A superb upgrade for fans of the film, highlighting the best qualities that continues to make it so entertaining.
“J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg join forces in this extraordinary tale of youth, mystery and adventure. Super 8 tells the story of six friends who witness a train wreck while making a Super 8 movie, only to learn that something unimaginable escaped during the crash. They soon discover that the only thing more mysterious than what it is, is what it wants. Experience the film that critics rave is “filled with unstoppable imagination and visual effects to spare. It will put a spell on you.””
Although embedded in Hollywood long before, J.J. Abrams became a household name with Lost, rocketing him in popularity as he directed the reboot of Star Trek and then his next film he directed, Super 8, solidifying his renown as this generation’s Steven Spielberg.
The magic of Super 8 all has to do with the story that follows a group of children, captivated by the craft of filmmaking, that ends up embedded in a sci-fi mystery that you might expect to see from Spielberg. The Goonies meets E.T., is how I always saw the film, and Abrams is able to instill in his film that same feeling that Spielberg was able to in his. While it might not be fair to continually compare the two directors, as they really do have very different styles to filmmaking, it’s hard to ignore those similarities, which in my generation can’t help but seek out anything that makes us feel nostalgic and like a kid again.
Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for the popularity of this film and films like it, we wouldn’t have Stranger Things. There’s just something about seeing the impossible through the eyes of children, an innocence that is hard to quantify, and the bonds that hold them together through thick and thin. While Stranger Things excels at this, the ingredients were there for Super 8, but after revisiting it after all these years, it doesn’t meet that same expectation of camaraderie between the group of kids that I know I was hoping for. It can’t, honestly, with less than two hours to tell the story, but the focus seems to stay on Joe and Alice and their bond between losing their mothers and having emotionally distant fathers. While this is a really important part of the story: Joe’s letting go of his mother, literally at the end of the film (perhaps a little too on the nose), I think the film would have benefitted and aged a lot better with the focus set on the group dynamic that seems to have worked not only in the past (Goonies) but still is to this day.
The science fiction aspect of the film is still intriguing, but again, takes a back seat for the most part in order to keep J.J.’s rule of not showing the monster. This was something that I thought didn’t age well, either, in the tiny snippets the audience gets to see throughout the film. It doesn’t build tension or suspense, just an empty feeling like you aren’t getting what you paid for. Have I been spoiled by visually stunning films and shows since that has been released? I’m not sure, but the amount of time we get to learn about and let alone see this creature is really disappointing.
Despite these shortcomings, I still really enjoy the film. It’s well made, and ten years ago, gave us reasons to dream of being a kid again, coming very close to capturing that feeling that I know I had when I saw The Goonies for the first time. There may have been better things to come since, but taking another look at this film makes me appreciate how far we’ve come in the genre, if there is a genre of a group of kids battling the unknown, and where we’re heading to keep the nostalgia train running.
Video
Super 8 is presented in 2160p 4k Ultra High Definition Widescreen 2.39:1, featuring HDR10 and Dolby Vision. As you’d expect, this film looks absolutely stunning in 4k, with that Dolby Vision providing the meta data to ensure you get the best possible levels in each scene. The majority of the film is dark, and that’s where the black levels look especially good, still able to accentuate the colors still look great in such low lighting. In other scenes, these colors are brilliantly vivid, with the entire transfer a marked improvement over the Blu-ray.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 7.1. This track is the same from the original Blu-ray release, however, still sounds phenomenal. While I would have welcomed a Dolby Atmos track that would have made great use of the Atmos speakers, especially in that final sequence, this track still manages to impress, and shake the entire house in some moments. Levels are good between the surrounds and center channel, with no issues of note.
Special Features
This set contains the 4k disc only, with no Blu-ray version of the film, so all extras will be located on the 4k disc. These include:
- Commentary by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, and Larry Fong
- 8 Featurettes – Explore the Origins of the Story, Casting the Creature and more.
- Deconstruction the Train Crash – Uncover the Secrets Behind Filming the Astonishing Scene
- 14 Deleted Scenes
Super 8 looks and sounds fantastic in this 4k set, a definite upgrade for fans of the film if the price is right. Paramount continues to step up and regularly release content while new stuff is hard to come by. Available now.
