Super 8

[kostgard]

Here is a six minute clip of the film.


Man. JJ sure does love him some lens flares.


I'm still deciding on the film, but I do have to say that the clip did kinda bring me back to my childhood. Those kids seem to be largely acting like real kids, not Hollywood's idea of kids.

[cinnacism]

Jun 8, 2011 17:48:17 GMT -4 kostgard said:

Here is a six minute clip of the film.


Man. JJ sure does love him some lens flares.


I'm still deciding on the film, but I do have to say that the clip did kinda bring me back to my childhood. Those kids seem to be largely acting like real kids, not Hollywood's idea of kids.

Are those lens flares? I watched the movie last night and it was chock-full of those blue light effects. They were very distracting, and my bf and I were debating whether they were genuine artifacts of the filming, added in post-production to resemble Super 8 film or some other homage, or something weird with the projector. We are both clueless about cinematography. I even tried to Google for an answer to no avail, so if someone could explain I'd appreciate it!

About the movie, I totally agree with the poster who said it feels very personal to the filmmakers. It feels genuine and sweet, with childhood and friendship rendered very lovingly. It was also scary, breathtakingly shot, and yes, a bit sad in places. I liked that no one looked perfect, not even Elle Fanning (IMO). I totally thought of Goonies and ET (more Goonies, which I LOVE). There were a few slightly cheesy/cliche parts or lines, but they never overdid it, and some other cliches were avoided.

I would call it the quintessential crowdpleasing summer movie. It's enthralling, it has depth, and it's not really skewed to one gender or audience. It's not as dark or cerebral as Inception, but it's still very entertaining. Really enjoyed it.

[huntergrayson]

I did think it went a bit overboard with lens flare at the beginning, but it cooled down a bit.

cinnacism - in the old days, lens flare - which occurs as straight light directly hits the lens and overpowers it - was viewed as a huge mistake and a no-no. But then in the 70s, looser, rougher, more documentary-like filmmaking became mainstream and some folks like Spielberg starting using it as a deliberate creative choice. Vulture had a side-by-side comparison of Spielberg & Abrams use of lens flare using clips of Close Encounters and Star Trek as examples.

bitca - the "monster" is an alien escapee from Area 51. It is absolutely TERRIFYING looking, as it has 8-crazy spider arms and is dripping with slime

[Deleted]

Lens flare? There's an app for that, too!

And don't get me started on Fringe's flariness.

[cinnacism]

Thanks for the explanation huntergrayson. I didn't notice lens flare in Star Trek (loved the movie), but they looked so artificial in this movie. It was especially weird to me because some of them were spots or pools instead of rays or lines, which look more natural/familiar to me. I guess I just couldn't stop looking for them once I noticed them in the train scene. Luckily, the movie was good enough to compensate for the distraction.

[huntergrayson]

They've teamed up with Twitter to have Sneak Previews all day today, for those who can't wait another day. My guess is to build positive word of mouth and undo the negative tracking. Folks get free popcorn!

You can find locations and get tickets through The Official Website.

I can't wait to see this movie again with my dad.

[magazinewhore]

I so want to see this. Besides the fact that I was a total Speilberg kid and Jaws is my favorite movie EVER, I want to see this as "no vote" against all the dumb super-hero-sequel-Transformerized crap movies based on video games or rides or products that get put out every year. Jeez, it's a movie. Tell me a story; is that so much to ask?

AM is out of town for a week, so I may have to go myself. Which I am totally okay with. I'll be the blond girl alone in the theater and if you talk during the movie, I will shush you.

HG-I'm so glad you liked it. Movieline's review was mixed.

And Word to whoever said the person who hasn't seen Goonies is from outer space. My husband has never seen Goonies either (or Raiders of the Lost Ark-WTF?) and had no idea what I was doing when I said, "Roc-kee Road?" like Chunk did. You people. I swear you were raised by wolves.

[huntergrayson]

The nice thing is that my comment on said mixed Movieline review got me back in communication with the reviewer! (I'd email her every so often when she was at Salon and I was just starting out at film school.)

Salon's Andrew O'Herir adores it calling it "the perfect summer movie for our time."

I so want to see this. Besides the fact that I was a total Speilberg kid and Jaws is my favorite movie EVER, I want to see this as "no vote" against all the dumb super-hero-sequel-Transformerized crap movies based on video games or rides or products that get put out every year. Jeez, it's a movie. Tell me a story; is that so much to ask?

This year has set the record for most sequels in a single year. Ugh.

[magazinewhore]

Oh, that's nice. Glad to know Stephanie is cool. I've followed her work from Salon too.

[huntergrayson]

Yeah, she's super-nice and cool and not pretentious at all, which mades the virtual lynching she got at the hands of Nolan fanboys even ickier.

It's currently at 82% at Rotten Tomatoes.

And in a nice bit of timing, fellow Bad Robot alum/Lost cocreator Damon Lindelof just got 7 figures from Disney to write and produce a mysterious sci-fi project entitled 1952. No other plot details are available.