Movie Review: Super 8

I've actually watched several movies in the last few weeks - The Smurfs, Johnny English Reborn, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Super 8 and Is Anybody There? However, I'll just pick some of my favourites to be reviewed.

"Bad things happened... But you can still live, you can still live."

I watched Super 8 in the plane from Melbourne to Jakarta (yes, I'm in Jakarta now for a week!). This is a sci-fi movie for young adults. This movie is directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. I love this kind of movie - there's adventure, fantasy and love between two teenagers. Such a great story, great actors & actresses, great visual effects and great message.

(Paragraphs after this contain spoiler!)

A group of kids witnessed a train crash when they were making a movie project. They realized it wasn't an accident. Someone has planned it. Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) saw that there was a truck running on the train track. The kids found the truck after the accident with a dying man inside.

After this train accident, something strange is happening to the city. People are missing, things are stolen and destroyed. The kids, whom accidentally filmed the train crash, found out that there was something - an alien/monster - came out from the train. Because of this, the kids thought that the man in the truck was trying to kill the alien. But later, they found out that actually the man was trying to escape the alien.

Many movies like this one have a message regarding prejudice. How the people judge the alien as an evil icon, while actually they're only protecting themselves. They defense themselves. This reflects how usually people in real life judge others who are different.

I like movies where the kids are the heroes. Most of the time, adults would underestimate kids' opinions because they are, well, kids. However in fact, I don't think that adults are always right. There are some times that it's the kids who are right. Older people might have more experience and knowledge, but children might have more imagination and curiosity. Sometimes, kids want to play a part too in the real life situation. They are thirsty for adventure. It's quite a dilemma, because adults are worried about children but children are curious and want to be in action.

Another thing that I like is the budding love between Joe and Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning). Joe has liked Alice in the first place, and he is so shy about her. Alice is like a mature girl while Joe is an anime-freak boy. But they're fit. Ah, movies like this, Little Manhattan, Flipped and Never Let Me Go - movies that contain a story about the relationship of two kids or young adults.