Super 8

The summer movie season is dealt a crazily disappointing blow with this well-intentioned clunker from writer-director J.J. Abrams, who put together the extremely entertaining Star Trek reboot. The movie follows a bunch of kids in the 1970s who like to make Super 8 movies. It wants to be a coming-of-age story, a teen romance, a father-son parable and a monster movie to boot. Abrams’ love for Steven Spielberg, who produced the movie, is screamingly obvious in that the film rips off Jaws, Close Encounters and especially E.T. It also steals from The Goonies, which Spielberg produced. The alien monster element is strangely secondary in the movie, with the beastie getting very little screen time. Abrams tries to wrap the film up in a pretty little bow at the end with an emotional payoff, and it really feels like he’s straining. It’s time to make another Star Trek.