People are voting emotionally.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Abrams and Spielberg fused (kinda) their styles to give us the film that might bring us back to the 80's, also known as definitely not super expensive CGI effects time!... By using super expensive CGI effects.Lets start with the horrible this time, because the good outweights it: The story is definitely not for kids unlike E.T. (Where the film borrows a lot by the way: including the alien wants to go home), and it has crude violence that has nothing to do with anything. The effects are extremely distracting most of the time because they collide with the 80's themed scenario (specially the lens flares. Seriously, stop it. It looks horrible and even hurts), including the collision of a train that basicly transforms the movie into a Michael Bay erection helper for about 5 minutes, that adds nothing, could have been completely left out or shortened in the worst case. Later we got another explotion fest that lasts for 10 minutes, was even more unnecesary and went into pointlessness quickly. It was just artificial drama for the sake of it. Nothing was compelled, or added. Pointless.The plot was amazing. Spielberg took the horrible ET 2 script (this exists. Basicly ET tortures children and later becomes litteral god) and got it reviewed. The biology teacher plot point was handfisted but it works marvels. The ending was heartwarming, but absolutely dumb how everyone (including soldiers that, lets remember, want the alien captured) just look at the alien leaving as if it was ET... again.The scenography is so good, so incredibly good. I have actually not a complaint: It looks perfect. The photography was marvelous too. The dialog was pretty credible. It had terrible moments, but they are so sparce they do not affect the movie. The audio was amazing. The music was great.Lots of love were into this film... too bad the bad was annoying enough to affect the overall experience. Watch this. And watch the credit scene. It is gold.

The story was interesting, kids finding something out by mistake, being the only ones who knew other sides of the story, yea fineProblem was that usually movies give the point of the movie before half the movie is through, they usually know what they are fighting or what they are supposed to findbut in this? I was waiting for the kids to get superpowers throughout most of the movie (mainly because of the movie name......)While those kids looked like they achieved this and that, in reality NONE of what they did, impact the ending even a little bit, it would have ended the exact same way if they were gone! That alien was building the machine throughout the movie without anyone noticing, in the end the kids were just close enough to witness the machine being turned on, within a minute the spaceship got built through that machine, and it flew off, the kids had nothing to do with the outcome of the movie, it really bugs meSuperpowers i thought a bit too because a little car was able to stop and derail a huge heavy military train, and the driver of that car didnt even die from all those train-wagons exploding and flying around (and of course the most obvious, the impact with the train), because of that i thought that he had superpowers and couldnt die so fast... hoped for whatever was in the trainwreck, to come out, infect the kids with superpowers and THAT would be interesting xDBUT all in all, the movie was still fun to watch, a little scarier/darker than some other action movies, but not enough to be a horror movie (even though there is 2-3 jumpscares and some scary silence at times making you expect a jumpscare) Monster scariness comparable to... the fish from The Host, cant think of another example for now.If you dont mind a movie where the main characters only work as "Watchers" and "Explainers" of what happens, then go on watch the movie, its good

Before "Stranger Things" was ever a thing, J.J. Abrams did his own love letter to early Steven Spielberg, a nostalgic and spot-on homage to films such as "E.T.," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," or "Poltergeist." Sure Tobe Hooper directed the last one, but Spielberg produced and left his mark all over it and the horror elements of that film are embraced in "Super 8". Spielberg also produced "Super 8" and it contains many early Spieberg-ian hallmarks; childhood innocence, broken families, government conspiracies, the sense of wonder and faith, parent-child relationships, etc. Set in the summer of 1979, a group of middle school boys and one girl are filming their super 8 zombie movie when they unexpectedly film a train crash transporting a secret cargo. To reveal more would spoil the plot, but the plot isn't what make "Super 8" memorable. Just like the best Spielberg films, it's the characters and their relationships that have endeared those film to us and made them classics. "Poltergeist" is a perfect example of this. The plot is a fairly straightforward haunted house story that is basically a riff on "The Twilight Zone" episode "Little Girl Lost," but the believability of the characters and the realistic portrait of a typical suburban family connect the audience so much more to the plot (and the scares) than would a similar haunted house story with lesser defined of characters. Even strong haunted house films like "The Entity" or "House by the Cemetery" are nowhere as immediately identifiable to audiences as the family depicted in "Poltergeist," which has the impact of making the scares all the more scary. "Super 8" manages to capture that same type of middle America feel, but does so steeped in nostalgia, in very much the same way the Duffer Brothers have done with "Stranger Things." Now despite the well drawn characters and the warm nostalgia the film generates, the story about the mysterious cargo on the train and the kids investigation is nowhere as interesting or compelling as Spielberg's best films. "Super 8" is probably on the same level as "Explorers" when it comes to story, which isn't bad, but the plot is just not up to ET or Close Encounters levels of greatness. Back to the film's strengths, it boasts a strong cast of unknown child actors, with the exception of Elle Fanning who I think at the time was more famous because of her sister, Dakota. The always reliable Kyle Chandler is also a standout as a deputy sheriff looking into the train crash against his superior's wishes and who's also the father of the main boy of the group, both who are grieving the recent loss of the boy's mother. Also of note is a fine score by composer Michael Giacchino, which manages to be nicely evocative of the John Williams/Jerry Goldsmith type of scores that frequently accompanied Spielberg films of this era. Overall, J.J. Abrams does a terrific job of capturing the innocence and wonder of early Steven Spielberg, which is a real treat for anyone who grew up watching these film.

I know everyone says this but literally the only reason I made an account was to write a review for this movie because there are many reviews on here that haven't thought about how this movie could actually be a lot deeper than the surface ideologies show........ Perhaps Abrams did this on purpose?One word - WOW. It has taken me 3 times watching this movie without falling asleep (because at first I too thought this film was a bit of a flop) to finally understand the true depth this movie holds.I absolutely love JJ Abrams' movies because I always walk away completely and utterly mind boggled. The surface ideologies normally suggest endings with overcoming fear, love, reuniting with loved ones etc., but the passive ideologies suggest something much farther beyond the surface other than just the story about how a boy lets his mother go (when perhaps he really didn't need to?) and reunites with his father. I know IMDb suggests not to include links in reviews but I literally cannot plead with you enough to read this analysis. ----> https://super8secret.wordpress.comIt could not have summed up the same theory I have any better and I am so glad someone else feels the same way I do. I love how JJ Abrams doesn't want to give anything away in the movie and I think he is far more clever than people give him credit for. After the end of the movie I sat for a while and thought about how Joe was an extremely mature character and realized that he was much smarter than it seems. This was when I discovered something more was going on. There are many criticizing comments on IMDb about this movie and it is great that the analysis I have linked was able to see outside the square and realize there is a deeper story than the one that is shown. This is one of the reasons why I admire JJ Abrams as a director so much. Well done Abrams - 10/10.