Maybe I pay too much attention to film news, but I feel like I heard about Super 8 coming out a full year ago, and it was one of the most anticipated movies for me this summer. I didn't know anything about it, and I had no reason to be excited about it. I suppose I bought into the hype. Now I have seen it, and the result has been to plunge me deeper into my abyss of film despair. I wanted so badly to be blown away by this film. I was too young to experience the magic of the Amblin films back in the 80's. Super 8 was my chance to have a little piece of that. The beginning of Super 8 was pretty great. The first shot specifically was wonderful. As we meet the main characters I felt like the groundwork was being laid for a super enjoyable movie going experience. There was a simplicity; almost a familiarity in how it was set up. As we built up to train depot scene everything was still on track. Unfortunately it peaked right there, and much like the chaos that took place in that scene, the movie went off the rails and never managed to get back on. Of course I didn't know that at the time. I was always rooting for it to pull everything together in time for a magical ending. That didn't happen. I left the theater scratching my head.
