Super 8 Spoiler Thread
The review thread has become a spoiler thread, so let’s move that conversation somewhere that eyes that don’t want to know won’t feel stuck.
May 16, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
I think maybe Paramount’s greatest success with their marketing is the idea that there’s some huge secret/plot twist to the film. Can this movie really be spoiled? I mean, it was pretty obvious it was an alien from the very first teaser last year.
Yeah, I wonder if Paramount could set themselves up to face sort of a Blair Witch backlash. I know some people loved that movie but a lot of people were like “Wait, wah? WTF?! That’s it!! Oh Hell NO!” Just yanking people around like there’s some big secret to Super 8 is borderline dirty pool. Luckily it’s not all crap and they are pushing too hard for the “you’ll never guess the great reveal” otherwise my tune would change from being slightly under lukewarm to a more definitive save your money for cable.
I really don’t think any of the marketing has hinted at some kind of twist or reveal, but I do think the secrets of the marketing campaign has caused some to review or react to the marketing, not the movie. I’ve seen various comments that say the movie has no pay off, which I don’t get since I thought the ending was beautiful and awesome and moving and perfect. I loved the movie, it feels like a real crowd pleaser, and I’d be let down if people let their expectations ruin the experience. I’d be surprised that that many people would be let down by it, though. And also, I agree with Matthew that the trailers were very accurate representations of the finished product. There was no bait and switch by any stretch of the term.
I frankly LOVED the fact the trailer hints at things and doesn’t give it away. I went into the movie knowing virtually NOTHING which was so refreshing and awesome. The movie is also refreshing and awesome.
I’d definitely prefer a movie’s advertising to barely show anything. I get so tired of unnecessarily seeing too much of the film in the trailers.
Whether it’s based on marketing expectation or elsewise, one real way this movie failed for me was that there’s no flip from “what’s going on” the buildup, mystery to any type of reveal of “what needs to happen.” So there’s no real sense of anticipation. Maybe a little curious of “are we going to see the monster here?? No, guess not.” At least in ET we knew ET wanted to go home and so the 2nd half of the movie because will ET get home?? Here, we it’s kinda spilled out in some exposition/backstory that the alien was tired of being treated like a guinea pig and wants to fix his ship. OK, how ’bout saying what he needs or how far along he is? Is he gonna gut a few M.F’s along the way? Should we be happy he’s going? There are no defined consequences. Finally, towards the end we get some way for the hero to save the day. That itself came THISCLOSE from being ruined if they’d gotten in that cave and the girl was the only one alive it would’ve been too high a mountain of BS to overcome. As it is, you’ve just got fools hanging around upside down unconscious for a couple of days? OK.
For me and what I got collectively from the marketing of this film, in whatever way shape or form since the beginning of the year or whenever I heard about this puppy was that some kids were out shooting a movie and captured something on tape when a train accident occurred. Was that the case? You betcha. Was the tape or anything captured on it at all integral to the plot or development of the film? No, completely inconsequential. We don’t even get a good look at the 12 ft critter then. That may not be the most disappointing aspect of the film and not enough for people to think they got a totally different film than what they signed up for but I think there’s hinting at a greater mystery and then it’s a dud to find out there really is none.
Movie was barely a Super 5 for me.
The A story has basically no bearing on the B story.
If the kids never go to the train station to film the crash, then the B story still plays out almost exactly the same… Guy drives truck into train, alien escapes, alien kills air force dick, alien builds ship, alien leaves.
Even the fact that he’s taken one of the metal cubes becomes irrelevant.
If this was a first time director and was produced by Michael Bay, a lot less people would be claiming they love it.
I liked it, thought it was all over the place, but I thought the kids were more believable than any Apatow or whathaveyou.
I normally hate child actors, but I have to say that as an ensemble this group was great.
