Super 8

So I forgot to review this movie, I watched it sometime last month shortly after it was released in Hong Kong.  Having been a fan of the first two seasons of Lost I have since tried to follow up on J.J. Abram and his production company, Bad Robot Production, and their productions.   First up was Cloverfield, which was a big miss for me mostly 'cos I couldn't take all of the shaky camera work, although I guess the story line was OK and the production value was pretty good.  Next was Star Trek, directed and produced by J.J. Abrams, which was a fun movie, but the only thing that slightly bothered me was whether the physics of the movie was realistic or not.  I even watched Morning Glory, although only at my mom's suggestion, and although it was a chick flick it was enjoyable.  I've been digressing so I guess I should actually state my opinion about Super 8.  At the heart of the movie is a coming of age story and a love story between the adolescent hero and his love interest.  In the story the young characters are about 13 but we will see the young hero, Joe Lamb, overcome great hurdles in order to save his love, Alice.  I actually was lured into this movie thinking it would be more of a sci-fi action movie when actually the coming of age story and the characters of the movie mattered more.  The overarching story is that in 1979 a mysterious train carrying an unknown cargo crashes.  A group of young kids witness the scene as they were filming their film project at the train station where the train accident occurs.  As the next day comes strange things start happening in the neighborhood and the military comes in to try to manage the incident.  It becomes clear that an alien was on the train and escaped when it crashed and it becomes clear that the alien is responsible for kidnapping many of the residents in the area.  One night Alice goes missing and it is up to Joe to solve the mystery as to where she disappeared to and with the help of his friends he goes of on a search for Alice, even risking entering a zone where the military has been deployed and where civilians are not allowed to entered.  The movie doesn't go too deep into the sci-fi aspect but instead focuses on the characters and the relationships between Joe, his friends and Alice.  I guess it makes them more lovable and in the end you care about their fates.  The ending reminded me of the ending of E.T. and although ending was abrupt I think it was saved by the showing of the movie project that Joe's friend directed.  The movie project was a major part of the movie since it was how Joe grew attracted to Alice in the first place and also was how the kids spent their spare time.  By showing the finished film project it gives hope that the town moved on after the incident.  All in all a good movie.  I haven't been giving my film reviews any ratings yet so I guess this one will be a first.  This movie rates a 7/10, I would have given more but didn't mostly because there was such a build up to the ending but it sort of ended abruptly without answering questions about what happened next, like how the military would take responsibility for the incident.