Feb 26, 2012

The Time of "Super8"


I watched the movie "Super 8" on DVD. I can't say that this movie is a masterpiece, but I like it.

Last year I watched "Cowboys and Aliens" on a large screen of a movie theater, because I am a big fan of Daniel Craig. The plots of "Super 8" and "Cowboy and Aliens" are still similar. Aliens come to a small city in the U.S. and kidnapped a girl who the main character loved. And then the main character got into the nest of Aliens underground and rescued the girl with his friends.

According to Wikipedia the budget of "Cowboys and Aliens" was $163 million and "Super 8"'s was $50 million. Super stars, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, appeared on "Cowboy and Aliens", but there were no famous actors in "Super 8". The special effects of "Super 8" were much cheaper than "Cowboys and Aliens". But "Cowboys and Aliens" was just a piece of trash.

I read the critics, who said that "Super 8" was influenced by "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "E. T.", which was made by Steven Spielberg, one of the producers of "Super 8". But this movie reminded me of the movie "Stand by Me".

The main characters in both of the movies were boys who lost their own immediate family and had pain in their hearts. And they were seeking something with their friends, who also had complicated backgrounds.

The time of "Stand by Me" was the late 1950s, when the author of the original story, Stephen King, was a boy. "Super 8" took place in the late 1970s, when the director of the movie, J. J. Abrams was a boy. J. J. Abrams and I are the same age, so I felt a sense of nostalgia in the time of "Super 8".

At that time there were no iPhones and Handycams, but there were Walkmans and 8mm movie cameras, Super 8. My parents shot me on 8mm film, like the main character's father of "Super 8".

As I mentioned, "Super 8" wasn't a masterpiece, but I like it.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Yagian,
    I completely agree with your opinion (Super 8 is much better than Aliens and Cowboys and it is way more influenced by "Stay by me" than anything else). I also wanted to say that the best film of the alien genre that was done lately was "Cloverfield", at least in my opinion. I must have seen it 10 times already. Have you seen Cloverfield?

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  2. I missed "Cloverfield". 10 times? I'll try it. Thank you.

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