The child actors were fantastic. I loved their chemistry together, and their over-lapping dialogue was a great touch.
the third act labyrinth took me back to the 50s Invaders From Mars, overall I saw more Dante influence than Speilberg although that’s a thin red line …. okay here’s the kicker; when the film wraps but before the credit roll about 200 out of 250 people in the audience bolt for the door because they have to use the bathroom or they have to hop in their cars to sit in traffic with everyone else trying to get out of the parking garage … the credits are noticeably on the right side of the screen, then several second into the roll, on the left hand side of the screen the movie (within the movie) that the kids have been working on unwinds, and all the exiting crawdads are standing agape watching the sequence and basically blocking the passage way out of the theater. Isn’t this against the fire code? All the people in their seats, who are like still sitting there and grooving on the film, are now craning their necks to see over the bodies of the thumbsuckers who are now obscuring the screen …. Super 8 is a film for maven and moron alike
The film during the credits was my favorite part.
“Super 8 is a film for maven and moron alike”
True dat.
I loved it but it’s far from a “great” or “perfect” film. That being said- how LAYERED was this movie?? It’s under 2 hours (just) and man, they fit a TON of stuff in there and it all fit. It never felt odd or forced in. Solid filmmaking.
My main issue with the film (aside from logic issues but frankly, who fucking cares) was that it’s a movie for movie fanatics like *me* aimed at me when I was 10 years old. I am no longer 10 though. Yes, I got a little weepy when I realized my child will never grow up in an area like the one in the film which was seemingly ripped from my childhood. She’ll never have a weird and crazy kid adventure like these kids and like I had as a kid. Now, NOTHING is an adventure unless it’s a video game or planned out to the tee by adults. But the nostalgia didn’t hit me like I had thought it might.
However…
JJ Abrams is a badass. Just the simple directorial choices. Jesus, that opening shot with the days the mill (plant?) had gone without an injury flipping back to 1. SUPER 8 had me at hello. I love the shot where the alien goes after the kid in the gas station and it cuts outside and the attack is blocked by the slowly turning gas station sign. LOVED the fat director kid coming clean about not just being mad at Joe for falling for Alice but being mad because he wanted her all along. That rang sooooo true. Just the simple choices made me love the film.
All that being said and getting back to the nostalgia factor…I managed to avoid ALL info about the film. Even to the point of whether or not early peepers liked it. That’s tough to do but I wanted to go in as fresh as possible. I still couldn’t avoid the mood they were going for and the whole “Amblin” vibe. Knowing that stuff, I expected to be really moved by the film in a gut-punch “GOD I LOVE MOVIES!” way but, I wasn’t. Spielberg could do that in his prime but then again, I was like, 10. His movies still hit me that way though and I’m not sure if it’s just great filmmaking or me hearkening back to when I was falling in love with movies.
SUPER 8 is still awesome and I loved it ALOT. I think anyone who loves movies should go see it. I was just hoping for more of an emotional whallop or more of a feeling of kinship with the kids.
The main thing the film lacks is the Spielberg Chill you’d get from the 80’s films. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a scene with the town dogs coming back at the end. Maybe that was candy from a baby. I previewed it as safe for my niece and nephew and I’ll be curious as to their response. But if any of those lens flares were digital…
and the light flares … : > in the commentary for star trek Abrams admits that he got a little carries away with the light flares … they’re back, but very tastefully done, especially the ones that border the top and bottom of the frame … at one point I was wondering if there is a person in the camera department whose entire job is to shine a flashlight at the camera lens (i want that job, i could do that)
christian, i took several kids to ‘super 8’ – a mix of boys n girls and ages, more boys – and they really dug it, i think it’s a family movie at the end of the day, nostalgia for us of a certain age and retro for the younguns (i don’t think abrams does digital lens-flares unless he’s a big fat liar, he’s been almost weirdly outspoken about how he’s achieved them)
also, the lack of the spielberg ‘chill’ is interesting, i can feel you there, spberg is a bit of a dab hand at infusing his memorable family material with a low-frequency menace that heightens tension and makes the stakes feel that much higher, which abrams either doesn’t care to or isn’t able to tap into; tobe hooper, on the other hand…
tobe hooper … space vampires aka Lifeforce … hooper also did a remake of invaders from mars, which is what super 8 most resembles
“hooper also did a remake of invaders from mars, which is what super 8 most resembles”
it does resemble ‘invaders from mars’. i wish S8 had a bit more spielberg-via-hooper’s gutsy ‘poltergeist’ macabre, pushed the envelope a bit more, but can’t win em all i guess, still a good effort. the kids alone are worth it.
