing sequence. A J.J. Abrams film will not be complete without its score by Michael Giacchino who did an excellent job with the film score especially in the ending.

Director-writer J.J. Abrams deserves praise for balancing action, mystery, humor and unexpectedly, heart in the movie. I never thought I would actually cry during the film's ending thanks to an emotional performance by Joel Courtney and to Michael Giacchino's score.

I just saw Super 8 so I know I'm a little late for the review but I can't help but write one because it really is a summer blockbuster that not only contains visual thrills and a good story, it also contains humor, drama, and most importantly, nostalgia. A few days have passed since I watched it and still, the nostalgia evoked by the movie is still taking effect on me as what you read in my post before this.

RATING: 5/5

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(Trailer and images courtesy of YouTube and Google)