I wrote this review on 06/06/11. Don't think I've ever posted it here

"Super 8"
Director: JJ Abrams
Stars: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Riley Griffiths
Paramount Pictures

That "Super 8" begins with a funeral – the mother of 12-year-old protagonist Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) has died in a tragic accident – rather than a hint of the fantastic events to come immediately sets it apart as an adventure movie that wants you to care about its characters more than it wants to seduce you with special effects. Not that there’s any shortage of those, but they arrive later, and it is this death that emotionally underpins the rest of the story and creates in Joe a mature-yet-needy character who typifies the sometimes painful journey into adulthood.

Suburban life goes on in fictional Lillian, Ohio, and Joe’s father Jackson (Kyle Chandler), the local deputy, decides it might help them both to deal with the loss if he sends his son away to baseball camp. He doesn’t understand it when Joe explains he’d rather stay and finish the zombie flick his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) is making to enter in a film festival – which is why the boys, along with three other buddies and 14-year-old leading lady Alice (Elle Fanning), end up sneaking out to shoot a scene for their super 8 masterpiece at a deserted train station.

As you probably know from "Super 8"’s heavy promotional campaign, the group witnesses – indeed, barely survives – a suspicious train crash that quickly has the US Air Force swarming over the area. Warned their lives may be in danger if they tell anyone, the kids struggle with the knowledge that something is very wrong in their quiet community, and worse still, that it’s being covered up. As materials, pets and people begin disappearing, Joe and co. are forced into action. Meanwhile, Deputy Lamb conducts his own investigation into why the military has taken over his town.

What follows is a wonderful mix of coming-of-age tale, adolescent love story and monster-movie-within-a-monster-movie set in the more technologically innocent time of 1979, when imagination was still as important as information. Writer-director JJ Abrams has surpassed his previous best effort, the 2009 reboot of "Star Trek", in crafting just under two hours of escapism with heart. Much has been made of Steven Spielberg’s involvement as producer and rightly so – "Super 8" evokes the same big-screen magic found in the legend’s early works and rarely felt since.

Newcomers Courtney and Griffiths are very good in their roles, as are the other boys in the gang. However, it’s Fanning (younger sister of Dakota) who really impresses, as a girl with a troubled home life, a sweet disposition and a star quality even an amateur auteur can’t fail to capture. That her father and Joe’s don’t want their children socialising could have led to corny situations/dialogue. Could have – doesn’t. Abrams is too smart for that, handling the parental conflict, plus a romantic rivalry revealed part-way through the film, with a refreshing sensitivity.

Watching "Super 8", you may be reminded of Spielberg classics such as "E.T." and "Close Encounters", as well as "Poltergeist" and "The Goonies", which he wrote but didn’t direct. There are also echoes of Stephen King’s novella "The Body" (better known by the title of its Hollywood adaptation, "Stand By Me") and his hefty novel "It". In terms of Abrams’ own work, there’s an obvious connection to "Cloverfield" through the plot device of eyewitness footage. And there’s even a hint of "Transformers" in the SFX department, although thankfully that’s where the similarity between the two ends.

Not only is "Super 8" about the joy of consuming cinema, it’s about the joy of creating it. Cinephiles will be aware that both Abrams and Spielberg began their careers behind super 8 cameras, albeit decades apart. In fact, at the age of 15, Abrams and an equally talented pal, having gained attention for their film-making through a newspaper article, were hired by Spielberg out of the blue to restore a couple of his 8mm prints. Perhaps the coolest bit of homage here, though, is that, like Charles in the story, the young Spielberg staged wrecks for his pictures using model trains.

There’s going to be a lot of discussion about this exciting, funny, touching and nostalgic flick, so try to see it before some blabbermouth on the internet spoils any of the surprises. Grab a Coke and a carton of popcorn, nestle down and remember what it was like to be 12 years old, when the world was full of mysteries waiting to be solved and the silver screen had lost none of its lustre, not yet relegated to just another medium in an entertainment-saturated society. And whatever you do, don’t exit the theatre as soon as the credits roll or you’ll miss a delightful coda.

"Super 8" is released June 9.