Been going thru a Tobe Hooper phase. EATEN ALIVE, weird, funny, disturbing, hysterical…LIFEFORCE, weird, funny, disturbing, hysterical…but a blast, incredible design and the greatest female nudity in genre history IMHO. Then POLTERGEIST, which clearly has Spielberg’s stamp with a layer of Hooper’s hysteria. INVADERS FROM MARS didn’t work for me but the image of Louise Fletcher with that frog in her mouth remains to this day…I love the guy.
Flipping a “Days without injury” sign back to 1 is like something out of The Simpsons.
I just love how my retail employer freaks whenever a customer slips into the backroom, terrified that one of the many flimsy pallet racks might happen to collapse and kill said customer (imagine the lawsuit!!!), but it’s okay for us to be back there all the time because hey, we’re expendable. $40k death or dismemberment and that’s it.
I’d take issue with the idea that the marketing of this movie was spare and kept the movie fresh for the audience – the main trailer hits every major sequence hard and does so in almost chronological order. The only thing the marketing held back was the design of the creature, and perhaps its nature, although it wasn’t hard to glean that it would be generally benevolent.
As for the movie itself, yeah, nice and a bit disappointing for the home run it could have been. I can’t stop thinking about that last grace note with the necklace, and how terrific a visual idea it was, and how lovely it would have been in a movie that actually set it up. I think Poland is way, way too hard on it, and the gushers are a bit off base too, but I agree that this would have been great as fleshed-out television, with the relationships and the guilt and the slow-burning romance and the emotional healing given their due diligence. Especially if they still could have had Elle Fanning, who was pretty freaking amazing in this. All the actors were excellent, but she was on some other level with the little she had to do.
I think it was a noble effort, and would like to see more of this. My issues with the film was the non-development of several occurrences that had no pay off, like why the dogs all fled, or why was the creature kidnapping people and hanging them upside down, and what about the need for all the microwaves. Also while it was touching that the kid finally let go of his mom’s necklace, right in the very same shot you could see Ron Eldard’s character with a chain around his neck and it wasn’t being attracted by the same magnetism. I also agree with the expressed sentiment that the Super 8 film really had no bearing on the events taking place, and I thought there would be more of a story about the army searching for the vehicle and the Super 8 film itself as they did hint at it by accusing the teacher of having someone at the train wreck site documenting everything.
I think there was a bit more payoff in the script but it was left either on the cutting room floor or wasn’t shot, because there are several loose ends that were not tied up. But the tone was just right, the kids were great, and I had a good time.
Enough with the goddamned digital lens flares already.
The movie was okay. J.J. ain’t no Señor Spielbergo, though, so he kind of set himself up for failure on some level.
“…they’re back, but very tastefully done”
Even in the 6-minute free preview I linked to, the lens flares were numerous and obnoxious.
Awhile back there was a behind-the-scenes clip from “Trek” showing a guy standing beside the camera, frequently shining a hand-held light into the lens.
It can be artistic and beautiful when it happens naturally, but to hire someone whose job is to shine a light into the camera throughout the filming of the entire frickin’ movie proves that Abrams is an annoying dickhead.
The lens flare should signify something or it’s just a visual distraction. And I thought the film had an excess of close-ups – a bad tv habit.
and Ron Eldard looks like James Osterberg
When I hear people complain about lens flares in JJA’s movies, it has the distinct tone of “GOD. DIRECTORS. STOP DOING ANYTHING.” … no one is ever like, ENOUGH WITH THE SATURATED COLORS! or JESUS I AM SO SICK OF THOSE FUCKING TRACKING SHOTS! but lens flares are some kind of AFFRONT to cinema austerity.
