I so badly wanted this to be the breakout film of the summer, but sadly it wasn’t. I’m not trying to say that the film was necessarily bad, just that it lacked anything special that caused it to standout among all the others.

Super 8 is a decent hybrid of suspense and drama. It has a good number of jump out of your seat surprises mixed between some well-acted scenes. The kid actors didn’t detract from the movie due to poorer acting ability at all. I’m still not sure about Elle Fanning. I can’t decide if she was just playing a distant, reserved character or if that is just the way she acts. I’m pretty sure it’s the former, but I’ll have to see her in another role to be certain.

The story wasn’t as tightly formed as I would have hoped, but this is also coming from the guy who made LOST so I don’t know what I was expecting. There were just too  many things that happened to go just right by accident for my tastes.

The story failed to connect with me on any deep or meaningful level. I never found myself getting attached to a particular character, thus I didn’t care who lived or died. Also, I never developed any true desire for how I wanted the story to end. I didn’t feel compelled to want to have the creature live, die or run free to be chased in a later film.

I appreciate J.J. for always trying to do something a bit different with the actual way the filming is done. I know Star Trek got criticized for over using the lens flare effect, but I like to know someone is trying to be different. Super 8 had an odd blue light effect in some scenes, I’m assuming it’s some homage to the way Super 8 film would produce certain light leaks, but I’m not sure. Regardless, that was something unique to this film.

Super 8 did a good job with adding comedy to the panicked situations by having all the kids shouting on top of each other with their own personal fears. Each kid had their own view on life and what they wanted and it was shown in a humorous manner throughout the film.

My personal opinion about Super 8 and whether you should see it or not completely depends on what your original intentions were. I wouldn’t want to try to persuade someone who didn’t plan on watching it to see if because I believe they will be let down. Likewise, I think anyone who knew enough to want to watch it, should. Super 8, in my book, is a film that I didn’t mind watching once, but I’m never going to watch it again.