Movie Review: Super 8

The Bad:


I don't ask for a ton of belevability in my science fiction, but I do like consistency, which this lacked at times.  Worse, the way several of the plot threads were concluded left me rolling my eyes in exasperation.  One was so contrived even I couldn't find a way to believe it, and I certainly wanted to, the other was such a tired sci-fi cliché trope that I couldn't believe two professionals like Abrams and Spielberg considered it for more than a minute, let alone the studio countenancing it.

The Good:

While every word of the above is true, none of it matters.  There's a reason that this will be compared to 'Stand By Me' for more than just the age of the actors.  What the plot lacked in believability, the characters had in spades.  Each of the children are well defined and layered, with one exception their actions are believable.  For example, they stay quiet about being at the train crash not because of a warning by a mysterious man (which there was) but because they had to sneak out at night to be there and didn't want to get in trouble.  Unfortunately, the few adults in the film are not so well-rounded.

The surprises are genuinely *surprising*.  I jumped in my seat on three separate occasions, and that hasn't happened to me at a movie in, literally, years. 

Super 8 was touching and fascinating, and well worth the price of admittance.  A fun and touching, if not necessarily well-plotted, movie.

Friday 5 for 6/17

Time I opened up a little? 
 

1. have you ever really lived outside the country of your birth? why or why not?

• I have lived for 4 years in Stuttgard, Germany and 2.5 years in Lakenheath, England due to being in a military family.  We lived onbase in Germany (getting out as much as possible!) and in town in England.  When I returned to the United States (country of my birth) my overwhelming thought was that the US was a teenager, with all the attitude, defiance, clutter, joy and energy which defines that age.

• what was your first record/cassette tape/cd?

• As far as I can remember, I had a record of waltz music (I have no idea where it came from, but it's the earliest one I can remember on my record player).  My sister and I used to play Batman with that album as our background music.  I dunno, it worked for us somehow!
   

• what do you think of your parents?

• Even though he exasperated me like no other (because we were so much alike) I miss my father terribly.  My mother struggles with some mild dementia, she's not the person I remember, but I love both who she is and who she was.
   

• what is your relationship with your hair?

• My hair.  OMG, my hair.  You know, people with curly hair want straight, people with straight would kill to have it curly.  Mine is frizzy and red-- not a day has gone by that I haven't loved my natural hair color, but I've fought with it almost all my life to be more, oh, WAVY and less like I've just stuck my finger in a light socket.  I would also pay handsomely (with blood or years or whatever currency you'd name) to be guaranteed to have hair down to (or past!) my waist.  Long hair (I mean LONG) has always been my dream.  Despite two-thirds of my life with no more of a haircut than a trim, it persists in growing *out* and not *down*.
   

• what kind of pens do you like?

          Yeah, I can't get the formatting to work, quelle surprise.  I've never really thought about pens much, as long as the ink doesn't leak all over my fingers or the paper, I'm good with whatever.