Similarly, I am pretty convinced Abrams (who I don’t think of as any kind of visionary, but did make a movie that I pretty much loved for every moment I was watching it, a rare enough feat) will get the “meh, he shoots like he’s doing TV, so many close-ups” until the day he dies. Are there really THAT many excessive close-ups in this movie? Did it feel THAT un-cinematic to you, Christian? You’re aware that movies DO in fact USE close-ups, right? That it’s not something that was invented for TV?
I’m sensitive to the too-many-close-ups factor. Lincoln Lawyer had it in spades. Maybe Abrams was doing this too much back on MI3, but there are SO many bigger sweeping shots in Super 8.
But no: lens flares and close-ups, boooo, waaahhhh, that PROVES Abrams is an “annoying dickhead.” Great film criticism, kids.
I thought SUPER 8 was actually incredible visually. There were a bunch of really wonderful, evocative compositions. I loved the wide-eyed, widescreen feel of it all.
Calm down jesse. You’re the one screaming in CAPS. I liked, defended the film; just thought the close-ups were distracting with the lens flares popping up everywhere regardless of light source. Is that verboten to have opine on film style? Get some sleep, buddy. It’s only a movie.
I admit, the lens flares did distract me. After a while it was like “Did no one notice this in the rough cut?”
But I loved Super 8. I loved the kids, I loved the capturing of the era, I loved the chemistry between the six and especially between Courtney & Fanning. I loved how the office in The Case was similar to the office in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. DRL’s hit a lot of why I liked it too.
weirdly, lens flares don’t bother me in the least. which is strange, because i’m easily distracted by shiny objects like a fish. you never know, in xx years someone will mount an arguement that abram’s lens flares qualify him as an auteur (lol).
thinking about ‘super 8′, i’m rather liking it MORE as time passes, i should probably see it again w/out a bunch of obnoxious brats babbling away (and they were with me so i’m not hatin’ on kids, love kids, they’re the best), i did get distracted at times. not sure about a preponderance of ‘uncinematic’ close-ups – it didn’t strike as such me on first viewing. but used right, close-ups can be stirringly cinematic for contrast, and to convey intimacy and emotion, of course.
the one thing that disappointed me a bit was the creature, i REALLY liked the massive gaping-maw spindly-legged monster in ‘cloverfield’ (and loathed the people, couldn’t wait for them all to die horribly), i know JJ didn’t direct cloverfield but i think we’re overdue for a really great small-scale creature design, winston’s sublime badass ‘alien queen’ puppet isn’t having to watch her back and she should be.
(courtney and fanning are really the heart of the movie for me, hands down, kudos – courtney with a lovely naturalistic debut and a bonus gold star for elle, a bit of a freak of nature that girl, i predict good things in her future)
Jesse… it’s not lens flares… it’s blue, intentional, disconnected from the rest of the visuals lens flares. In Star Trek, they were annoying, but could be rationalized. In Super 8, they stink of “look at my signature!”
Christian, I think there are plenty of totally valid and interesting criticisms that could be made of Super 8 (even though I loved it)… “too many close-ups” just struck me as silly and something no one would say if Abrams didn’t come from TV. And I was using caps for EMPHASIS, not screaming. Apologies if it came off that way.
DP, you don’t think lens flares could be rationalized in this movie by the obvious stylistic hat-tips to Spielberg? I mean, if you’re doing a Spielberg-style movie about kids and creatures, there’s going to be a bunch of weird light beams and beautiful-eerie stuff, right? If ever that signature felt appropriate to the material, it felt that way in Super 8. I mean, Branagh uses lots of Dutch angles and that’s a recognizable signature of his. Doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. If I was ever distracted, it was only to note how beautiful the composition worked, and for the most part, I was with the story throughout.
