A band of kids, a camera, and a mysterious creature in small-town Ohio. These are the ingredients of J.J. Abrams new movie Super 8 which is soon in theaters after intense anticipation – not least because of the promising involvement of Steven Spielberg and the Amblin logo.

The movie itself was shrouded in mystery a few months ago, even rumored to be the sequel to Abrams’ Cloverfield. However, the story is happening in the summer of 1979 where a young boy and his movie-loving friends witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie. The inexplicable events that follow leads the kids and the local deputy to believe that something about the crash was far from normal – and as people start to disappear, fear spreads in the little community.

The previews have already raised expectations of a revisit to 70s and 80s flirtation with the “unknown” – movies such as Close Encounter of the Third Kind, E.T. and The Goonies, which all represent a variety of common family drama mixed with sci-fi and adventure, feel like the most likely points for comparison. No wonder either – considering the father of those classic movies is producing the coming feature.

In an interview to iamrogue.com, J.J. Abrams explains how the collaboration with Spielberg affected the direction of the movie. “If Spielberg had not been involved in the movie, it probably wouldn’t have happened and it certainly would have been different. I wouldn’t have felt as free to embrace that DNA, those qualities that I love, that I thought ‘well this movie should be an Amblin movie’, it should be a throwback to that time, to those kinds of films.”

When it comes to Steven Spielberg, the name seems to no longer refer to a person. The resonance of what the man has delivered to cinema throughout the decades will continue to make grown men quiver with excitement. J.J. Abrams on the other hand is not in that league just yet – depending on your taste, there has been hits and bloopers (the Star Trek re-boot turning out great while Mission: Impossible III… not so much) but generally, Abrams has spread his wings more as a producer than a director. With Super 8 though – best guess, it’s hard to turn down Spielberg when he asks for your seat.

Jokes aside, Abrams seems confident behind the camera and judging by the hype and the trailers – Super 8 may just be one of this summer’s biggest movie experiences. When a ten minute long clip of the movie was shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to a select audience, one Danish journalist from the newspaper Information was tripping over himself to express his excitement over the film. He even provided a frame-by-frame recap of the sequence which introduced the fragile relationship between Joe, our young protagonist, and his father, the local deputy, as they both struggle to communicate through the loss of their wife/mother 4 months earlier. The clip also included the fatal train collision and the first signs of the terror to come.

Safe to say, those handful of minutes sound promising. Super 8 is out this Friday June 10 in the US.

Image provided by thedepthsofthecriminalworld

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About the author

Claudia Sondergaard
Specialised in American foreign policy media discourse, I have a real passion for media and writing and feel comfortable in subjects such as human rights, politics, environment, social issues, movies, TV and books. Reporting from Denmark. Follow me @swirlgirlversus

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1 Comment for Super 8: J.J. Abrams Goes ‘Spielberg’

Tassilyn

You’ve got it in one. Couldn’t have put it btteer.

Reply