Super 8 - Review by Elinor Glynn

The OmnimaXX’s beyond-huge screen is made for special effects such as the catastrophic train crash which kick starts the plot of this latest sci-fi family adventure from Steven Spielberg.

Such is the size of the cinema screen and the scale of the crash that it’s almost like watching in 3-D.

Directed by J. J. Abrams (Star Trek and TV’s Lost) and produced by Spielberg, Super 8 stars newcomer Joel Courtney (Joe) and Elle Fanning (Alice) who are both excellent in their respective roles.

It’s the summer of 1979 and a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness the train crash while making a super 8 movie (which is apparently how Spielberg himself started out as a teenager).

In the aftermath, the kids approach a truck which seems to have been deliberately driven on to the tracks only to discover their school biology teacher behind the wheel. He warns them: “Do not speak of this - they will kill you and your parents”.

The youngsters also find the train wreck littered with strange white cubes and shortly afterwards, people, pets and property begin to disappear and inexplicable events start to happen, confirming the teenagers’ suspicions, that it was no accident.

The United States Air Force quickly descend on the scene and deliberately start a wildfire outside of town, giving them a pretext to evacuate all residents to a nearby base.

Super 8 is mildly reminiscent of other films of the genre by Spielberg such as ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘ET’, mainly because it’s hard not to feel some extra-terrestrial empathy as the plot unfolds.

Also, the central role of a group of youngsters lends it a touch of “The Goonies” - the cult kids’ adventure originally penned by one Steven Spielberg.

And yet, Super 8 is a film all its own with a great plot full of ‘edge of your seat’ scenes and for that reason, it wouldn’t be fair to reveal too much about what happens.

Just be prepared to be hooked from the start by that crash which is the best of its kind I’ve ever seen on film.

The standard of acting, particularly by the kids, is truly excellent and as the plot unfolds be prepared to laugh out loud or even to have to wipe a tear from your eye at times. But above all, be prepared for the adrenaline to flow.

Super 8 is a 12A with a rare quality - it has the capability of appealing to teenagers today and also to people, like me, who were teens themselves back in the mid-late Seventies.

The countless props from that era such as Walkmans, BMX bikes, and, of course, that must-have gadget of the time - the handheld cine camera (loaded with Super 8 film) will take ‘40-something’ viewers right back to their youth aided, in no small way, by such memorable musical hits as ELO’s ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ and The Knack’s ‘My Sharona’.

So, sit back in the ultra comfortable OmnimaXX seats and enjoy what is certain to become a summer holiday hit circa 2011.

And don’t be too quick to leave your seat when the end credits start to roll!

Look out for a screening of “The Case” - the full Super 8 movie that the kids were working on at the start of the film.