Spielberg shows a shooting star only once per movie. Hitchcock cameoed only once per movie. And yet even in that 6-minute clip there are blue lens flares everywhere.
Some signature.
I still think there’s a lot of TV in his style. The situations for example. The scene with the deadbeat dad talking to his daughter looked like a Lifetime film. But I think his gift is a sense of mysterious spectacle. It’s the reveal that disappoints, like the alien, which was bland CG whatzit.
Super 8 is everything I hoped it would be. Enormously entertaining and a near-perfect summer movie. The kids are fantastic, likable and sympathetic and believable. My only real beef with them was getting tired of hearing Charles exclaim “That’s mint!” a thousand times. Otherwise, I loved these kids and cared about what happened to them. And man those Fannings can act.
I also loved that in an era of all show and little if any tell, it takes the opposite approach. The mystery is built well and I liked imagining what the creature looked like (though the real thing doesn’t live up to expectations; didn’t feel a real “wow” after you see the entire thing). The set pieces are fantastic and really well-directed. The gas station, the power lines, the school bus, all excellent and exciting scenes.
The only letdown for me was the conclusion. The build up is engaging and fun and thrilling and the pace is perfect. I was fully and completely into it and couldn’t wait for the reveal. Maybe it’s hard to meet people’s expectations today or maybe mine were unrealistic. Maybe this is what happens when you build something up so much. I just wasn’t 100% impressed by the beast. It’s OK, but nothing spectacular. And he just packs up and flies home. A little underwhelming in the final stretch. The Case makes up for it though, and it’s easily a three-and-a-half star effort.
As for hedging, don’t buy it. This is an easy movie to love. My wife also loved it and we have recommended it to friends and family. I think when someone is in the minority (which happens to us all), they try to find an explanation for why everyone else feels differently. Groupthink is an easy conclusion to draw. It just isn’t accurate though.
super 8 – alien needed more of a story.
the music was bad. the kids were good.
could have cut 15 minutes .
glad i saved a few bucks and watched in the
afternoon.
Three issues.
Lens flares.
The constant 1970s era-checking… When the one guy goes “Dont touch my CB radio… I just cringed” its the 1970s… Got it… Dont need to be reminded of that every ten minutes, as if the audience would forget.
The Air Force train, which seems like an odd way for the airforce to transport something. Was the Navy tractor trailer not available? And the fact that the air force train can apparently be deraied by a two ton pickup truck that turns the freight cars into airborne fireworks. Mayne the airforce train was designed to be aerodynamic.
Other than that I enjoyed it. Theres fun to be had, but Abrams didnt quite channel the early Spielberg mantra of “less is more”. I was fine with the “less” but the “more” was a little much
damn i didn’t realise this thread was still alive, but i’m glad to see others (christian, paul) weren’t impressed by the crabdogchicken creature either, i thought i might just be me.
in a weird way, using such an ‘unsympathetic’ killer creature is an interesting choice for the movie, at least abrams doesn’t go for the big sop re: the alien in sending it home, even if the entire scenario feels a bit forced and truncated.
“I think when someone is in the minority (which happens to us all), they try to find an explanation for why everyone else feels differently. Groupthink is an easy conclusion to draw. It just isn’t accurate though.”
ha
“Spielberg shows a shooting star only once per movie.”
samlowry: there are an estimated 75,000 lens flares in ‘close encounters’ (related to me by someone using two sources, don’t have them at my disposal at the moment tho). 75,000. abram’s ‘star trek’ had like 10,000, if i remember correctly but i didn’t double check that figure. don’t know about ‘super 8’, i guess nobody with too much time on their hands has been able to count them yet.
