I'm very shocked not to find a thread on this flick, as many of you voted it into your top 10 of 2011.

Another movie I missed at the theaters,  I was thrilled to find it streaming on Netflix.

Well, IMO, this definitely does ont qualify for any best lists.  It took me 2 nights to get through it, sadly, but hey, I was a little hammied the first night, so I won't hold this against it.

First of all, I understand that this movie was not made for me, or peeps like me.  That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but it does mean that I had many problems with it, and IMO, it's a perfect example of having just too much going on, too many of Kevin's character arcs, and a lack of a central story to carry the movie.

Don't get me wrong...this is a well made movie. It's a well thought out movie.  It's deep, but too deep, for my liking.  It's well acted and well shot.  It's an homage to so many different things, but probably mostly just childhood innocence and a longing for a past we'll never see again.  It's moving, it's scary, it's enlightening, it's happy, and it's sad.

Usually, all these things should make for a killer flick, right?  Well, obviously, critics and SS'ers seemed to love it, but for me, again, just too much was attempted, which tends to lesson the positive effects overall.

We've got a $50 Million budget and the skills of writer/director J.J. Abrams, and the legendary talents of Steven Spielberg as Producer.  It all shows and I'm very impressed they managed all this on only $50 Million.  BO was great at $127 Million in NA, and a WWBO of $260 Million.  All good!

I wish Joe's Mom backstory wasn't so prevalent, and starting on it was a big mistake, IMO.  Sure, ths came into play with several characters and their relationships with each other, but detracted from what I percived the story to be.

I wish the alien plot was plaid up.  I also wish the few times we got to hang with him, it wasn't filmed so dark, as he looked pretty freakin' cool.  I wish the finale wasn't so rushed with the building of the ship, etc - came off very cheesy to me.

I totally understand why they did this, but for me, everything was just too "nice".  Everyone lives, all the troubled relatoinships get fixed, and everyone lives happily ever after.  Just not for me.

I wish things were a bit clearer in the alien's story, as well as the military involvement.  Again, too much was thrown in here, which muddied the waters for me on what actually went down...and why.

Finally, what was with all the blue light bars/reflections that were so prevalent throughout the entire movie?  It was obviously a concisous decision, but for me, it was irritating.

So, you probably think I didn't like the flick, but you're actually incorrect.  I did like it, just not nearly as much as I thought I would.  I gave it 3 stars on Netflix and I can see where it would appeal to the masses and maybe even just fall under what it was shooting for - to be a classic and a modern imagining of Spielberg's classic E.T.

Interested to hear others thoughts...

Once again JJ Abrams intrigues, but fails to deliver. Abrams has a real talent for posing really captivating questions, yet fails to provide his audience with satisfying (and unique) answers.

I too, thought this was good, but severly flawed. My biggest gripe? The fact that the two story lines literally had NOTHING to do with each other. They weren't connected in any way nor did they intertwine with each other in the least bit (except for the end I guess).

At the end of the day, Abram's heart was in the right place and therefore the film barely scrapes by. You can't piss on a guy who wants to be spielberg, especially when he's better than most filmmakers out there. I'll take a flawed film filled with heart than a by the books, emotionless film any day. yes, I'm talking to you Dark Knight Rises...

Quoted from albinopenguin At the end of the day, Abram's heart was in the right place and therefore the film barely scrapes by. You can't piss on a guy who wants to be spielberg, especially when he's better than most filmmakers out there. I'll take a flawed film filled with heart than a by the books, emotionless film any day. yes, I'm talking to you Dark Knight Rises...

I hear you and agree with you, but I will say that this was very by the numbers in many, many ways.  The plot line rumbled along pretty much the way it had to, based on the setup, complete with the showdown, the rescue, all the characters coming to terms with their issues, and finally, our alien friend's escape, while everyone merely watches in awe with smiles on their faces.

Quoted from albinopenguin yes, I'm talking to you Dark Knight Rises...

Tell that to the girl weeping next to me in the theater.

Ain't gonna get nothing past u fellas.....jeesh tough audience.

I was supremely disappointed with Super 8 when I saw it. Though the kid film crew was interesting to me, the rest was just hooey. That was before I became aware that it wasn't a monster movie, or alien movie at all.

Knowing that the alien was just a metaphor for the mom made a heck of a lot more sense. The mom was the link to all of the tension and drama. The relationship between the two fathers, the relationship between father and daughter and father and son, It was all linked to the mom. So just as a spirit is trapped and cannot move on until things are resolved, so it was with the alien. The film was just wrapped in an alien adventure blanket. Once my eyes were opened to that, it was a more enjoyable film to watch.

Despised it... Towards the end it got really, really bad...  When the monster looked at the kid, opened his eyes and they were all watery and shit -- no... Don't think so.  To make it worse, it looked like E.T. at this moment and time, too.  The ending was super rushed and made absolutely no sense.  To further this, the magnetic force was ripping GUNS out of people's hands... GUNS!!!!  And yet, it gently took the kids necklace ?? Really?   And the cubes had ZIP to do with the story, yet the kid took one as if it was going to be a call back or something.  I guess when Spielberg is backing you you can get away with anything.

I know the movie was big and made for circus peanuts by today's standards -- I get that, I dig that... But it still doesn't make up for the fact the movie failed to reach it's destinations on both stops it promised to make.

Super 8 could have been better if it wasn't so obvious that Spielberg, et al was trying to make this as general audience as possible. Somebody was thinking video games / action figures / lunch boxes when they made final edits to this movie.

I loved this movie. I've been a big fan of Abrams since "Alias" started back in the day and I was really thrilled to see him pursue a passion project like this.

He wanted to duplicate what Spielberg was doing in the 70's and the 80's. Create a film about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and I think he succeeded admirably. The movie is kind of a paradox because it feels like an Abrams film, but it also feels like a Spielberg film. It has all his flourishes, all his little touches, the things that made "E.T." and "Raiders" so great.

I really, really loved this film. It was a callback to a more innocent time in filmmaking history. Abrams' idea for the film was a stroke of genius and his execution of it is no less impressive.