In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth – something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.
Of all the big summer movie blockbusters, this was one of the movies that I was the most excited to see for a couple of reasons. A - the trailer made this look amazing. It didn't tell you everything but left you with that "holy $hit - I want to see that" feeling. The more commercials/trailers that showed up for it made it look like a throwback to the kinds of movies I loved growing up in the 80s, which leads me to . . . . . . . B - Steven Spielberg provided most of my most favorite movie going memories growing up (along with the late John Hughes). As he has matured, he has tended to do smarter and more noteworthy movies instead of the rollercoaster adventure types. Seeing his name attached to this kind of a movie again got me beyond exctied. JJ Abrams apparantly felt the same way growing up as I did and said that this movie was an omage to the aforementioned movies. After seeing this, I will gladly accept Spielberg passing the baton on to him because this movie was as awesome as I hoped it would be. I felt like I was a young teenager again going to the movies with my dad with how glued to the screen I was as this well done in every way story played out with a bunch of unknown kids completely holding their own in terms of fear, love, laughs, and heroism. The only small knock that I would make against this movie is that the alien (that takes forever to actually be seen) is a little too scary/violent). Younger kids will be terrified by a movie that with that changed would be appropriate for all ages.
I absolutely recommend this movie to everyone. It's easily one of the top two or three movies of the year so far and will probably be on my top 10 list at the end of it.