Yeah New York Magazine captures my feelings about the Super 8 creature in this piece: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/06/movie_aliens.html
Good piece. Movie aliens have become rather predictable
interesting thoughts in that link, and i agree for the most part – tho the article probably should have mentioned the aliens in ‘pitch black’ to be completest in their modern ‘bad insect’ creature design theory, and as i said somewhere above the alien queen is still the standard-bearer for me in terms of effective creature design that is both thoughtful and elegant, and yet completely menacing and badass, so i don’t think she belongs in that perhaps over-simplified category.
but i think i’d have to diverge from that writer’s opinion when it comes to the design of the massive cloverfield beast, which was really quite intriguing and fresh to me (hated the people, at the risk of repeating myself) with its giant gaping maw and freakish limbs canted at odd angles with vaguely bat-like features for a hint of naturalistic familiarity that makes one wonder, where exactly did it come from? the stuff of children’s nightmares, preying the massive rampaging monster doesn’t look down and notice minuscule you, fixate on you, reach down for you or just step on you like ant…it made me feel that way, so that’s effective creature design and execution for me, even if the humans in the story made me want to throttle them all personally.
the drawing of the creature in that article is quite a poor, bland representation of the actual cloverfield monster, i din’t get that ‘eh, same ol’, same ol’ feeling from it described in that piece. the ‘super8’ monster was a bit of a dud for me tho, certainly, a really compelling creature design would have been a real coup
Leah that is a photo of the toy that hasbro made of the cloverfield monster
lol, well no wonder, i’m such a moron, i must read the small print
Man I love Pitch Black. Such a cool and inventive movie. And I also love the alien queen. The Cloverfield beast probably isn’t done any favors by the Super 8 beast. Since the latter feels so similar to the former, both suffer. I agree with the general sentiments in the story though, that movie aliens have become too dull.
Where are the Rob Bottins of yesterday?
gone with the luxurious feathered hair, christian
ditto on ‘pitch black’ paul. the design of the large aliens may not be esp unique, perhaps a touch too similar to the bugs of ‘starship troopers’, but
SPOILERS their fantastic heads and ‘blind spot’ as discovered by riddick is a nice touch, as is their rather smooth, serpentine/shark-like mode of head-swaying motion. i watched it not too long ago for the first time with my boy (i could have sworn we’d seen it together before but he insisted otherwise) and he was just stunned what happens to carolyn, it really bummed him out, so you know a movie is doing something right to get that reaction. (i felt the same way after seeing it for the first time, but that was a while ago now)
Bah, the second Riddick is a much better movie. Karl Urban plus LORD MARSHALL plus the cheesiest CG since Escape from LA plus slumming Judi Densch, all better than that made-for-cable-ass original. Only good thing about the first one that you can’t get in the sequel was the presence of Cole Hauser.
Riddick is garbage. Just a horrible mess. Pales in comparison to Pitch Black. I suppose if viewed as a comedy it’s OK, but PB is a far superior movie.
RIDDICK > PITCH BLACK
PB is a fun, small-scale ALIENS exercise, but CHRONICLES is a boderline insane, incredibly geeky and epic movie that is like an adaptation of some forgotten fantasy pulp novel that never existed, a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game come to life, and is basically a sincere attempt to make the kind of early 80s CONAN-esq fantasy that YOUR HIGHNESS tried to replicate as well. It’s kind of amazing how they followed up something as modest as PB with something of that size. It would be like if Twohy followed up THE ARRIVAL (GREAT F’N MOVIE) with an INDEPENDENCE DAY-style alien invasion flick with Sheen reprising his role. I hope they get to make Riddick 3.
Maybe I need to watch Riddick again. I remember almost walking out it’s so godawful. I remember a lot of unintentional laughter as well. I was pissed that the sequel to a fun, R-rated flick was such a stupid mess. Epic? Epically abysmal.
i liked Riddick, although i’ll admit it is pretty cheesy.
i never figured out the part where the bounty hunters capture Riddick, they take him to a prison where they negotiate with the warden and staff over a price.
Why would a prison pay a bounty hunter for a prisoner? What’s the financial motivation for a prison to pay to take a hardened killer that they have to house and feed? Wouldn’t you think it would be the opposite? That the bounty hunters would have to pay the prison to take the crazed killers off their hands?
And the bounty hunters debate which prison they can take him to. I was trying to figure out how the economic system in space works, where the prisons pay bounty hunters to bring them killers. I could never quite wrap my head around that.
The extended cut of Riddick with more references to the Furions helps it make more sense.
It’s a pretty messy movie, but it was pulpy and schlocky which i tend to enjoy, though i’ll be the first to admit that this is not quality cinema.
i watched Riddick and Pitch Black but don’t remember the movies . i only remember Vin having glowing eyes in one of them.
too bad they don’t rerun them on basic cable anymore ..
super 8 can rerun on cable forever cause the story is easier to understand … it’ll take like 3 years to get there.
I hated Chronicles of Riddick, but might have liked it if it had been made 30 years earlier, with Jack Palance in the Colm Feore role.
Re: Angus @ 2:14 PM
I thought this line about the CB was to set up its use for when they have to call for help later. Sorta like setting up a gun in a handbag. Sure, someone could just be carrying it but if it’s not mentioned, it may seem a bit too convenient.
Per the trains, it wasn’t too widely known then (’79) but the Air Force did use rails to transport nuclear arms and other top secret weapons, along with rocket and bomb parts. You could probably Google “White Trains” for more info. It wasn’t until the late 80s I believe that the news got out and the Air Force confirmed their use. Of course by that time they had multiple colors to avoid detection. But even with chase and protector cars, those trains were just as vulnerable as anything else. Like a flock of geese off the end of a runway can have a better shot of taking out an F-18 than a Stinger missile.
I was talking about signatures when I said that Hitchcock and Spielberg did theirs only once per movie. Abrams has picked a signature that he does several hundred times, to increasingly annoying effect.
As for new aliens, how about something blimpy? That came to mind when I recently rented “Monsters” and laughed when we are told the half-shrimp/half-octopus aliens are hundreds of feet tall–they would need lots of hydrogen-filled sacs to support that much mass without constantly snapping their limbs.
FANNING.
BOW.
triple,
im sure they used trains. it just sounds weird when you keep hearing them refer to THE AIR FORCE TRAIN. Especially when Joe manages to pull out a reference that he knows its an air force train because of his models. How would a kid know something so specific? It’s something small and nit-picky, but in my head i kept saying
THE AIR FORCE TRAIN! It’s like GI Joe Vehicle from the island of misfit toys.
And i think you’re right. The CB line may have been just to set up him on the radio later, however, that’s one of two things.
a. telegraphing to the audience that it will come up later
or
b. not trusting the audience to know what a CB radio is.
either way it could have been done without calling so much attention.
as for the train crash, there’s no way a two ton pickup truck is going to cause a train to so violently derail. It’s a movie, i get it. Maybe one of those Japanese bullet trains, but a freight train doing 75mph and is not going to cause the kind of acrobatic fireworks on display there. The train derailment and the scene at the end where the air force is basically firebombing the town are just so ridiculously over the top.
I prefer the smaller moments in the film, and liked it overall, but it seemed like those massive set pieces were contractually obligated for a Summer film.
How many younger viewers know what a CB radio is?
You’re probably right about the train crash and the inability of a 2-ton truck to cause a wreck like that. Didn’t bother me though because it’s handled so well and I was so involved already with the kids and their late-night filmmaking.
the Fanning story didn’t go nowhere . she’s a mini K-Stew.
a problem i had with super 8 … where are internaitonal
news crews ? they had cnn at the time …they could have caught amazing footage of this .. people around the world
would be totally freaking out .
Paul, i agree. Overall i think the movie works and has a lot of good moments. To me, seeing a Michael Bay staged train crash isn’t going to ruin the overall movie, but it shows you Abrams flaws as a Director.
There’s a few set pieces in Super 8 that feel like they are from another movie entirely and don’t match with the rest of the film. If he would just reign in some of those wild, over the top kinetic and visual flares (both visual and figurative), he could go from good director to great director.
but i think Abrams suffers from the same flaws most modern Directors do: too many tools in the toolbox. They have so many tools at their disposal and they feel obligated to use them.
Could any of the modern crop of filmmakers make a movie like Jaws of Alien in today’s environment? Mind you, even Spielberg probably wouldn’t have made Jaws like Jaws if the Shark had worked like he’d hoped, but in this era of inifinite computer generated, greenscreen filmmaking, is there a filmmaker out there capable of making a big, fun popcorn movie without reverting to GIANT EXPLOSION CG ALIEN moments?
I can’t think of one.
To me, the missed opportunity is that Super 8 could have been something far more engaging if they’d just stopped with the giant explosion setpieces and sticked to a more realistic, practical style of shooting the film.
I think back to the Fugitive, where they actually crashed a train. And it’s a thousand times more interesting. Yes, there was FX work all over that scene. But the practical elements did a much better job of keeping the audience in the moment.
In that scene you have these kids working on the movie. It’s a sweet little scene with some good character moments. And then you see the car drive onto the tracks and the CG effects kick in to overdrive. The laws of physics and gravity are put on pause as everything flips and explodes. And then after making a train wreck resemble the hiroshima bombing, none of the kids are hurt and the guy driving the truck is alive. At that moment, i was no longer in the story. I was thinking “how on Earth did anyone survive that, much less EVERYONE”.
It’s kind of a silly scene. But we overlook it because the overall movie is good.
The “War of the Worlds” scene near the end was the same way. You have the kids running through the neighborhood as tanks and rockets are fired all over the place.
“The rockets are going haywire” yells one Air Forge guy.
Then why the hell do you keep firing them?
So now you have the kids running through a Dresden firebombing for no reason other than BIG HUGE EXPLOSION CHASE SCENE. Couldn’t the kids have just gone to the cemtery. Did you need a giant house explosion to split up the group?
Too many tools in the toolbox. Those scenes didn’t need to be that big. Would a smaller, more realistic train wreck made the movie any less entertaining? Or would it have helped by keeping a more realistic tone that the film had set up in the first 15 minutes?
I don’t really disagree with any of that anghus (and the train crash in The Fugitive is spectacular). I would have preferred a little less bombast in certain places as well. I imagine certain compromises might have been made in light of the fact that it’s a big summer movie with no stars and no built-in audience from previously published/produced material. Sometimes scenes like the silly train wreck in Super 8 annoy me too, but it didn’t bother me much. I kind of shared the reactions of the kids and was also anticipating the introduction of the creature.
Of course, the finest train crash ever put to film occurs in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.
Call me sentimental, but I still love how Lean crashed his trains.
The train scene did go on Waaaaaay too long and the configuration of the soaring debris looked even less believable. It could’ve been a little more conceivable if that had one of those trains that had an engine car in the rear as well as the front. Although, the weight in those cars would be such that if they derail off the track they’d just topple over or become embed into the earth. Of course, one could call that a shout out to Speilberg from the last Indy movie. I know I saw the first Indy movie when I was a kid but I’m pretty sure all of the stunts looked real or at least plausible, no? Like even when he’s on the hood of the truck and hood ornament starts to give way. This last one was cartoon hooky.
Sorry to be a nit-picker, but CNN (described by doubters as “Chicken Noodle News”) debuted June 1, 1980. Yet news crews still would have shown up from far and wide to cover such a massive disaster, especially if it was a military train that had split apart.
Even if people didn’t know it was a military train, “China Syndrome” came out in March of that year and TMI happened twelve days later, so people’s minds were definitely focused on nuclear issues that summer; since nuclear waste was often carried on trains, any sort of mysterious train wreck might as well have set off a flashing “nuclear” sign in glowing neon.
whats the deal with aliens ..why can’t somebody make a new alien type we haven’t seen before .
half the time they want to destory us or be friends.
at least district 9 tried something different with aliens ..